Mix but do not blend: marketplace, community, and kinship boundaries
Imyarova Z.
2026Routledge
Asian Ethnicity
2026#27Issue 2486 - 506 pp.
This paper highlights three overlooked aspects of Dungan (Huizu) culture: kinship patterns, community interactions, and an understudied subgroup in Zarya Vostoka, Almaty. Traditionally, Dungans settle based on their Chinese provinces of origin, primarily Gansu and Shaanxi, preserving group cohesion since their arrival in the Russian Empire. Over time, their kinship patterns have remained essentially unchanged. Zarya Vostoka, now part of Almaty, Kazakhstan, has become a hub for Dungans from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, mainly because of Barakholka, the country’s largest shopping center. This ethnographic research explores how Dungan groups navigate relationships within this community. Despite living and working together, Dungans retain distinct kinship patterns and often interact more with local Uyghurs and Kazakhs than with fellow Dungans. Furnivall’s concept of ‘mix but don’t combine’ at the marketplace helps explain these dynamics, where they engage economically at Barakholka but deliberately avoid closer social ties in daily life.
bazaar-barakholka , clan relations , Dungan people , Kazakhstan , Zarya Vostoka
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Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, SDU University, Kaskelen, Kazakhstan
Faculty of Law and Social Sciences
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026