“’Ethnographic types’ in the photographs of Turkestan: Orientalism, nationalisms and the functioning of historical memory on Facebook pages (2017–2019)”
Résumé
Abstract: This chapter analyses the discussions surrounding photographs of the so-called “ethnographic types” of the Turkestan of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the pages of three dedicated Facebook groups. The perception of these images, bearing the imprint of colonialism, is constructed according to three overlapping frameworks: anthropological classifications of “peoples and tribes” of the period of the Turkestan governor-generalship; Soviet concepts of “nation” (natsiia) and “ethnicity” (ètnicheskaia prinadlezhnost’); and the post-Soviet understanding of “nationality” (natsional’nost’) as a criterion of authenticity (allegedly) confirmed by history. These online discussions of photographs resemble real “memory wars”, which contribute to the formation of collective digital memories marked by various manifestations of
nationalism, nostalgia and imperial ideology. Reflecting the need for the personalisation and visualisation of history, these groups create alternative popular history on the pages of Facebook, thus producing knowledge in the new media and new conditions for the creation, preservation and interaction of memories.