Cultural histories of kumiss: tuberculosis, heritage and national health in post-Soviet Kazakhstan

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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

Location

Kazakhstan

Keywords

umiss

tuberculosis

folk medicine

traditional food

Relevance to ICH Safeguarding

revitalization

others

ICH Genre

ecological knowledges and practices

food culture

traditional medicine

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

New York, US

Date of Publication

2017

Volume

36

Issue

4

Pages

493–510

ISSN

ISSN 0263-4937

ISSNe 1465-3354

Academic Field

Traditional knowledge

Cultural Studies

Contributor

Kazakhstan National Committee for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Active Contribution

Kazakhstan, FY 2023