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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses the challenges female manaschis face in receiving recognition in Kyrgyz society.
Paper abstract:
The paper discusses the challenges female manaschis face in receiving recognition in Kyrgyz society. Although many papers have been written on epic tale singers, the life stories of female manaschilar and their recitation practices has received little scholarly attention. The dominant views on epic reciters are based predominately on the experiences of male bards. A. Lord, who investigated European epic tale singers, identified three stages of becoming a bard: 1) Listening and absorbing, 2) individual practices, 3) first public performance. N. van der Heide supplemented Lord’s stages by highlighting the significance that blessing and vocation dreams play in becoming an epic reciter or manaschy. Notwithstanding the merits of their scholarship on the performative skills and spiritual connection of the male bards with their ancestors, both Lord and van der Heide have missed to recognize the specific requirements for female reciters. In a society where traditional patriarchal norms are strong, female epic tellers need not only to master and improve their recitation skills but also to accept male dominance and to “bargain with patriarchy” (to borrow D. Kandioty’s terms), in order to be recognized as manaschy. This paper discuss personal accounts, archival materials, and interviews collected in 2022 in Kyrgyzstan. Recognition theory (A. Honneth) is applied for data anlysis. Furthermore, the sources are analyzed with regard to the key aspects of family support (“love field”) and “solidarity field”. It is shown how interactions between female manaschilar, on the one hand, and male-dominated society, on the other, serve as a good example for “bargaining with patriarchy”. In particular, the paper reflects upon the role male members play in a society (father, husband, father in law, tribal man) in bestowing recognition upon female manaschilar. Ultimately, this paper contributes to the studies of epic recitation practices.
Keywords: epic, epic reciter, female manaschi, recognition, bargaining with patriarchy.
Boundaries of the National, Spiritual and Religious in Central Asia: from Manas to Islam
Session 1 Sunday 22 October, 2023, -