The Value of a Voice: Culture and Critique in Kazakh Aitys Poetry.

What does it mean for a "people" to have a potential voice in a political environment of authoritarian repression? Here I look specifically at the cultural production and performance of improvisational poetry as a form of "folklore" within the context of retraditionalization in a post-Soviet nationalist project in Central Asia. The model of culture presupposed in that context is of an ethnoterritorial and linguistic whole, and I show how contemporary projects transform what was defined as the culture of a Soviet nationality into the cultural face of a nation. However in an environment where an ethnic nationalist model clashes with an internationalist model of the state, there is contestation over what "culture" itself is or should be, and the people who are seen to be part of it. The poetic form aitys is a particularly interesting lens into cultural production and politics because, in live and televised performances across the country, Kazakh aitys poets claim to "voice the truth of the people.?" That "voice" is one of cultural unity but also critically, of (at times quite pointed) sociopolitical critique. Poets are legitimated as culture bearers, able to connect Kazakh ancestors to contemporary audiences, because their language is ideologized as richly historical, as exemplary. From behind the veil of "folklore" as apolitical culture, poets capitalize upon the dialogic conditions of performance to embed criticism of current government officials in anti-Soviet nationalist rhetoric by using language itself as a primary metaphor for the needs of "the people." The success of this form of poetry relies on the pragmatic and dialogic collaboration of a wide variety of participants: poets and audiences, cultural organizers, and elite sponsors. But because among them there are competing visions of how the "voice" of aitys might be harnessed, of who that voice should represent, there is always a threat that creativity and critique in performance will be muted, in particular by overzealous sponsors. This dissertation shows how, due to the complexities of cultural production in a fractured and censorial political environment, the "voice of the people" exists in perpetual jeopardy.Ph.D.AnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64657/1/edubuiss_1.pd

Immortalized human skin fibroblast feeder cells support growth and maintenance of both human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells

BACKGROUND Feeder cells are frequently used for the early-stage of derivation and culture of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. METHODS We established a conditionally immortalized human foreskin fibroblast line that secreted basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). These cells were used as feeder cells for hESC culture and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell derivation and expansion. This conditional immortalization was performed using lentiviral vector (LV) mediated transduction of Bmi-1 and human telomerase reverse transcriptase genes and the resulting cell line was further modified by LV-mediated transduction of a secreted form of bFGF gene product. Three different laboratories have tested whether this feeder cell line could support the maintenance of four different hESC lines. RESULTS Immortalized fibroblasts secreting stable amounts of bFGF supported the growth of all hESC lines, which remained pluripotent and had a normal karyotype for at least 10 passages. Even at high passage (p56), these modified cells, when used as feeders, could support iPS derivation and propagation. Derived iPS cells expressed pluripotency markers, had hESC morphology and produced tissue components of the three germ layers when differentiated in vitro. CONCLUSION These modified fibroblasts are useful as a genetically-defined feeder cell line for reproducible and cost-effective culture of both hESC and iPS cell

MAPPING PARTICIPANT FRAMEWORKS IN THE AITYS OF BIRZHAN AND SARA

Here the lens of the "mapping problem" described by Judith Irvine in participant framework studies is used to analyze shifts in the cultural tale “The Aitys of Birzhan and Sara” from its origin as an improvisational verbal duel in the late 19th century, to a Kazakh socialist opera during the Soviet period, to a nationalized historical reference in Kazakhstan. During the multiple recontextualizations of that social text, its discursive pragmatics and characters are preserved within the expanding and shifting participant frameworks enabled by the genre of aitys poetry. Birzhan and Sara are able to “speak”—as poets, characters, and ancestors—to a changing series of audiences, all of whom become involved and implicated in their words and story as a result. They—like all aitys poets and the tradition itself—become a source of cultural authority. Thus the mapping of this social text over time is used as an example, in order to explain why and how an oral tradition is able to overcome or absorb even serious intertextual gaps resulting from shifting historical and political contexts over a long twentieth century

Creating Culture in (Post) Socialist Central Asia

This book brings together historical and ethnographic research from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Xianjiang, in order to explore how individuals and communities work to create and maintain forms of 'culture' in contexts of ideological repression and erasure. Across Inner Central Asia, in both China and the Soviet Union, while ethnic culture was on one hand lauded and promoted, it was simultaneously folklorized in the face of broader projects of socialist modernity. How do intellectuals, cultural organisers, and performers work to negotiate their own forms and understandings of cultural meaning within the institutions and frameworks of a long twentieth century? How does scholarly attention to cultural production, tradition, and performance help to inform our understanding of (ethnic) nations not given, but as coming into being

Roundtable studying the Anthropocene in Central Asia: the challenge of sources and scales in human-environment relations

received considerable attention in Central Asia. In light of the Anthropocene crises, there is a real urgency for maturing this field and investigating the methodological and epistemological challenges that environmental topics demand, often working across disciplinary habits and time scales. This roundtable brings together Central Asianists from a range of backgrounds to discuss the sources and scales of their investigation, their challenges and potential. The contributors discuss how particular kinds of sources such as climate models, archival manuscripts, ethnographic fieldwork and media analyses have been used to understand environmental changes in the region. In what ways do the traditions of scholars’ disciplinary training guide the scale of analysis? Looking toward the future of environmental humanities in Central Asia, this roundtable suggests paths for developing this vital field of enquir