ABSTRACT
When asked how he honors the memory of his ancestors, Amal Qoja began listing the religious activities of the Kazak household: Quran recitals (quran oqıtū), the Thursday ritual after a death in the family (peyshenbilik), and the breaking of the fast on Ramazan evenings (aūız ashar). All these things, he said, we do for our ancestors who visit our house by the permission of God. He called them "the deceased 'woven branches' related to us, our father and mother, our great-grandfathers, our distant in-laws" (ölgen ürim-putaġımız özimizge qarastı, äke-sheshemiz, babalarımız, quda jekjattarımız).
