Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists
Approximately 200 people, mostly Dukhas of Tuvan ancestry, live nomadically with reindeer, horses, and dogs as ‘Tsaatans’ in the taiga of northern Mongolia. How do they effectively realize their livelihoods? Does qualifying corporeal manners, or bearings, in which livelihood practices are performed...
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ftdatacite:10.20381/ruor-5535 2023-05-15T18:06:18+02:00 Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists Rasiulis, Nicolas 2016 https://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-5535 http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/34449 en eng Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa Pastoralism Reindeer Multispecies Dukha Tsaatan Livelihood Resilience Mongolia Nomadism Enskillment Text Thesis article-journal ScholarlyArticle 2016 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-5535 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Approximately 200 people, mostly Dukhas of Tuvan ancestry, live nomadically with reindeer, horses, and dogs as ‘Tsaatans’ in the taiga of northern Mongolia. How do they effectively realize their livelihoods? Does qualifying corporeal manners, or bearings, in which livelihood practices are performed in the moments of actualization offer insight into ways in which longer-term decision-making processes like nomadic settlement and livestock management are embodied? Informed by a phenomenological approach in anthropology during nearly four months of cooperative co-habitation with Tsaatan mentors, I argue that Tsaatans effectively realize livelihood practices as they cheerfully embody poised improvisation and acrobatics in both skillful discernment and movement. Simultaneously anticipating and performing diverse tasks in playful cooperation with friends, family and other animals along nomadic lifestyles in a wilderness habitat involves persistent, sensory-rich, versatile manipulation of environmental materials, as well as extensive geographic knowledge and frequent experiences of risk in remote, rugged terrain and powerful meteorological conditions impossible to completely avoid. These lifestyles catalyze the development of quick-witted and materially sensitive resilience with which people are capable of corresponding with beings, materials, and situations, and thereby of continuing to develop ancestral traditions of reindeer husbandry in a rapidly changing social, economic, technological and geo-political context. Thesis reindeer husbandry taiga DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
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language |
English |
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Pastoralism Reindeer Multispecies Dukha Tsaatan Livelihood Resilience Mongolia Nomadism Enskillment |
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Pastoralism Reindeer Multispecies Dukha Tsaatan Livelihood Resilience Mongolia Nomadism Enskillment Rasiulis, Nicolas Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
topic_facet |
Pastoralism Reindeer Multispecies Dukha Tsaatan Livelihood Resilience Mongolia Nomadism Enskillment |
description |
Approximately 200 people, mostly Dukhas of Tuvan ancestry, live nomadically with reindeer, horses, and dogs as ‘Tsaatans’ in the taiga of northern Mongolia. How do they effectively realize their livelihoods? Does qualifying corporeal manners, or bearings, in which livelihood practices are performed in the moments of actualization offer insight into ways in which longer-term decision-making processes like nomadic settlement and livestock management are embodied? Informed by a phenomenological approach in anthropology during nearly four months of cooperative co-habitation with Tsaatan mentors, I argue that Tsaatans effectively realize livelihood practices as they cheerfully embody poised improvisation and acrobatics in both skillful discernment and movement. Simultaneously anticipating and performing diverse tasks in playful cooperation with friends, family and other animals along nomadic lifestyles in a wilderness habitat involves persistent, sensory-rich, versatile manipulation of environmental materials, as well as extensive geographic knowledge and frequent experiences of risk in remote, rugged terrain and powerful meteorological conditions impossible to completely avoid. These lifestyles catalyze the development of quick-witted and materially sensitive resilience with which people are capable of corresponding with beings, materials, and situations, and thereby of continuing to develop ancestral traditions of reindeer husbandry in a rapidly changing social, economic, technological and geo-political context. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Rasiulis, Nicolas |
author_facet |
Rasiulis, Nicolas |
author_sort |
Rasiulis, Nicolas |
title |
Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
title_short |
Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
title_full |
Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
title_fullStr |
Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
title_full_unstemmed |
Freestyle Bearing: Work, Play, and Synergy in the Practice of Everyday Life Among Mongolian Reindeer Pastoralists |
title_sort |
freestyle bearing: work, play, and synergy in the practice of everyday life among mongolian reindeer pastoralists |
publisher |
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-5535 http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/34449 |
genre |
reindeer husbandry taiga |
genre_facet |
reindeer husbandry taiga |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.20381/ruor-5535 |
_version_ |
1766177898580934656 |