Abstract
This article examines community stewardship of khöömei, kargyraa, and sygyt (all commonly called "throat-singing") and musical pilgrimage to the Khöömei Ovaa (cairn) from 2011 to 2018 in the Tyva Republic, part of the Russian Federation. More generally, this article traces the revitalization of land-based gift exchanges in Altai and Sayan Mountain ecologies of Inner Asia through mutual entanglements of land, kin, and life energy (khei-a't). Following my teachers, I suggest a horse herder's tethering post (baglaash) as a model for musical stewardship in Tyva and discuss the obligations expected of guests and hosts in musical gift exchanges. I foreground envoicement (ünneshtirer) and attunement (khöönnei) as central aspects of the khöömeizhi's sonic-musical craft and explore the responsibilities entailed in using and sharing melodies for particular purposes. In so doing, I offer a reparative approach to reconciling disjunctures in historic consciousness and traumatic heritage across shared homelands in postsocialist Inner Asia and beyond.
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