Traditional dress and ethnic characters in the peoples of Central Asia: an ethnological analysis

In this article, the traditional clothing of the peoples of Central Asia as a system of ethnic characters is analyzed from an ethnological point of view. The author considers clothing not only as an aesthetic or practical phenomenon, but as a complex semiotic system that represents ethnic identity, indicates social status, and carries cultural memory. The study provides a comparative analysis of the specific ethnic characters — color, patterns, jewelry, headdresses — of Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Tajik traditional clothing. Based on a semiotic approach (Barthes, Eco) and ethnological theories (Barthes, Turner), clothing is explored as a means of delineating ethnic boundaries and visually expressing ethnic identity.