Product Description

This ethnography of Muslim life among the Kazaks of Central Asia describes the sacralisation of land and ethnic identity, local understanding of Islamic purity, the Kazak ancestor cult and domestic spirituality, and pilgrimage to the tombs of Sufi saints.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1371036 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 321 pages

From the Publisher
Praise for the book
"Studies of folk religion in Central Asia are rare. Of all the recent books on the Kazaks published in Western languages, there is no study that can comparae with this one when it comes to religion." Ingvar Svanberg, Dept. of East European Studies, The University of Uppsala.

"This book is the first serious work on Islam among the Kazaks unhampered by Soviet-era conceptual frameworks. Based on long-term field research in the Kazak language, Privratsky's work is vital both for its rich new data, the like of which is unavailable elsewhere, and for its analytical approach, which is as yet unmatched. It is a new and convincing interpretation of Kazak Islam." Devin DeWeese, Reserach Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University

From the Back Cover
The author reconstructs collective memory theory in light of the Kazak case, stripping it of its postmodernist baggage, and proposing a place for it in a general theory of religion. This ethnography of Muslim life among the Kazaks of Central Asia describes the sacralisation of land and ethnic identity, local understanding of Islamic purity, the Kazak ancestor cult and its domestic spirituality, pilgrimage at the tombs of Sufi saints, and folk therapies shaped by traditional Islamic medicine and Inner Asian shamanism.