{"title":"Ghosts of a different present: spectres of possibility in the lives of older Kyrgyz Muslims\u0000 Les fantômes d'un présent différent : spectres de possibilités dans les vies de musulmans kirghiz âgés","authors":"Maria Louw","doi":"10.1111/1467-9655.14267","DOIUrl":"10.1111/1467-9655.14267","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The anthropology of possibility – and the phenomenological traditions it often draws on – has predominantly been oriented towards the future, the not-yet. With an empirical point of departure in fieldwork among older Kyrgyz Muslims who become old in the absence of younger relatives and drawing on the critical phenomenology of Alia Al-Saji, I explore the what-might-have-been as a space of possibility that is equally important in human life as a space in which one may dwell and even thrive, and which may gain in importance as a person becomes older. I argue that if we want to understand the existential importance of what-might-have-been and question the futurity bias in anthropology, we need to understand the past, not as frozen and inert, but as a space of possibility that keeps opening in new ways. I find the inspiration for doing so in the Kyrgyz concept of <i>qayip duino</i> (the hidden or unseen world) and Al-Saji's concept of <i>hesitation</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":47904,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute","volume":"31 S1","pages":"57-72"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-9655.14267","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143736450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}