[lbo-talk] Urbanization -> Modernization (was Re: WWP & KPRF)

[Chris Doss]

>
>According to Edward W. Walker, Chechens remained "substantially more rural 
>than the Soviet population as a whole -- according to the 1989 census, 27 
>percent of Chechens lived in cities..." ("Islam in Chechnya," March 13, 
>1998, 
><http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~bsp/caucasus/newsletter/1998-06_walker.pdf>). 
>Clans didn't disappear because the Soviets failed to urbanize them. The 
>same problem existed in Kosovo.  Can't easily become modern without first 
>becoming urban.
---
Very likely. Would be interesting to compare it with the situation in other 
Caucasian peoples, like the Avars and Ingush, who also have clan systems but 
subordinate them to larger ideas of national belonging.
Robert Bruce Ware contrasts the situation in Chechnya wuth that in Dagestan, 
which manages to have 34 distinct ethnic groups that all live in relative 
peace and is right next door. His theory is that Islam in Dagestan, which 
was introduced over a thousand years ago, acted as a modernizing agent. 
Whereas Chechnya has only been Muslim for 300 years.

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