Abstract
Alcohol consumption is a central aspect of social life among Mongols in Mongolia and Buryatia as well as in Inner Mongolia. Despite its prominence, however, it has not yet been addressed as a phenomenon deserving anthropological attention in its own right. Drawing on material collected in Inner Mongolia (PR China), this article tries to fill this ethnographic gap by describing the deeply contradictory moral values associated with alcohol as well as the social and affective dynamics generated by the ambivalent role of drinking in the construction of a moral self. It thereby draws attention to the inherent contradictions in local systems of moral values and their anxiogenic impact on social interaction, particularly in rural settlements. At the same time, it provides a new perspective on old topics within the anthropology of Mongolia, such as notions of morality, the maintenance of a rigid social hierarchy, and uncertainty.
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