ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on ethnographic material collected about children in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, and values and practices related to their healthy growth. Through the example of lay ‘mother-doctors’ and ‘mother-healers’, who serve as gatekeepers of their children’s health, I illustrate the popularity of child health care practices in the home setting. I show first, that children’s health care is characterized by ‘everydayness’ and ‘domesticity’. Second, I argue that the proper development of a child is very much a social and cultural process which includes local values, norms and practices related to shaping the healthy body of a child. Third, the shift in the state health care programmes in Kyrgyzstan from Soviet paternalism to the concept of self-help promotes the responsibility of lay populations to look after their own health. This chapter demonstrates how female caretakers skilfully navigate among diverse medical systems, be it biomedicine or folk healing, therefore blurring the boundary between conventional and alternative medicine. I would suggest that lay people’s treatment techniques and practices should be acknowledged as part of local medical pluralism, especially in the context of children’s health.
