Nomadic Society And Nomadic Herding Process The Social Memories Of Kazak Herders Of Agash-oobo, Qinghe County, Altay Steppes, Xinjiang

Social memory is a research field which has been drawing the attentions ofanthropology in recent20years. There have been many achievements regarding thesocial memory studies in the international academic circles. Though, it has not beenlong since field work and research on the social memory started in China, there havebeen some important results published in recent years.But, the social memory studies of the nomadic peoples in China still needfurther field work and careful treatment. Because, as a man is grown up in a certainsocial group, their memory does not begin from the day they come into the world,but from earlier time in the past as he knows more and more about his people andculture..Based on a nearly five-month field work of the author at a pastoralist village ofAgash-oobo Town, Qinghe County, eastern Altai Steppes of China, this paper, firstly,reports the data of the social memories of nomadic Kazakh herders, mainly focusingon the nomadic society, nomadic migration process, the history and ancestors of thetribes they belong to, and the daily life. Secondly, it attempts to give a primarytheoretical analysis of how the Kazakh herders remember their past.Altay Steppes is one of the main areas where the Chinese nomad people live anddevelop. With the long process of nomadic life, Kazakh people here have developedan abundant nomadic culture, and in turn, it has deeply rooted in their daily life andsocial interactions with the neighboring ethnic groups and the officials that managethe grassland area. And, up to now, the nomadic culture has been inherited generationafter generation through kind of enculturation pattern. The social memories of theirKazakhs here reveal a real picture of nomadic herding process, which is a part of theKazakh’s traditional cultural heritage and one of the foundations on which theirsocial memories formed and transmitted from generation to generation.This paper is divided into two major parts, the first part is composed of5chapters, the second part is the conclusion of this paper.In the first part of the paper, the author reports the memories of Kazak herdsmenin Agash-oobo village of their history in the first and second chapter, including thedistribution of Kazakh people in the area of Qinghe County before1949, and how theKazakh tribes in Agash-oobo area migrated to the Altai Steppes and how theyobtained natural resource for their pastoral production.The third chapter retells the social memories of the Kazakh herders about theirpasture area of different tribes after their migration to Altay Steppes. Chapter four tells the social memories of Agash-oobo Kazakh herdsmen about their nomadicsociety and nomadic life before1949.The fifth chapter reports the social memories of the Kazakh herders about theirpastoral production and life at Agash-oobo area during the1950-2000years,especially the society and life memories in the Pastoral areas in the times of thePeople’s Commune and the Cultural Revolution as well as the memories to the localsocial, economic and cultural changes after the Pastoral Area Reform that started inXinjiang pastoral regions in1984and1993respectively The sixth chapter focuses onthe social memories of Agash-oobo Kazakh herdsmen about what they remembertheir social relations and social contacts with other peoples in the area.The seventh chapter is a description of the social memories of Agash-ooboKazakh herdsmen about the nomadic migration process in different periods. In theeighth chapter, based on the data obtained from the author’s field work, gives adetailed picture of the pastoral life of Agash-oobo Kazakh herdsmen and the greatchanges that have taken place in their nomadic production at different times.The ninth chapter, also based the data obtained from the author’s field work, thedescribes the memories of Agash-oobo Kazakh herdsmen to the memory of their“local knowledge” which has been handed to them from their ancestors, includingthe knowledge of grassland, plants, animals and medical herbs and practice, as wellas the knowledge of Kazakh people’s “24solar terms”.On the ethnographic data of the social memories, the author discusses howAgash-oobo Kazakh herders how remember their past. The analytical results showthat there are different ways for the to remember their past, including the content ofmemories, methods of remembering and the factors which influence them. It is alsofound that memory space and time are important for them to remember their past,and there is a process from individual memories to collective memories among theKazakh herders, then they develop into a kind of recognition memory. In the end ofthe conclusion, the author tries to answer how their social memories become theirhistorical, ecological and social knowledge which is generally accepted andtransmitted by the nomadic Kazakh society.