Living with Herds
Human-Animal Coexistence in Mongolia

This book examines the process of animal domestication in an ethnographic account of herders and their animals in the mountains of Mongolia.

Natasha Fijn (Author)

9781107000902, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 April 2011

302 pages, 52 b/w illus. 11 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.63 kg

'The author contextualises her ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research with reference to ethological studies as much as with anthropological and this approach is more than justified … this book is a significant contribution for those engaged in the study of East and Central Asian cultures, as well as those interested in pastoralists and human-animal relationships more generally.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

Domestic animals have lived with humans for thousands of years and remain essential to the everyday lives of people throughout the world. In this book, Natasha Fijn examines the process of animal domestication in a study that blends biological and social anthropology, ethology and ethnography. She examines the social behavior of humans and animals in a contemporary Mongolian herding society. After living with Mongolian herding families, Dr Fijn has observed through firsthand experience both sides of the human-animal relationship. Examining their reciprocal social behavior and communication with one another, she demonstrates how herd animals influence Mongolian herders' lives and how the animals themselves are active partners in the domestication process.

Part I. Crossing Boundaries: Prologue
1. Introduction
2. A Mongolian etho-ethnography
Part II. The Social Herd: 3. Social spheres
4. Names, symbols, colours and breeding
5. Multi-species enculturation
6. Tameness and control
Part III. Living with Herds: 7. In the land of the horse
8. The cycle of life
9. The domestic and the wild
10. The sacred animal
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Archaeology [HD]