Ethnic Mongol Research Articles

Iron Cones in the Burials of Ulus Jochi: Aspects of Ethnocultural Identification

Cone-shaped objects, rolled from iron and bronze sheets, are found in the Golden Horde burials of the late 13th – early 15th centuries. The authors collected information on more than 100 burials with iron and bronze cones located in the territory of Ulus Jochi. This article is examines material from 78 iron cone burials. Specific features of the topographic location of these complexes, use of stones in rituals, construction of log cabins around graves is similar to archaeological and ethnographic monuments of Central Asia associated with ethnic Mongols. As a rule, human remains buried in graves are oriented north or northeast with their heads, which is also a feature of the Mongol funeral rite. Accompaniment of the burial with whole or stuffed horses remains in the complexes with cones is not common, but these features are also known in Mongolian cemeteries in Central Asia. The placement of a sheep tibia at the head of the buried occasionally in vertical position is considered a main ethnic feature of the Mongol culture. In general, the sample of the Ulus Jochi burials, united by the iron cones presence in the burial inventory, is characterized by an increased concentration of rather specific ritual signs typical of the Mongols of Central Asia. This allows us to conclude that the considered monuments belong to the same ethnocultural group of population. Moreover, the available anthropological data testify to the Central Asian (Mongolian) origin of the representatives of this group of nomads of Ulus Jochi Burials with iron cones. The authors observe manifestations of pagan shamanic and Buddhist rituals judging by the dominant features of funeral rituals left by the bearers of Mongolian ethnic and cultural traditions.

Морфофункциональные характеристики монгольских детей и подростков с разным уровнем физической активности

The materials for the present study were collected cross-sectionally in 2014/15 as a result of a survey of 7136 individuals from 8 to 17 years of age who were ethnic Mongols and lived in the city of Ulaanbaatar. The data was divided into 2 groups – individuals who were students of special sports schools and were engaged in sports sections of different specialization for more than a year, and individuals limited to physical education lessons at municipal schools. Anthropometric data were collected according to the standard technique, followed by assessment of the parameters of the hemodynamic and respiratory systems, as well as the dynamometry of both hands. The survey was performed in accordance with bioethical procedure and the signing of informed consent protocols. Results and discussion. The large value of the total body sizes in the groups of young athletes indicates that the morphological status of the subjects under the influence of physical activity begins to change quite early, and at the end of the period under consideration, the intergroup difference reaches a maximum, especially in boys. At the same time, the body frame index, which allows one to draw indirect conclusions about the robustness of the skeleton, differs slightly. Taking into account the age of the subjects, it can be concluded that the influence of sports on the value of the indicator manifests itself in the process of growth and parallel to increasing physical activity levels. Intergroup differences in the value of functional indicators are much more pronounced: the respiratory and hemodynamic systems demonstrate more active functioning in physically active individuals. In this case, clearer intergroup differences were found in girls. At the same time, higher indicators of dynamometry of both hands (especially in older schoolchildren), together with the results obtained above, make it possible to speak of positive shifts in the physical strength of the body, directly related to a higher level of physical activity. Conclusion. Systematic involvement in regular physical activity and various sports has a positive effect on the body functioning, significantly improving its capabilities: individuals with higher level of physical activity are more adapted to the effects of the external environment comparing to their less-active peers. This is confirmed by numerous studies by other authors. The greater degree of differences in morphological characteristics in the groups of boys, and functional indicators in the groups of girls, may be associated with the traditional Mongolian way of life, with typical gender stereotypes and roles.

Domesticating the Belt and Road: rural development, spatial politics, and animal geographies in Inner Mongolia

ABSTRACTChina’s Belt and Road Initiative has led to an efflorescence of interest in the heritage of the “Silk Road,” both in China and abroad. In this article, I approach the BRI and its associated “Silk Road fever” ethnographically, discussing its effects on a particular region of China. What was once characterized in official discourse as a “remote border region” is now recovering its history of camel-based connectivity, and using this to imagine its future development. I situate this Silk Road discourse within the context of the politics of land, ethnicity, and the environment in a Chinese border region. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in this region, and analysis of local publications, the article shows how this discourse provides ethnic Mongol elites in the west of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region with resources to defend pastoralist livelihoods threatened by the state’s recent grassland conservation policies. I thus show how the BRI’s spatial imaginary is “domesticated” in a particular part of China, and shine a light on the spatial politics which this imaginary – and the nonhumans involved in it – affords.

INFORMATION ABOUT SCIENTIFIC STUDDING LEVEL ON PROBLEM OF HYPERTENSION-MEDIATED ORGAN DAMAGE IN MONGOLIA

Despite of arterial hypertension high prevalence and its complications in Mongolia, the epidemiology and structure of hypertension-mediated organ damage remains insufficiently studied. Aim. To assess elaboration level of the problem of AH-associated hypertension-mediated organ damage in Mongolia. Materials and methods. Leading international guidelines and recommendations, reviews, meta-analyzes, randomized controlled, population-based research and Mongolian scientific papers with different evidential value, related to hypertension-mediated organ damage were analyzed. Results and discussion. In developed countries, hypertension-mediated organ damage structure and their contribution to total cardiovascular risk stratification in patients with hypertension is well studied. In 2018 ESC/ESH Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension hypertension-mediated organ damage criteria were only slightly extended. Data on arterial hypertension epidemiology, including hypertension-mediated organ damage structure, in Mongolian population, mainly obtained from ethnic Mongols living in the territory of Inner Mongolia and other provinces of China, or in international studies with Mongolia participation. Directly in Mongolia, hypertension-mediated organ damage were studied in small samples; a systemic epidemiological analysis of hypertension-mediated organ damage was not carried out. Conclusions. Given arterial hypertension significance in Mongolia and insufficient scientific elaboration of problem, population studies are needed to clarify hypertension-mediated organ damage prevalence and structure in order for improving arterial hypertension management.

EFL textbooks, culture and power: a critical content analysis of EFL textbooks for ethnic Mongols in China

ABSTRACT This study examines the cultural contents in one textbook series, which is currently in use for English as a foreign language (EFL) education among ethnic Mongol junior high students in Inner Mongolia, China, to understand the representations of multiculturalism and underlying power relations that appear in them. Applying Kachru and Nelson’s model of English spread and their categorisation into Inner, Outer and Expanding circles, this critical content analysis investigates which countries are introduced and how multicultural variables including race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, social class, and people with disabilities are represented. The results show that representations of cultures of three circle countries and multicultural variables are shown in an unbalanced, stereotypical way and lack diversity. Additionally, we present the tensions within power relations among different countries, race/ethnicity, social classes, and gender/sexuality. The findings suggest that a critical multicultural perspective not only helps students and educators recognise both the international and internal diversity, but also urges educators and textbook writers to emphasise the importance of cultural knowledge of EFL textbooks to better serve ethnic Mongol students.

Introduction

Introduction Uranchimeg Tsultemin (bio) A comparative and analytical discussion of Mongolian Buddhist art is a long overdue project. In the 1970s and 1980s, Nyam-Osoryn Tsultem's lavishly illustrated publications broke ground for the study of Mongolian Buddhist art.1 His five-volume work was organized by genre (painting, sculpture, architecture, decorative arts) and included a monograph on a single artist, Zanabazar (Tsultem 1982a, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989). Tsultem's books introduced readers to the major Buddhist art centers and sites, artists and their works, techniques, media, and styles. He developed and wrote extensively about his concepts of "schools"—including the school of Zanabazar and the school of Ikh Khüree—inspired by Mongolian ger- (yurt-) based education, the artists' teacher-disciple or preceptor-apprentice relationships, and monastic workshops for rituals and production of art. The very concept of "schools" and its underpinning methodology itself derives from the Medieval European practice of workshops and, for example, the model of scuola (school) evidenced in Italy. Tsultem borrowed the term and the concept from Russian art-historical literature. Tsultem was particularly passionate about, and a strong advocate for, Mongol Zurag, the new traditional style of painting he named and invented to protect Mongol identity and nomadic traditional culture against the totalitarian Sovietization campaign carried out in Mongolia throughout the twentieth century (Uranchimeg 2017). Although research on Mongolian Buddhist art is still in its infancy, no archival documentation has been [End Page 249] revealed to explain how an organized scuola model at Mongolian Buddhist sites actually worked. However, as Tsultem argued, the style, color spectrum and combinations, and high quality overall can be seen as hallmarks of a particular monastic site, the so-called school of Ikh Khüree. There is no doubt that the best artists and artisans of the time were brought to Ikh Khüree and that they and their works contributed to making this site the indisputable center of Mongolian Buddhism, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We also lack much information about it, as well as about artworks from other prominent sites in Mongol territories, including Inner and Outer Mongolia and monasteries founded and run by ethnic Mongol lamas in Eastern Tibet (especially Amdo). Nonetheless, Tsultem's books were important in establishing the unique contribution of Mongolian Buddhist art to the practice of Mongolian Buddhism and noting its differences from Tibetan Buddhism, with which it shares many common elements. This issue of Mongolia-Tibet commonality and divergences provided the focal point of later scholarly exhibitions and their subsequent publications by French and American art historians, such as Gilles Béguin, Patricia Berger, and Terese Bartholomew, in the 1990s (Béguin 1993; Berger and Bartholomew 1995). These scholars' main aim was to demonstrate the richness and the distinct features of Mongolian Buddhist art and further the knowledge of specific artworks, artists, styles, sites, and iconographies. Not only was their research critically broadened to include primary resources and comparative examples from Tibet and China, it also considered Mongolian art within the larger picture of the Buddhist diaspora and within the Qing multiethnic culture in particular. Besides Béguin's Trésors de Mongolie (Treasures of Mongolia, 1993) and Berger and Bartholomew's Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan (1995), in which numerous Buddhist artworks were described and annotated with several important articles by leading scholars of Mongolia and Buddhist art, not much art-historical scholarship has been published since 1995, with the exception of a substantial two-volume catalogue of masterpieces from several Mongolian museums (Fleming and Shastri 2011) and Isabelle Charleux's many publications, including books on Buddhist architecture in Inner Mongolia and on Mongol pilgrims at Wutaishan (Charleux 2006, 2015, 2016). This special issue of Cross-Currents aims to fill this gap by offering indepth analyses of particular topics, works of art, and sites, with each contribution [End Page 250] authored by an expert in the field and based on extensive research. The topics we have chosen reflect our methodological and analytical parameters. We aim to address the specific qualities of Mongolian Buddhist artworks by placing them in the historical, political, and social context of Inner Asia, and specifically the Tibet-Mongolia interface. Neither isolating Mongolia...

Prevalence of Self-Reported Food Allergy in Six Regions of Inner Mongolia, Northern China: A Population-Based Survey.

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of self-reported food allergy in 6 regions of Inner Mongolia, northern China.Material/MethodsA random cluster sampling population study using a field questionnaire was distributed to 4714 individuals in 6 regions within Inner Mongolia, northern China; the study included ethnic Mongol minorities and Chinese Han populations. The questionnaire obtained data on ethnicity, age, sex, level of education, income, socioeconomic status, rural versus urban location, medical and family history, and food allergy.ResultsThere were 4441 (73.5%) completed questionnaires. The prevalence of self-reported food allergy was 18.0% (15.2% men; 20.6% women) and was age-related, being significantly greater in children compared with adults (38.7% vs. 11.9%) (P<0.001). There was a significant difference in self-reported food allergy between rural and urban populations (14.6% vs. 21.4%) (P<0.001) and between Mongolian and Han populations (20.8% vs. 15.8%) (P<0.001). Socioeconomic status, higher education level, and increased family income were significantly correlated with the prevalence of food allergy (P<0.001). Participants with allergic diseases and atopic family history were at increased risk (OR>1, P<0.001). There were no significant associations between the prevalence of food allergy and birth history, infant feeding, and duration of breastfeeding.ConclusionsAn increase in the prevalence of self-reported food allergy was found in the Inner Mongolia region of northern China, which was greater in urban areas compared with rural areas.

Ethnic Identity, Modern Nationhood, and the Sino‐Mongolian Contention over the Legacy of Chinggis Khan

AbstractThe reason for China to enshrine Chinggis Khan as a national icon is threefold: to foster among the ethnic Mongols a sense of belonging to China by accommodating their cultural identity; to sustain the sense of belonging of Han Chinese to an uninterrupted national identity by depicting the Mongol Empire as a dynasty instead of an alien regime of China; and to justify the rule over other minority regions like Tibet whose unity with China proper was first achieved by the Mongol Empire. On Mongolia's part, the Khalkha‐centric ethnic identity and the status of Chinggis Khan as a symbol of national independence make it impossible for Mongolia to share Chinggis Khan with either their ethnic compatriots in Inner Mongolia or their neighbour China. Thus, both countries find themselves in an irreconcilable contention over the legacy of Chinggis Khan because of their respective national identities and domestic political agendas.

Nation-building, Ethnicity and Natural Resources

The Mongolian economy has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks to a mining sector based on abundant resources like coal, copper, and gold. The mining boom has been stimulated by Mongolia’s energy-hungry southern neighbour China, which plays a significant role, not only through importing natural resources but also through capital investment in the growing economy. In recent decades some inland port towns, such as Chehee/Shiveehüree and Ganchmod/Gashuunsukhait have grown up along the border between the two countries. Scenes of trucks lining up at customs posts to transport Mongolian coal to China are common. The trade in natural resources clearly has significance not only for the economy but also for nation-building and ethnicity construction. This paper examines the role of ethnic Mongols from China in the economic cooperation between the two countries. It will focus on the story of an ethnic Mongolian trucker, formerly a herder in western Inner Mongolia, discussing the ways in which he has experienced interactions with Chinese and Mongolian nationals, as he identifies himself as a Chinese citizen and an ethnic Mongol.

Voices of Older Ethnic Mongolian Women in Rural China: Economic and Social Contexts

China introduced economic reforms to move from a planned to a market economy in 1978. In 1947, the autonomous region of Mongolia, home to more than 5 million ethnic Mongols, was designated in North China. As one of the groups witnessing economic and social changes in China, older ethnic Mongolian women have benefitted in some ways. In this study, 6 ethnic Mongolian women, ages 45 to 78, were interviewed in 3 stages and asked about economic changes, cultural shifts in family role, self-concept, and access to social welfare. Economic reform may have given these women land to farm and graze, but it made limited social welfare provisions for them beyond their ability to work or for circumstances in which their children cannot, or will not, care for them. These findings have implications beyond this study since 45 million women age 65 and over live in rural areas and more than 3 million are ethnic minorities.

China's Policies for Minority Nationalities in Higher Education: Negotiating National Values and Ethnic Identities

China's Policies for Minority Nationalities in Higher Education: Negotiating National Values and Ethnic Identities

Grazing the body: violations of land and limb in Inner Mongolia

In this article I document changing patterns of exposure to chronic cold stress and to accidental injury and death from hypothermia in a modernizing pastoral society on degraded Chinese grasslands in the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. Conventions of local culture interact with the environment and with multiple social factors structured by a global political economy to increase susceptibility to these health risks among select male herders in ethnic Mongol communities. In particular, the privatization of rangeland usufruct over the last 15 years has aggravated ecosystem decline, thereby contributing to selective degeneration of both land (in the form of soil erosion) and body (in the form of limb deficiency, amputation, or death). By describing processes of such reciprocal degradation at the margins of a capitalist world system, I hope to promote exploratory social research into the corporeal ramifications of globalization, especially overt connections among changes in land use, health, and body idiom.

Patchwork, Pastoralists, and Perception: Dune Sand as a Valued Resource Among Herders of Inner Mongolia

Scholars have rarely reflected upon dune sand in any context other than that of environmental hazard. Yet recent anthropological research conducted among ethnic Mongol herders in the Keerqin Sandy Lands of Northeast China indicates that native inhabitants exhibit a surprising degree of tolerance, appreciation, and even preference for dune sand at specific spatio-temporal scales. Survey data, gathered primarily through the use of photographic prompts and pile sort exercises during household interviews, reveal that many residents even regard dune sand as the constituent element of a distinctive home environment and cherished way of life. This research underscores the relevance of perception to the policies and practices of human resource management. It also calls into question the authority with which officials and scholars in China and elsewhere indiscriminantly depreciate the various social utilities of dune sand in stock-herding populations.

The Barbed Walls of China: A Contemporary Grassland Drama

Ethnic mongol herders in north china have traditionally enjoyed a distinctive cultural landscape. In contrast to the way dense population and intensive agriculture strictly regimented land-use practices among Han Chinese, dispersed settlement and mobile stock-herding permitted Mongol society to operate and evolve under much different spatial and ecological horizons. Such deep-rooted orientations still resist facile alignment with alien standards now imposed by Beijing, disguised as they are in the language of economic development.