Environmental Relationalities 93
family when a child is born, and a few families even continue to collect taxes
from their muruds (dependents).
The city of Khujand was constantly recalled as being surrounded by apricot gardens, fertile lands, and water from the Syr Daryo (and fish being
caught in the river). Those narratives embedded the city into a wealthy
environment that contributed to the prosperous lives of the local population.
When the famine of the 1930s 29 hit the farmers of Central Asia, parents
sent their children to Khujand, where they were gathered in orphanages or
dormitories. They were integrated into the newly built factories. The town
became the political and economic center of Northern Tajikistan. The new
elite that was to create Tajikistan with the capital Dushanbe was recruited to
a large degree from Khujand. 30
It is less interesting, however, whether the above accounts that were given
to me by urban people are factually correct, but more importantly, that these
descriptions frame a hierarchical relationship between those living in the
town and those supplying the town. It is necessary to understand Khujand as
part of a social and rural environment in order to contextualize the way in
which uranium waste has been integrated into the narratives. The city was
not simply an urban center to the rural villages, but its population maintained
bond relations and religious dependencies; the aristocratic families spread
over rural and urban centers in the whole of the valley. Families administered
their land, while their farmers supplied the towns and cities.
With the emergence of the Bolsheviks in the Ferghana Valley, the ruling aristocracy lost much of its privileges. While many were arrested and
deported to the Gulags because of their religious leadership, those who had
fled either retreated into the villages of their muruds or made it to the new
capital Dushanbe, where they were urgently needed because of their relatively
high level of education (compared to the southern mountainous regions that
before had been part of the Bukharian Emirate). The former loan workers
and artisans of Khujand became the new leadership. The factories and combines also demanded more labor, which was taken in from the surrounding villages. Despite the heavy social changes that transformed former labor
niches, the memory of tabaqa was maintained and even reproduced through
the teachers in schools or at working places, and most importantly, in marital
practices. 31 Until today, urban tabaqas avoid marriage with people from rural
places despite the dissolution of pre-Soviet labor hierarchies. It reflects the
way in which the environment of Khujand is integrated not only in narratives
of the past but also in the very practice of social relations.
Hierarchical Relationships between Towns
and their Rural Environments
Development and modernity are not just abstract terms or empty promises but
rather go along with visible proofs such as urban construction developments,
technical developments or industrialization, and electrification. In contrast to
family when a child is born, and a few families even continue to collect taxes
from their muruds (dependents).
The city of Khujand was constantly recalled as being surrounded by apricot gardens, fertile lands, and water from the Syr Daryo (and fish being
caught in the river). Those narratives embedded the city into a wealthy
environment that contributed to the prosperous lives of the local population.
When the famine of the 1930s 29 hit the farmers of Central Asia, parents
sent their children to Khujand, where they were gathered in orphanages or
dormitories. They were integrated into the newly built factories. The town
became the political and economic center of Northern Tajikistan. The new
elite that was to create Tajikistan with the capital Dushanbe was recruited to
a large degree from Khujand. 30
It is less interesting, however, whether the above accounts that were given
to me by urban people are factually correct, but more importantly, that these
descriptions frame a hierarchical relationship between those living in the
town and those supplying the town. It is necessary to understand Khujand as
part of a social and rural environment in order to contextualize the way in
which uranium waste has been integrated into the narratives. The city was
not simply an urban center to the rural villages, but its population maintained
bond relations and religious dependencies; the aristocratic families spread
over rural and urban centers in the whole of the valley. Families administered
their land, while their farmers supplied the towns and cities.
With the emergence of the Bolsheviks in the Ferghana Valley, the ruling aristocracy lost much of its privileges. While many were arrested and
deported to the Gulags because of their religious leadership, those who had
fled either retreated into the villages of their muruds or made it to the new
capital Dushanbe, where they were urgently needed because of their relatively
high level of education (compared to the southern mountainous regions that
before had been part of the Bukharian Emirate). The former loan workers
and artisans of Khujand became the new leadership. The factories and combines also demanded more labor, which was taken in from the surrounding villages. Despite the heavy social changes that transformed former labor
niches, the memory of tabaqa was maintained and even reproduced through
the teachers in schools or at working places, and most importantly, in marital
practices. 31 Until today, urban tabaqas avoid marriage with people from rural
places despite the dissolution of pre-Soviet labor hierarchies. It reflects the
way in which the environment of Khujand is integrated not only in narratives
of the past but also in the very practice of social relations.
Hierarchical Relationships between Towns
and their Rural Environments
Development and modernity are not just abstract terms or empty promises but
rather go along with visible proofs such as urban construction developments,
technical developments or industrialization, and electrification. In contrast to