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Abstract:

Hunting with golden eagles has a long history in Central Asia as an art, tradition, and, recently, a tourist attraction that significantly contributes to the livelihood of the communities in which it is practiced (MacGough 2019; Soma 2015). It relies on partnerships gradually woven into being through bonds of trust constructed through vocality and the intimacy it generates (Feldman and Zeitlin 2019; Eidsheim and Meisel 2019; Kean and Howell 2019). As an intangible tool, the hunter’s voice is used to train the eagle by a variety of vocalizations. These invisible threads create interspecies ties that become embodied in the choreographic physicality of the hunt. The eagle’s physical responses to vocality define and shape the collaborative dynamics with the hunter, his horse, and his dog. In post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, as intangible heritage, eagle hunting is primarily a tourist attraction that leans on Indigenous ecological knowledge and epistemologies, providing a ‘popular means of interacting with nature’ (UNESCO). However, the vocal weaving of these interspecies bonds also provides an important example of the interconnection and possibility for coexistence, dialogue, and collaboration between humans and non-humans. Renewed approaches to human/non-human agency (Bennett 2010; Steingo 2024) are crucial at a time of environmental uncertainty (Whitaker and Dall’Ò 2023; Köse and İnal 2022). My paper draws on fieldwork carried out in Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, recent literature on Central Asian falconry, the matter(s) that vocality is made of, and discussions of tourism in relation to the environment, sustainability, wildlife, and indigenous communities (Holden and Fennell 2013; Fennell 2013; Farrelly 2013; Hall, Gössling and Scott 2015; Smith 2015). It explores how the intangible threads of vocality form the fabric of emotional bonds and the physical manifestation of interspecies conflict/collaboration through hunting, generating opportunities for material profit through tourism. It examines vocality as a tool for conflict resolution in interspecies relations, where two ontological entities are defined against one another by their partnership. I will argue that these encounters provide an opportunity for interspecies ‘merging’ through (ontological) distinction, vocality being the invisible thread that ties ‘the subject and the Other together’ (Dolar 2006, 112). Their bond emerges from their distinction as the conflict in which their two natures intersect can generate a partnership. The paper will contribute to ethno/ecomusicological research on interspecies communication in Central Asia (Levin and Süzükei 2006; Beahrs 2019) and Indigenous identity in the post-Soviet space (Suny 2000; Dadabaev 2016; Levin 2018).