Manufacturing National Identities in the Post-Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan: A Study of Controversial Conservation Practices in Samarkand and Shakhrisabz.

Discourse on heritage management and conservation of heritage has been expanding as traditional conservation principles confront diverse manifestations of heritage around the world. The 1994 Nara Document on Authenticity formally addresses one such confrontation, resulting in the modification of conservation practices previously thought to be universally applicable. The present article attempts to introduce into this discourse the conservation practices of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which have been perceived internationally as highly controversial, and their significance in the identity formation of the state. In developing a contextual understanding of a unique historical and socio-political reality, a deeper understanding of the values behind the controversial conservation practices is formulated. There is an idealistic expectation that upon independence, the Central Asian republics would adopt the ideologies and practices of the system that they had entered. However, there is observed a perpetuation of the Soviet political apparatus, which is paralleled in their conservation practices. A study of conservation practices at the select heritage sites in the Republic of Uzbekistan illustrates that we are observing nations in structural and ideological transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]