Voicing a path to the afterlife: Rituals for the dead, transnational mobility and the changing soundspace of Islam among Mongolian Kazakhs

Abstract

This article explores the role of sound and space in the negotiation of Muslim identity within rituals for the dead among the Kazakhs of Mongolia, a Turkic-speaking community that forms the majority population in the west of the country. Mobile pastoralists practising a syncretic form of Islam that integrates ancestor-spirit worship, Mongolian Kazakhs traditionally commemorated the dead at funeral and memorial feasts conducted in the portable nomadic yurt, and involving men’s recitation of the Qur’an and women’s performance of laments. The political and social transformations of the post-Soviet period, however, have wrought changes in the architectonics of the rituals. Increased transnational mobility in the wake of Kazakhstan’s independence has led to memorial feasts being held in venues ranging from mud-brick houses in western Mongolia to urban apartments, restaurants or mosques in Kazakhstan. The emergence of revivalist trends in Islam has prompted debates around the legitimacy and correct performance of female lamentation. Based on ethnography in Mongolia and Kazakhstan, the article examines how changes in the spatial and sonic configuration of the rituals reflect and shape evolving concepts of religiosity and gendered relations among the transnational community of Mongolian Kazakhs. The author introduces the concept of ‘soundspace’ to underscore the significance of spatiality, embodiment and emplacement in the production of sonic religious expression and experience.