Kazakh Father Case Study

Earlier in the interview Maya identifies herself as Russian and claims this is strongly tied to her father’s authoritative role in the family. Another aspect of the cultural self-identification is the choice of the religious beliefs, which is habitually made by the parents rather than a child himself and largely relies on the religion of the leading member of the family. Both Maya and Arsen, a 17 years old adolescent who identifies himself more with his Kazakh father than the German mother, claim that religion was chosen for them when they were very small and they follow the religion of their fathers because they have more power in the family. Arsen claims: “I am Muslim because my father is Muslim. We are rather secular, as we don’t read namaz

Closely connected with the first factor, the proximity of a parent’s extended family results to be mainly dependent on his share of power in the family. Thus for example Arsen admits that his feeling of Kazakhness is a result of his close connection with his father’s family. In the same way 24 years old Adil attributes his inability to choose between the Kazakh and Azerbaijani ethnicities of her parents to the close relationships he has with both maternal and paternal grandparents:

My mother is Kazakh and father is Azerbaijani. I would identify myself as representative of a mixed ethnicity – half Azerbaijani, half Kazakh. Both ethnicities are important for me, I think, mainly because of grandparents…we live in Astana but each summer from the early childhood my parents brought me to Baku, where father’s parents live. I have a huge family there, having many relatives around is as important for Azerbaijani as it is for Kazakhs…So my Azerbaijani grandparents influenced me as much as my Kazakh relatives…choosing one ethnicity would mean choosing between them, which is impossible for