Changes In The Economic Lifestyle Of Kazakh Women In Yili (1949-2017)

Since 1949,Kazak has gradually changed the traditional nomadic life,adopted the lifestyle of settling down,and engaged in various economic activities.Kazakh women have gained the social position equally as men together with other women all around the country.Their role was changed from traditional family women to active participants and constructers for building our motherland.Especially,after the reform and opening up of the country,the society has changed rapidly and Kazakh women also benefit from the reform and opening up and proactively throw themselves into the reform trend.In the past,the production and laboring modes of Kazakh women included traditional agriculture and animal husbandry,embroidery,dairy production,and leather tanning,which were family-centered and less used for goods exchange.Their business activities were also family-based.After the reform and opening up,Kazakh women go to towns from animal husbandry areas and involve in new economic activities by working for other people and taking training courses.Women in animal husbandry areas learn to open up family resorts and use traditional handicraft techniques such as Blanket embroidered,a traditional embroidery skill to make family decoration products of various models.Women in scenic spots start operating countryside tourism.And other Kazakh women with business experience begin their entrepreneurship by selling ethnic products and even extend their businesses to border trades.All these changes keep their lives busy and tiring but characteristics of this era are reflected.To gain their own interests and realize their social value,Kazakh women are brave to break away from traditional thoughts and make their family lives seem colorful.Based on studies of previous researchers and regarding economic activities of Kazakh women at two investigation sites as research objects,this paper follows on a historical development line and conducts a trial study on the process of changing to a modern economic mode from a traditional mode and status quo about trade activities on the border of Horgas pass.This paper studies on economic activity changes of Kazakh women in Yili Kazakh autonomous prefecture from 1949 to 2017 from the following parts:The first part is about the basic information about the Kazakh people and investigation sites.The information about the local Kazakh people is introduced based on the time sequence.The development and change of areas where Kazakh people stay and live since 1949 are presented from the historical and modern perspectives.The second part is about traditional economic modes.At first,all types of roles Kazakh women in Xinyuan County undertake and their internal associations with the traditional economy are explained from the perspective of relationships between the traditional economy and the family or society.Then Kazakh women in the traditional agriculture and animal husbandry and those participating in economic activities are analyzed.The analysis result shows that animal husbandry and agriculture are main production and laboring modes of Kazak and Kazakh women and the traditional handicraft industry and businesses mainly refer to the embroidery and dairy production of Kazakh women.The third part of the paper is about modern economic modes and influencing factors.The reuse of traditional economic modes and participation of modern economic models are fully described from two aspects:modern economic modes of Kazakh women in Xinyuan County and characteristics and influencing factors in the modern economy.The last part is about Kazakh women in the border trade activities of Horgas pass.Three aspects of content are fully presented:border trade history and status quo,role development of Kazakh women,and influences of border trade on Kazakh women.After the investigation on economic activities of Kazakh women in Xinyuan County and Horgas pass through questionnaire and non-structural interview,the writer describes changes of economic activities of Kazakh women from multiple perspectives and holds that Kazakh people and women do not rely on the animal husbandry as the unique economic and production mode anymore.With the development of times and environment changes,their economic activities become diversified,showing a modern sense in the aspects of thoughts,opinions and culture.All of these changes are closely related to the development of our country's economy,women's thoughts,surrounding environments,implementation of the poverty alleviation policy,and improved social security.The writer also believes that along with the realization of two one-hundred-year goals,the width and depth of Kazak women's participation in economic activities will be expanded further.