On Folklore Archives and Heritage Claims: the Manas Epic in Kyrgyzstan

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F21%3A73607838" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/21:73607838 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/64/4/article-p425_4.xml" target="_blank" >https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/64/4/article-p425_4.xml</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341542" target="_blank" >10.1163/15685209-12341542</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

On Folklore Archives and Heritage Claims: the Manas Epic in Kyrgyzstan

Original language description

In this article I focus on the importance of folklore archives in staking heritage claims and in disputes over cultural “ownership.” I use as a case study the Manas epic which is shared by post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan and China’s Kyrgyz minority. By analyzing the actors who took part in the transcription of the epic, the conditions under which these transcriptions were conducted, and the results they yielded, I show how, in the case of Kyrgyzstan, turning the epic from an oral tradition into a literary monument that could be claimed as national heritage was a long story of suffering and coercion, aspirations for reward and recognition, disaccords between holders of official authority and subordinates, and never-ending personal conflicts, all under the constantly looming threat of political repression. I contrast the uses of collections of transcripts under Soviet rule and in the post-independence period which overlapped with the UNESCO-driven heritage rush worldwide. I argue that while under Soviet rule the transcripts of the epic were “raw data” which editors, translators and scholars could bend according to their needs or their expertise, after independence these transcripts have been used both as a means of authenticating the epic and claiming it as heritage. I conceptualize this process as the “transvaluation” of folklore archives, or a process in which transcripts were turned into valuable historical artefacts by downplaying the agencies involved in their production and the circumstances under which it took place.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50901 - Other social sciences

Project

—

Continuities

O - Projekt operacniho programu

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient

ISSN

0022-4995

e-ISSN

1568-5209

Volume of the periodical

64

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

30

Pages from-to

425-454

UT code for WoS article

000748429500004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85108205735