Conclusion
Chapter 9
In search of a golden middle
(1)
The old town of Khiva Ichan-Kala, 2024
Boysun city market, 2019
Bazaars embody a fusion of old and new, static and dynamic, local and imported, high-tech and handmade. They are spaces that develop over time under the influence of fashion and technology, yet continually strive to preserve their authenticity.
Here, a person's dependence on their surroundings is clearly visible, alongside the results of their persistent — and often successful — efforts to master and reflect about it.
Chorsu is a living map of the country, where all regions, nationalities, and generations are represented. This is a place where eastern tradition and modern marketing live in symbiosis.
Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
The regional characteristics of a market are largely shaped by the natural environment and geographical location, which are reflected in the organization, form, and content of the market space, the hierarchy of goods, and the patterns of human interaction.
The market’s distinctive characteristics are shaped by a centuries-old division of labor, the localization of trading spaces, product heterogeneity, the tradition of bargaining, fragmented transactions, enduring buyer-seller relationships, itinerant trade, and the strong traditionalization of inherited occupations.
Here, sellers strive for maximum profit, buyers strive for maximum utility, and price connects supply and demand.
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
01 / 02
Ferghana Market, 2019
01 / 02
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
Uzbek society is conservative, but since gaining independence, it has been striving to integrate into the global context. Therefore, there is a constant search for a golden middle between acceptable changes and the preservation of the past. Both of these processes coexist and successfully interact on the territory of the bazaar.
Digitalization of trade
(2)
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
Over the past decade, Uzbek society has changed due to modern technologies: today, even children and pensioners in Uzbekistan use smartphones and the Internet in their daily lives.
This changed the entire dynamics of trade and the seller–buyer relationship, yet even here the bazaars adapted. Buyers now look for new items they’ve seen online, and sellers strive to meet any current demand.
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
Buyers love bazaars for their direct connection to the land. They can always buy there fresh and locally produced goods. Thanks to their convenient location in the city, markets provide maximum advantage for daily shopping while also serving as a place to catch up on the latest news.
The main principle of any oriental bazaar is that every client should leave happy. But the seller should also be satisfied. This balance of supply, demand, and completed transactions is the basis for the existence of trade spaces.
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2024
Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand, 2019
Flexible authenticity
(3)
In the context of the bazaar, authenticity becomes a dynamic concept. Regional goods, once available only in a limited area, are now becoming national symbols—not just for tourists, but also in the eyes of local residents.
Chorsu at the same time blurs the boundaries between nationalities and regions, creating a space for the symbiosis and coexistence of local traditions, and turning geography into a brand.
We observed this with skullcaps and chapans. Bazaars, driven primarily by demand, shape their own flexible national authenticity.
Here, you can taste and smell the diverse landscapes of Uzbekistan in their most vivid form, and find an item whose patterns and colors, evoking memories of the trip, will fit into your wardrobe or home.
Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
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Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
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Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
03 / 03
Samarkand, 2024
Sellers, who advocate for preserving traditional forms of trade and resisting the modernization of market spaces, are often the ones experimenting actively with assortment and fashion.
They import goods that match their taste and trading sense. Fashion for Uzbek society is defined by what is offered at the bazaar, and not by Western runways.
Samarkand, 2019
Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
The bazaar is constantly striving for balance, but never reaching it. This ‘tug of war' between sellers and buyers, the government and locals, globalization and the preservation of authenticity creates the dynamics we observed during the expedition, and in many ways becomes the essence of the modern oriental bazaar.
In this sense, the observation by researchers R. van Melik and C. Sezer is relevant: "Markets are perhaps the most mobile, dynamic, temporal, and translocal of all public spaces. They are constructed every working day, consist of a wide range of people, goods, and ideas, and provide a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between location and mobility."
Chorsu Market, Tashkent, 2024
End of the journey
HIGHLANDERS. THE CAUCASUS & THE ALPS
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Other online projects by Anthropogeos
The highest mountains in Russia and Switzerland, the Caucasus and the Alps. How do people live in these regions, on the one hand so similar, and on the other, so vastly different in terms of language, culture and history? The Anthropogeos team visited Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Switzerland to see for themselves whether there is any shared experience between the Lezgins and the highlanders of Europe.
Markets. Guatemala
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How does the largest market in Central America, Santo Tomas Chichicastenango, work? Observations of one of the most interesting communities of modern Maya in Guatemala — in the first episode of "The Markets" project.
Marketplaces: Movements, Representations and Practices.
Edited by Ceren Sezer, Rianne van Melik. Publisher: Routledge.2022