From Sign to Meaning: The Problem of Backward Translation of the Cultural Code in Central Asia

The article analyzes a persistent asymmetry in post-Soviet Central Asia between two vectors of cultural code formation. On the one hand, there is strikingly successful institutionalization of ethnic traditions: folk rituals (Navruz), anthroponyms (return of national names), and gastronomic practices (plov) are granted state status and included in the official symbolic repertoire. The code of cultural expression, emerging spontaneously in everyday life, is successfully appropriated by the system-administrative code – a process qualified as "reception-appropriation." On the other hand, the reverse movement of meanings — from state innovations to everyday life – is almost entirely absent. State-initiated names (Nursultan, Saparmurat) do not generate stable derivatives or folkloric reflection, and rapidly disappear after regime change. State gastronomic initiatives block the evolution of living culinary tradition. The ritual code (staged Navruz) undergoes semiotic reduction, remaining an external simulacrum. To analyze this gap, the concept of "cultural reception" is introduced and operationalized through three criteria: spontaneity, transformation, and loss of authorship. Based on cases from five Central Asian countries, it is shown that the absence of full-fledged reception leads to desemantization – preservation of external form while losing living meaning. Three structural causes of the semiotic gap are identified: temporal heterogeneity of codes, the authorial nature of state innovations, and the absence of effective institutions of cultural mediation. It is concluded that overcoming the gap lies not in new state programs, but in supporting spontaneous, "grassroots" practices of adapting official symbols.