Focusing on pastoral and rural communities, this volume highlights ongoing transitions in rural Central Asia. Informed by in-depth case studies from Mongolia, Buryatia and Kyrgyzstan, the essays focus on themes in contemporary pastoralism, including the adaptation and resilience of rural pastoralist livelihoods during and after the Covid-19 pandemic; healing, food and wellbeing, including an examination of rural experiences of wellbeing and the re-invention and revival of traditional foods; and economic relations, including changing spatialisation of labour spurred by mineral extraction, the role of digital media and urban-rural dynamics. The volume presents insights into contemporary human geography and anthropology of the Inner Asian region; highlights the ongoing importance of scholarship on rural places; and offers a critical lens on broader processes of change affecting the region. A collaboration between scholars spanning Japan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, the UK and the USA, the volume showcases work by diverse authors with longstanding engagement in Inner Asia.
Introduction: Post-Covid Transitions in Inner Asia
Ariell Ahearn and Gantulga Munkherdene
Part I: Contemporary Pastoralism
Chapter
1.
On the Trucks and Trailers: Long-Distance Movement and Digital
Transformations among Mobile Pastoralists in Post-Pandemic Mongolia
Gantulga Munkherdene
Chapter
2.
Pastoral Society Resilience to Covid-19 Social Disaster in Mongolias Bulgan
and Sukhbaatar Provinces
Takahiro Ozaki
Chapter
3.
Change and Adaptation as a Way of Life: The Case of Qazaq Pastoralists in
Western Mongolia
Peter Finke
Chapter
4.
Women Herders Changing Role in Mongolian Pastoralism
Troy Sternberg, Bayartogtokh Tserennadmid and Tugsbuyan Bayarbat
Part II: Wellbeing and Traditional Foods and Medicine
Chapter
5.
Sealing the Energy: A Report on Food Practices for Nourishment in Western
Mongolia
Moe Terao
Chapter
6.
How Production of Airag (Fermented Mares Milk) is Changing in Mongolian
Nomadic Pastoralism
Yuki Morinaga and Batbuyan Batjav
Chapter
7.
The Social Significance of Kazakh Chai Feasting in Mongolia
Chieko Hirota
Chapter
8.
Wild Botanicals of Inner Asia in the Times of a Global Health Crisis
Sayana Namsaraeva
Part III RuralUrban Dynamics: Networks, Perceptions and Economic Relations
Chapter
9.
Reconstruction of Pastoral Management and Local Milk Supply in Suburban Areas
in Mongolia
Takahiro Tomita
Chapter
10.
Hybridity and Vitality of Culture: Mongolian Traditional Performing Arts
During and After the Covid-19 Pandemic
Akira Kamimura
Chapter
11.
Between Khot (City) and Khuduu (Countryside): Negotiating Rural and Urban
Identities in Post-Covid Mongolia
Daniel J. Murphy, Munkhochir Surenjav, Byambabaatar
Ichinkhorloo and Bayartogtokh Tserennadmid
Chapter
12.
Fragile Networks: The Illusion of the Stable Job in Post-pandemic Mongolia
Iris Pakulla
Chapter
13.
The Role of Covid-19 in Kyrgyz Womens Lives
Zalina Enikeeva
Chapter
14.
Conspiracy Theories and Public Discontent in Central Asia: The Role of
Sinophobia in Mobilising Societal Frustrations
Kemel Toktomushev
Ariell Ahearn is a human geographer researching the spatial politics of development, environmental governance and mobile pastoralism. She is an academic activist, working closely with rural pastoralists and human rights NGOs in Mongolia to secure legal safeguards for herders facing forced eviction, destruction of cultural and spiritual sites and discrimination.
Gantulga Munkherdene is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is Executive Secretary of the Mongolian Anthropological Association. Prior to joining Oxford, he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, National University of Mongolia.
Takahiro Ozaki is a professor at Kagoshima University, Japan, specialising in anthropology and Inner Asian area studies, mainly using quantitative social research as a methodology. He carries out comparative study on changes in pastoral strategies in Outer and Inner Mongolian pastoral societies. His major work is a book on Pastoral Strategies in Modern Mongolia: Comparative Ethnography of Regime Transformation and Natural Disaster.
