Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia - Softcover

Buyandelger, Manduhai

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226086569 ISBN 13: 9780226086569

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2013

Synopsis

The collapse of socialism at the end of the twentieth century brought devastating changes to Mongolia. Economic shock therapy—an immediate liberalization of trade and privatization of publicly owned assets—quickly led to impoverishment, especially in rural parts of the country, where Tragic Spirits takes place. Following the travels of the nomadic Buryats, Manduhai Buyandelger tells a story not only of economic devastation but also a remarkable Buryat response to it—the revival of shamanic practices after decades of socialist suppression.

 

Attributing their current misfortunes to returning ancestral spirits who are vengeful over being abandoned under socialism, the Buryats are now at once trying to appease their ancestors and recover the history of their people through shamanic practice. Thoroughly documenting this process, Buyandelger situates it as part of a global phenomenon, comparing the rise of shamanism in liberalized Mongolia to its similar rise in Africa and Indonesia. In doing so, she offers a sophisticated analysis of the way economics, politics, gender, and other factors influence the spirit world and the crucial workings of cultural memory.

About this title

About the Author

Manduhai Buyandelger is professor of anthropology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Gender, and Memory in Contemporary Mongolia, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226086569
• ISBN 13: 9780226086569
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 314