Nie tylko leczą, nie tylko odżywiają... Aktyk i inne „napoje zdrowotne” w Kirgistanie

Abstract

Studies on folk and traditional medicine conducted in various regions of the world reveal that medicines, and especially medicinal plants, can hardly be differentiated from “healthy food” treated as having healing properties or good for prevention against disease. Therapeutic recommendations often include prescription for a special diet. For example, it is always considered necessary for successful treatment according to humoral concepts of health and illness, popular in parts of Central Asia. In addition, both food and medicines often have symbolic meanings. They can serve as markers of ethnic and cultural identity, signs of long-standing tradition and/or religion. Such roles of traditional medicines and food in Central Asia were connected with the efforts of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, trying to legitimise their existence through references to their rich cultural heritage. In this article I analyse these issues on the example of a “healthy drink” called aktyk, which has gained in popularity in Kyrgyzstan during the period of my ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Bishkek between 2011–2013. I discuss its connections to similar drinks, kymyz in particular, and various methods, including manipulations of “tradition”, employed by the producers of aktyk in order to attract the clients. Furthermore, I present the perspective of aktyk’s users, who seem rather pragmatic and focused on achieving health improvement.