Nation-building, gender and politics in Kazakhstan: The case of the golden man

Abstract

In 1969, 60 km from Alma-Ata, the capital of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan, archaeologists excavated a funerary structure of the kurgan type, an outfit enveloping a skeleton dating from the 5th or 4th century BC. Richly decorated with more than 4,000 pieces of gold, the remains were dubbed "Golden Man". Believed to be a young Scythian-Saka prince, it soon became one of the most important symbols of a nascent Kazakh nationality. However, subsequent research carried out since the late 1990s, suggest that the "Golden Man" was in fact a "Golden Woman". The ensuing debate has had an evident impact on the reformulation of the representations of Kazakh national identity. In this article, I will reflect on the relationship between nation-building, gender and the political role of archaeology/anthropology, from the standpoint of a Brazilian anthropologist-cum-tourist who visited Kazakhstan in December 2017.