Interethnic Marriages in Kazakhstan: A Review of Historiography

Abstract

The article presents a review of academic research on the issue of interethnic marriage in Kazakhstan, conducted since 1991. There have been several distinct directions of studying interethnic marriages in Kazakhstan, differing in both the perspective that scholars have taken on the issue itself and the focus on this or that individual aspect thereof. Thus, one group of scholars views interethnic marriages as part of the larger issue of identity, while scholars of another group share a specific interest in studying mixed families, and still another group prefers to take an altogether different interdisciplinary approach to the whole set of problems. One can argue that, by and large, the study of this issue in Kazakhstan has traditionally gravitated towards theoretical frameworks reminiscent of methodologies of Soviet ethnography. Particular to Kazakhstan’s tradition has been, however, analyzing interethnic marriages through the prism of nationality. This review attempts to cover all major facets of this important academic matter.