Relating to people, homeland and environment the Kyrgyz way? A dialogue between activism and engaged scholarship

Aitpaeva, Gulnara; Féaux de la Croix, Jeanne (2023). Relating to people, homeland and environment the Kyrgyz way? A dialogue between activism and engaged scholarship. In: Féaux de la Croix, Jeanne; Penati, Beatrice (eds.) Environmental Humanities in Central Asia: Relations between Extraction and Interdependence. Environmental Humanities Series. London: Routledge

Text Aitpaeva FeauxdlC dialogue chapter in Feauxdlc and Penati 2023.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (349kB) | Request a copy

This chapter uses a dialogic format to reflect an ongoing conversation between two researchers working at the intersection of engaged anthropology, environmental justice, religious and Indigenous studies. Drawing on Kyrgyz-language cosmologies, we analyze the difference between reverential and intimate relations with environments such as sacred sites, and extractive and polluting practices in Kyrgyzstan. The chapter examines how environmental movements may draw on, or depart from the kind of respectful relations e.g. with ancestor spirits and lakes that are promoted by Indigenous ‘spiritual messengers’. We reflect on how the promoters of such ethnic world-views may bolster, but also oppose government environmental policies, and how they have themselves become threatened by an increasingly autocratic ethno-nationalist government.

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