I came to the field of Central Asian Studies after having spent several years living and working in South Asia and the Middle East. There is little on the streets of Tashkent to indicate that, prior to this century, this region had been deeply integrated with its Southern neighbors. To witness how great the cultural rift has become between the Central Asian Republics and the rest of the Turco-Iranian world, one has simply to cross the Amu Darya into Northern Afghanistan. The last stop before the border is Termez, which looks largely like a very small version of Tashkent. From Termez, it is a short trip to the Friendship Bridge and the gateway to Afghanistan.
Vodka is conspicuously absent from the shelves of stores.
In general, life is ruled by an earthy, non-linearity that stands in stark contrast to the cold, square modernity on the other side of the Oxus. The Soviet road to modernity brought higher levels of education, improved health care and countless other benefits. At the same time, it separated the people from many elements of their own past and culture. As leaders in Uzbekistan struggle to forge an independent modernity, they are looking to their pre-Soviet past to retake some of their lost heritage. Ken Petersen is a Graduate Student in the Department of Near Estern Languages and Civilization, University of Washington.