Patrimonialization and Ethno-Cultural Management in Kyrgyzstan and Mexico: Two Contrasting Policies

ABSTRACT

Despite the significant contextual differences between semi-nomadic herders in Kyrgyzstan and sedentary peasants in Mexico, a comparative study, based on ethnographic fieldwork, of the impact of patrimonialization on the two groups reveals similar processes of heritage marking. However, within this similarity this cross-analysis identifies two contrasting modes of domination that occur as a result of this analogous heritage process. By examining the local application of the heritage concept, as well as the connections that exist between the type of society, its history and the ethno-cultural management at work, this paper demonstrates how patrimonialization can stimulate divergent political mechanisms in the relationship between the State and the social groups concerned.

KEYWORDS:

• Patrimonialization
• indigenousness
• Mexico
• Kyrgyzstan
• ethno-cultural management
• tourism
• ethnicity
• Nationalism

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under Grant number: FABRIQ’AM-ANR-12-CULT-005: The making of “heritages”. The authors wish to thank their assistants and interpreters, Gulnura Akylbekova, Amantur Bakyt Uulu and María Cicero, without whom this comparative project would not have been possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Agence Nationale de la Recherche: [Grant Number FABRIQ'AM-ANR-12-CULT-005].

Notes on contributors

Anath Ariel de Vidas

Anath Ariel de Vidas is a Research director at the French National Centre for Scientific research (CNRS). Her main research interests evolve around modes of ethnicity among Amerindian groups situated in modernization processes, adaptations of Native American symbolism to the contemporary world, and the patrimonialization of indigenous cultures.

Ruslan Rahimov

Ruslan Rahimov is an associate professor at the Department of Anthropology of the American University of Central Asia. His main research interests evolve around pastoral societies of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, transnationalism and migration in Central Asia and Russia, religion, and secularism.