Rasanayagam, Johan. 2006. "Healing with Spirits and the Formation of Muslim Selfhood in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan" The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 12, no. 2 (2006): 377-393.

Rasanayagam states: "In this article I will examine how people explore what it means to be a Muslim through ... healing with the aid of spirits."  He explores how healers have responded to increasing post-Soviet "scripturalist" interpretations of Islam. He argues that healers, "construct themselves as 'proper' Muslims according to the orthodoxies authorized by official imams while maintaining their own, often highly individual, interpretations and practices." 

Sections: A Particular Mode of Access to Divine Power and Knowledge; Healing Cosmologies; Orthodoxy in the Making; Authorizing Processes; Notes.  Descriptors: 2000s, anthropology, diversity, ethnography, healers, journal, otins, post-Soviet, R, rituals, spirits, Uzbekistan; pluralism-textual/popular, Hanafi, syncretism, tabibs, oqsoqols, otins, perikhon, saints, bakshis, mavlud, hatma Qur'an, bibi seshanba, mushkul kushod, jinn, qori, avlio, alcohol