ABSTRACT

Sacred sites and the experiences, hopes and fears that practitioners have about them in relation to the changing economic and social organization will be the main focus of this article. I will raise, specifically, the question of power and control over knowledge of the sacred sites. The hypothesis of the present paper is that every community has its own local ethics and certain claims that arise in accordance with it. I will also dwell on issues of how people think about the sites, what kind of respect they show towards them, and how they maintain control over them. I will be discussing questions of cultural property rights – one of the main concerns of local practitioners, many of whom argue that sacred sites have to belong to all the people who live in Kyrgyzstan and not just to some private owners. This article will present the concerns of research respondents and will describe the uses of the sites in direct relation to the kinds of rights people feel they should have, along with any challenges or limits to the rights they have experienced.