Mulei County, Xinjiang Uzbek Nomadic Societies And Cultural Change Research

The Uzbek nationality, one of the Chinese ethnic minorities with a quite small population, come from the west of the Central Asian region to Xinjiang, whose formation and development is closely linked with nomadism: the source of the Uzbek nationality is made up of many ancient nomads of the Eurasian; the way of nomadic life lasts in the Uzbek nationality, and today's Uzbeks in Danangou Township of Mori County in Xinjiang are still engaged in nomadism and it is their traditional livelihood. They have created and are creating a rich and colorful nomadic culture. Nomadic is a way of life most close to nature. The long history of the nomadic life of the Uzbeks has formed their tradition, and their nomadic traditional culture is colored with the typical native, containing extremely rich connotations of cultural heritages.Cultural traditions and cultural heritages are the product of social change, and tradition demonstrates itself through the contrast with modernity. The storm of modernization has swept the whole world, and the Uzbek society is faced with the problem of modernization. The Settlement Project of the Uzbek nomadic pastoralists in Mori County promoted by the nation and the local government has improved their economic living conditions, but also has changed their way of traditional nomadic life lasting for centuries. With their settlement, the Uzbek traditional nomadic cultures are deviating further and further, so it is crucial for the traditional Uzbek nomadic culture to be developed and protected.The Uzbeks have created a rich nomadic culture, which includes both tangible and intangible cultures, and lots of them are excellent, but so far none of Uzbek cultural heritages have been listed among China's national or provincial masterpieces of intangible cultural heritages. The significance in this study is to discover the Uzbek cultures and traditions, to promote the declaration work of the intangible cultural heritage of Uzbek and the protection work of traditional culture. Equality, cultural diversity and building a harmonious society has become the mainstream discourse in the modern society of China, so the lack of any nationality in the directory of the national masterpieces is inconsistent with the above-mentioned discourse, and therefore this study is very important not only in its great academic significance, but also in its much crucial political significance. Considering the reality of few academic researches about Uzbeks as well as the author's humanistic concern, this paper mainly discusses the changes of Uzbek nomadic society and culture.This article is innovative in the detailed description of the Uzbek nomadic life and their culture, and the analysis related to the process of nomadic transhumance. There are few systematic researches about the changes of the distribution of four-season pastures, deviation of the transhumance road and the different life styles of the pastoralists in different special-temporal location. Transhumance has very rich anthropological significances, which is a symbolic affair of nomadic social life, and without transhumance, nomadic life does not exist.The Uzbeks divide the natural geography space into four pastures in accordance with the four seasons of the year to meet the needs of the herd of livestock. They connect the there different locations with their nomadic life by the means of transhumance. Their production and life varies from place to place, from season to season. Transhumance is the symbol of the nomadic culture, a means of the people cultural adaptation to nature, an orderly flow of nomadic and society in time and space, and therefore, the nomadic society is a mobile community. The nomadic life of the Uzbeks is a flow in the tradition, but the settlement does not terminate the flow of the settlers, which has brought about a new flow, and this new flow is a flow of cross-cultural boundaries.Based on the rich fieldwork materials and relevant research literature, this paper makes a systematic description about the social and cultural changes in the Uzbek nomadic life. The First part of this paper mainly focuses on the history of the Uzbeks and their way of nomadic life. At first, it talks about the origin of the animal husbandry and transhumance, and the ethnic process of the formation and development of the Uzbek nationality, with the following the argument of the significance of the animal husbandry in the ethnic process of the Uzbeks. This half of the paper also makes comments on the family history and the history of their transhumance of the Uzbeks of Danangou by dividing the history into several phases. The Uzbeks began their process of localization and nationalization with the entry China of their ancestors. This process is also the history of their nomadic transhumance. The changes of the Uzbek society and culture are closely connected with the country's political economic and cultural development. With the construction of the minority of the state, the Uzbeks themselves have also played the role of the main body, and they have constantly constructed themselves into a minority. Their traditional culture is a means to enhance their internal cohesion. The latter part of this paper explicates the cultural phenomenon and changes in classification at the view of a cultural point, their clothing, food, housing, marriage, family life, rites, folk transmission, science and technology, crafts, holiday, religious beliefs and so on. At the end, the paper makes a conclusion about the characteristics of the Uzbek contemporary society and culture and of its changes; it discusses the development and protection issues about the traditional culture of the Uzbeks in this part. This paper argues that the fragmentation of Uzbek culture is the result of the change of the Uzbek nomadic society; the Uzbek nomadic culture is a culture with native, fresh, authenticity and regional characteristics. About the development of cultural traditions and protection, the author proposed that the assignenent of nomadism cultural developing Uzbek nomadic culture as experience tourism resources could not only promote the economic development of nomadic society but also enhance the protection of their traditional culture.