David Gullette is a social anthropologist and affiliated researcher at the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge, where he gained a PhD. He has worked for International Crisis Group and the United Nations, analysing political, social and development issues throughout central Asia. His research focuses on notions of “tribalism” and identity in Kyrgyzstan, including ideas of genealogy and their place in the development of the national ideology. He is the author of The Genealogical Construction of the Kyrgyz Republic: Kinship, State and Tribalism (GlobalOriental, 2009)