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838 UZBEK
Soviet laws have declared the equality of women with men, but full implementation
of the laws has not yet dispelled the influence of traditional male
dominant patriarchal values. Generally, those Soviet Uzbek women who are well
educated and live and work in urban areas are able to enjoy more fully the
benefits of social legislation. The seclusion of women is no longer practiced,
being discouraged by the educational and work opportunities provided by the
Soviet system. However, in rural areas agricultural work teams are often of
separate sexes.
Large families continue to be an Uzbek ideal and contribute to a high rate of
natural increase, despite more women in the work force. Families with 4 children
are common, and 8 or 10 not unusual. Considering the much lower birthrate of
the European ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, the Uzbek and other high
birthrate peoples of Muslim heritage have the potential for an increased role in
all aspects of Soviet life.
Under the dictum "national in form, but Socialist in content," the Soviet
Uzbek have developed their artistic culture. The abandonment of the Arabic
script for the Cyrillic alphabet has cut off many Uzbek from their pre-Soviet
literary heritage. There is a tendency to link the Uzbek culture more with the
past of geographical Uzbekistan than with the broader Turkic tradition. Thus,
pre-Uzbek figures of the past of Transoxiana are linked to the Uzbek cultural
heritage, including the scholar-physician Avicenna (tenth century), the poetadministrator
Ali Sher Navai (mid-fifteenth century) and the poet-biographer and
general, Babur, the last of the Timurids (early sixteenth century). In athletics
the traditional pastimes of horsemanship and wrestling are popular. Ulaq, a
rough and tumble confrontation between teams of riders vying for the carcass
of a goat, is still popular in rural areas.
The Soviet Uzbek in some ways style themselves as the leading people of
Soviet Central Asia and consider Tashkent to be the real capital of Central Asia.
The less numerous Soviet peoples of Muslim heritage (Kazakhs, Turkmen, Kirghiz,
Karakalpak and Tajik) are considered by some Uzbek to be on a lower level of
development. Though the Uzbek are proud of their attainments during the twentieth
century, there is no enmity to the other Central Asian peoples. Among
some Uzbek, a small minority, there remains some resentment towards the
Russians for their conquest and domination of Central Asia. The majority of the
Uzbek have accepted Russian domination with a realization of the material
benefits that they have received. They recognize that they and other Soviet
Muslims probably have the highest standard of living of any Muslim people. As
they view the past of Central Asia, when it was a backwater of the Muslim
world, many Uzbek intellectuals state that the Russian conquest and Sovietdirected
modernization have brought them from obscurity into the mainstream
of world historical development. The Uzbek accept most aspects of modernization
and have proven capable of utilizing a wide range of technology. They
are generally optimistic about the future as they consider their growing numbers
and increasing standard of living. The Soviet Uzbek have an interest in other