Féaux de la Croix Jeanne, Reeves Madeleine (eds.) The Central Asian World

Routledge, 2023. — 800 p. — (Routledge Worlds).This landmark book provides a comprehensive anthropological introduction to contemporary Central Asia. Established and emerging scholars of the region critically interrogate the idea of a ‘Central Asian World’ at the intersection of post-Soviet, Persianate, East and South Asian worlds. Encompassing chapters on life between Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Xinjiang, this volume situates the social, political, economic, ecological and ritual diversity of Central Asia in historical context. The book ethnographically explores key areas such as the growth of Islamic finance, the remaking of urban and sacred spaces, as well as decolonising and queering approaches to Central Asia. The volume’s discussion of More-than-Human Worlds, Everyday Economies, Material Culture, Migration and Statehood engages core analytical concerns such as globalisation, inequality and postcolonialism. Far more than a survey of a ‘world region’, the volume illuminates how people in Central Asia make a life at the intersection of diverse cross-cutting currents and flows of knowledge. In so doing, it stakes out the contribution of an anthropology of and from Central Asia to broader debates within contemporary anthropology.This is an essential reference for anthropologists as well as for scholars from other disciplines with a focus on Central Asia.Jeanne Feaux de la Croix is a social anthropologist focusing on water and energy issues. She is the author of Iconic Places in Central Asia: The Moral Geography of Pastures, Dams and Holy Sites (2017) and is co-editor with Beatrice Penati of Environmental Humanities in Central Asia (Routledge, 2023). She is setting up a transdisciplinary team at the University of Bern to foster environmental justice around marine renewable energy technologies.Madeleine Reeves is Professor in the Anthropology of Migration at the University of Oxford. Her interests lie in the anthropology of space, power, mobility and reproduction. She is the author of Border Work: Spatial Lives of the State in Rural Central Asia (2014) and the co-editor, most recently, of The Everyday Lives of Sovereignty with Rebecca Bryant (2021). She is currently leading a new research project on infertility and the emergence of new reproductive markets in Central Asia.