A significant characteristic of the Central Asian family is its flexibility in make-up and also, in many aspects, in location. This was even more marked before the 1917 Russian Revolution when there were several distinct lifestyles in Central Asia: the nomadic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, and the sedentary Uzbeks and Tajiks, with the Turkmens, Karakalpaks, and other related groups drawing on elements from both.

The nomadic peoples typically lived in tents, or yurts, easy to dismantle structures divided into men's and women's quarters, with separate sleeping sections for the…