Author(s)	McGuire, Gabriel
Title	Cultural Histories of Kumiss: Tuberculosis, Heritage and National Health in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan
Publication Type	Journal Article
Language	eng
Number of Pages	18
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2017.1327420
Location	Kazakhstan
Keywords	traditional medicine food culture social practices knowledge of nature and universe
Relevance to ICH Safeguarding	identification documentation definition awareness raising
ICH Genre	traditional medicine food culture social practices ICH transmission
Description	In the nineteenth century, European doctors began to credit kumiss (fermented mare’s milk) for the apparent absence of tuberculosis among the nomads of the Eurasian steppe. As European and American medical journals published articles on the "kumiss cure" and Russian doctors opened kumiss sanatoria, praise for the drink’s curative powers was wound together with romanticized images of the nomadic pastoralists whose creation it was. In Soviet and now in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, kumiss came to hold the double status of medicine and of national heritage. Yet if in the nineteenth century, the steppe was notable for the absence of tuberculosis, in the late twentieth century, it is notable for its presence: Kazakhstan, like many post-Soviet countries, is currently the site of an epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis. Discussions of the epidemic now tangle together concerns over the physical health of the population with concern over the cultural health of the body politic.
Book/Journal Title	Central Asian Survey
Publisher	Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Place of Publication	England, UK
Date of Publication	2017
Volume	36 (4)
Pages	493-510
Usage	copyright cleared
Academic Field	Anthropology Traditional medicine
Contributor	Kazakhstan National Committee for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
Active Contribution	Kazakhstan, FY 2024
Data Collection Project	Sustainable Research Data Collection for ICH Safeguarding: Focusing on Central Asia and Small Island Developing States