Dreams of the Modern and the Divine: The Uncertain Rhythms of Living with Walnuts in Southern Kyrgyzstan

Speaker(s): Rachel Kay
Duration: 18 min

How do myths shape our relationship to time and uncertainty? Drawing on her research in the walnut forests of southern Kyrgyzstan, anthropologist Rachel Kay explores the narratives that accompany the region’s political, economic, and environmental transformations.

Bringing together anthropology, environmental history, and the study of trade networks, she examines how dreams of modernization inherited from the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union continue to influence relationships between local communities, forests, and water resources. These narratives of progress and development intertwine with older stories that attribute a divine origin to the forests and place them within a timescale that extends far beyond political and economic projects.

Through the walnut trade, the unpredictable rhythms of harvests, and the effects of climate change, her presentation considers how myths help make sense of uncertainty, continuity, and the upheavals that shape contemporary worlds.

Environment
Social issues
Mythological

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