Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1934536180 ISBN 13: 9781934536186

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2011

Synopsis

With its small population and low GDP, Mongolia is frequently deemed "unique" or tacked onto various area studies programs: Inner Asia, Central Asia, Northeast Asia, or Eurasia. This volume is a response to the concern that countries such as Mongolia are marginalized when academia and international diplomacy reconfigure area studies borders in the postsocialist era.

Would marginalized countries such as Mongolia benefit from a reconfiguration of area studies programs or even from another way of thinking about grouping nations? This book uses Mongolia as a case study to critique the area studies methodology and test the efficacy of another grouping methodology, the "-scapes" method proposed by Arjun Appadurai. Could the application of this approach for tracing individuals' social networks by theme (finance, ethnicity, ideology, media, and technology) be applied to nation-states or peoples? Could it then prevent Mongolia from slipping through the cracks of academia and international diplomacy? Experts from ecology, genetics, archaeology, history, anthropology, and international diplomacy contemplate these issues in their chapters on Mongolia through the ages. Their work includes over 30 maps to help situate Mongolia in its geologic, geographic, economic, and cultural matrix. By comparing maps of different time periods and intellectual orientations, readers can consider for themselves the place of Mongolia in the world community and the relative benefits of these and other grouping methodologies.

Content of this book's DVD-ROM may be found online at this location: http://core.tdar.org/project/376589.

About this title

About the Author:

Paula L. W. Sabloff is Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a former member of the Asian Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is the author of Modern Mongolia: Reclaiming Genghis Khan, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Review:

"While paying its due to established scholarship, this collection advances Mongolia studies into the modern realm of globalization. Its combination of disciplines will likely stimulate a broader assessment of Mongolia as a geographic and historical nexus. Social scientists, archaeologists, geneticists, and experts on environmental history will all find novelty in this innovative, holistic treatment of Mongolia past and present, as will students focusing on Inner Asian studies more generally."—Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1934536180
• ISBN 13: 9781934536186
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Sabloff Paula L.W.