The Ishkoshimis of Tajik Badakhshan have been living in a situation of frequent economic and political shifts that have, particularly since the fall of the Soviet Union, affected routine aspects of their lives. In coping with these changes there is an attempt to create stability through maintenance of both religious identity and socially-established kinship roles, although these fundamental aspects of life are also in flux. Most notably, the fall of socialism enabled Badakhshanis to have access to their religious leader, the Aga Khan. Religious practice started to become institutionalized with direction coming from the his Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. This institutionalization of faith is ongoing. In March 2009, an edict of the Imam was delivered to the villages of Ishkashim in which further changes to the daily prayer and to wedding and funeral prayers were promised. This paper will begin with an ethnographic analysis of the delivery to understand how an agenda of world-wide unification of Ismaili ritual practice is negotiated with the particularities of Ishkashimi traditions. The Ishkashimis' notable lack of shocked reaction to the promise of changes to such critical aspects of religious practice will be laid in contrast to the chaos produced when the age-old Ishkashimi tradition of unearthing and burning a corpse who is considered to be causing death among the living was contested by Ishkashimis themselves. In 2008, the legitimacy of the ritual, which had been overseen by the local khalifa, was questioned by a police investigation at the bequest of the woman whose father's remains had been burned. Feuds between neighbours and kin developed through this locally-based negotiation of ritual legitimacy; loyalties amongst kin had been betrayed and the authority of certain individuals contested. At the end of the investigation, khalifas were instructed to no longer authorize such unearthing and burning traditions. This paper compares the particular reactions to imposed change from an institution to negotiated change amongst kin. It argues that institutional changes, while altering the content and execution of daily rituals, do not threaten locally established social roles and therefore may appear continuous. The negotiation of ritual change on the ground, however, feels much more chaotic as it generates conflict amongst kin through its destabilization of established relationships. I assert that Ishkashimis foreground the local in terms of religious identity and daily kin relations in a way that distances even those aspects of institutionalized change that affect daily life.