Nomadic Mental Map of Space: The Concept of Border and Space among Nomadic Qazaqs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69567/3007-0236.2025.2.153.166Keywords:
Qazaqs, border, administrative reforms, Russian Empire policy, nomadic mental map of spaceAbstract
This study focuses on traditional Qazaq society in the 19th century, examining the concepts of border and space and their transformation under the influence of Russian colonial policy. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the Russian colonial authorities’ demarcation of a border between the Orenburg and Siberian Qazaqs on the overall perception of nomadic territory, the influence of Russian administrative maps on Qazaq understanding of borders, and the clash between the Russian colonial administration’s and nomadic Qazaqs’ perception of border. The article addresses only internal borders within the Qazaq Steppe, which emerged after the Russian reforms of 1822–1824. It introduces the concept of a nomadic mental map of space, formed through centuries of interaction between the nomad and the surrounding natural environment, which began to change following the Russian Empire’s colonial administrative-territorial reforms. Previously, the border, perceived by Qazaqs as a space defined by the patterns of migration, gradually disappeared under the new circumstances. Russian administrative-territorial division and demarcation of the Qazaq Steppe transformed nomadic Qazaqs’ perception of border, altered centuries-old migration routes and grazing territories, and changed the use of natural resources. The restriction of pasturelands that followed territorial partitioning ultimately led to the gradual sedentarization of Qazaqs
References
Adzhigaliev, S. 1995. Kul'turno-istoricheskie innovacii v tradicionnoj sisteme skotovodcheskogo poselenija kazahov serediny XIX veka (k voprosu o genezise stacionarnyh kystau) [Cultural and historical innovations in the traditional system of cattle-breeding settlement of the Qazaqs in the mid-19th century (on the issue of the genesis of stationary qystau)]. In: Shakhanova, N. (ed.). Kul'tura kochevnikov na rubezhe vekov (XIX–XX, XX–XXI vv.): problemy genezisa i transformacii [The culture of nomads at the turn of the century (19th–20th, 20th–21st centuries): problems of genesis and transformation]. Almaty, 133–135 (in Russian).
Baranov, A. 2014. Metody issledovanija pogranichnyh soobshhestv v istoricheskoj geografii (na materialah juga Rossii) [Methods of studying border communities in historical geography (based on materials from the south of Russia)]. In: Apryshchenko, V. et al. (eds.). Granicy i pogranich'e v juzhno-rossijskoj istorii [Borders and borderlands in southern Russian history]. Rostov-on-Don: Publishing House of the Southern Federal University (in Russian).
Chormanov, M. 1906. Zametki o kirgizah Pavlodarskogo uezda [Notes on the Kirghiz of Pavlodar District]. In: Zapiski Zapadno-Sibirskogo otdelenija Imperatorskogo Russkogo geograficheskogo obshhestva [Notes of the West Siberian Branch of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society]. Book 32, 1–30 (in Russian).
Gaines, A. 1897. Sobranie literaturnyh trudov Aleksandra Konstantinovicha Gejnsa [Collected literary works of Alexander Konstantinovich Gaines]. Vol. 1. St. Petersburg: Printing house of Stasyulevich (in Russian).
Gaines, A. 1898. Sobranie literaturnyh trudov Aleksandra Konstantinovicha Gejnsa [Collected literary works of Alexander Konstantinovich Gaines]. Vol. 2. St. Petersburg: Printing house of Stasyulevich (in Russian).
Gorshenina S. 2023. Antonio Dzhenkinson i ego revizija kartograficheskih shem Central'noj Azii v XVI veke [Anthony Jenkinson and his revision of the cartographic schemes of Central Asia in the 16th century]. In: Qazaq Historical Review, 1 (1), 22–55 (in Russian).
Kireyev, F. et al. (eds.). 1964. Kazahsko-russkie otnoshenija v XVIII–XIX vekah (1771–1867 gody): sbornik dokumentov i materialov [Qazaq-Russian relations in the 18th–19th centuries (1771–1867): a collection of documents and materials. Alma-Ata: Nauka (in Russian).
Kivelson, V. 2012. Kartografii carstva: Zemlja i ee znachenija v Rossii XVII veka [Cartographies of Tsardom: the Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia]. Translated from English by Natalia Mishakova. Moscow: New Literary Review (in Russian).
Kobzev, A. 2002. Ponimanie mira kak edinstva vremeni i prostranstva v tradicionnom Kitae [Understanding the world as a unity of time and space in traditional China]. In: Ivanov, V. (ed.). Antropologija kul'tury [Anthropology of Culture]. Moscow: United Humanitarian Publishing House (in Russian).
Korolev, S. 2002. Rossijskaja granica kak kraja prostranstva: genezis i tipologija [Russian border as edges of space: genesis and typology]. In: Rossija i sovremennyj mir [Russia and the modern world], 2, 5–17 (in Russian).
Kovalskaya S. 2023. Novoe issledovanie po istoricheskoj kartografii Kazahskoj stepi XVII – nachalo XX veka [New Research on Historical Cartography of the Qazaq Steppe of the 17th – Early 20th Centuries]. In: Qazaq Historical Review, 1 (2), 296–301 (in Russian).
Kraft, I. 1898. Sbornik uzakononenij o kirgizah stepnyh oblastej [Collection of laws on the Kirghiz of the steppe regions]. Orenburg: Zharinov Printing House (in Russian).
Kurylev, V. 1998. Skot, zemlja, obshhina u kochevyh i polukochevyh kazahov (vtoraja polovina XIX – nachalo XX veka) [Cattle, land, community among nomadic and semi-nomadic Kazakhs (second half of the 19th – early 20th century)]. St. Petersburg: Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) (in Russian).
Kvanin, I. 1903. Neskol'ko slov o Turgajskih kochevnikah [A Few Words about the Turgai Nomads]. In: Turgajskaja gazeta [Turgai Newspaper], November 9, 46 (in Russian).
Masevich, M. (ed.). 1960. Materialy po istorii politicheskogo stroja Kazahstana: so vremeni prisoedinenija Kazahstana k Rossii i do Velikoj Oktjabr'skoj socialisticheskoj revoljucii [Materials on the history of the political system of Qazaqstan: from the time of Qazaqstan's accession to Russia until the Great October Socialist Revolution]. Vol. 1. Alma-Ata: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the Qazaq SSR (in Russian).
Materialy 1905. Materialy po kirgizskomu zemlepol'zovaniju, sobrannye i razrabotannye jekspediciej po issledovaniju stepnyh oblastej. Tom 9. Semipalatinskaja oblast'. Ust'kamenogorskij uezd [Materials on Kyrgyz land use, collected and developed by the expedition to study the steppe regions. Vol. 9. Semipalatinsk region. Ust-Kamenogorsk district]. St. Petersburg: Printing house of the partnership "Obshhestvennaja Pol'za" (in Russian).
Remnev, A. 2004. Rossija Dal'nego Vostoka. Imperskaja geografija vlasti XIX – nachala XX vekov [Russia of the Far East. Imperial Geography of Power in the 19th – Early 20th Centuries]. Omsk: Omsk State University Publishing House (in Russian).
Rieber, A. 2004. Menjajushhiesja koncepcii i konstrukcii frontira: sravnitel'no-istoricheskij podhod [Changing Concepts and Constructions of the Frontier: A Comparative Historical Approach]. In: Gerasimov, I. et al. (eds.) Novaja imperskaja istorija postsovetskogo prostranstva: Sbornik statej (Biblioteka zhurnala Ab Imperio) [New Imperial History of the Post-Soviet Space: Collection of Articles (Library of the Journal Ab Imperio)]. Kazan: Center for the Study of Nationalism and Empire, 199–242 (in Russian).
Rumyantsev, P. 1910. Kirgizskij narod v proshlom i nastojashhem [The Kirghiz people in the past and present]. St. Petersburg: Resettlement Department of the Main Directorate of Land Management and Agriculture (in Russian).
Seidimbek, A. 2011. Mir kazahov. Jetnokul'turologicheskoe pereosmyslenie [The World of Qazaqs. Ethnocultural Rethinking]. Astana: Foliant (in Russian).
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2025-06-05 (2)
- 2025-06-05 (1)
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
