Kazakh Ethnic Structure and Arghyn Mythology by Nazgul Mingisheva (Karaganda/Kazakhstan) Paper presented at the: CESS 6 th Annual Conference Boston University, USA October 1, 2005 Nazgul Mingisheva Lecturer Karaganda Institute of Actual Education “Bolashak” Political Sciences and Socio-Human Disciplines Department Mikrorayon Stepnoy-4, dom 28, kv.21 Karaganda, 100024, Kazakhstan Telephone: +7-3212-75-53-86 E-mail: nazgulm@yahoo.com Summary There is a great interest to the Kazakh mythology in Kazakhstan in the recent time. There are a lot of people try to reconstruct their genealogical links now. My paper consists of two parts. In the first part I reviewed, compared and analyzed the past researches on Kazakh ethnic structure (N. Aristov, M. Mukanov, V. Vostrov, M. Tynyshpaev, M. Kozybaev). The second part is focused on the Arghyn structure and the last researches of the general Kazakh genealogy. First of all I compared the past and recent investigations about Kazakh ethnic structure. I found the recent researches give the new interpretations about first ancestors of the Kazakh ethnic groups of the three Kazakh Zhuzs and about their common ancestor. I also found these new interpretations of the Kazakh ethnic structure and mythology are adding, forming and consolidating the Kazakh identity. Secondly I reviewed and analyzed more detail the Arghyn structure and mythology, which were published in these last researches. Arghyn is the Kazakh tribe of the Kazakh Middle Zhuz, which was the most numerous tribe among the other Kazakh tribes according to the data from the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century. I viewed the Arghyn genealogy and mythology on the instance of the Qareke lineage, which a representative I am. The Qareke lineage is a part of the general Arghyn structure. In the end of my paper I concluded about multilevel of Kazakh identity, which is followed from peculiarities of Kazakh ethnic structure. Working paper: Not for citation or distribution without permission of the author