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The distinguished Mongolian scholar Urgunge Onon’s reminiscences offer a rare insight into the culture and lifestyle of a Daur Mongol in the first half of the twentieth century. Covering the years from his youth to middle age, the author offers a wide spectrum of experiences from a disappearing world, including everyday family life, shamanist customs, the role of the bonesetter, wolf hunting, falconry, folklore and some of the great legends of the past, including the story of ‘The Black Old Man’. He also recalls at length how he was kidnapped and held to ransom, his association with Prince Demchügdongrob and Mongolia’s fight for independence, as well as his relationship with the Jap...
There has long been a need for a scholarly English edition of the great 13th century historical epic, The Secret History of the Mongols, the only surviving Mongol source about the empire. The book is mainly about the life and the career of Chinggis Khan, his ancestors and his rise to power. Chinggis Khan was not only a military genius, but also a great statesman and diplomat. Through a combination of armed force and diplomacy, he managed to merge the complex system of alliances which existed between diverse tribes into a powerful confederacy that swept across most of Eurasia, starting in 1219. Urgunge Onon's fresh translation brings out the excitement of this epic with its wide-ranging commentaries on military and social conditions, religion and philosophy, while remaining faithful to the original text. This fully annotated edition is prefaced by a 36 page introduction setting the work in its cultural and historical context.
This fresh translation of one of the only surviving Mongol sources about the Mongol empire, brings out the excitement of this epic with its wide-ranging commentaries on military and social conditions, religion and philosophy, while remaining faithful to the original text.
The History was written in the 13th Century. It deals briefly with the ancestors and successor (Ögödei, reign 1228-1241) of Chinggis Khan and in more detail with the life of Chinggis Khan, who was founder of the Mongol Empire. The empire during Khubilai Khan's reign was expanded from Mongolia and China to the western edge of Russia. It was the most extensive empire ever established on horseback (about 700 years later, the British empire was built on ships). The History has been translated into many foreign languages: Hungarian, Turkish, Polish, Chinese, Russian, French, German, Japanese and English, but the integral text has never before been translated by a native Mongol scholar, using ma...
Shamans and Elders is a major study of Mongolian shamanism and society, past and present. It presents a wealth of new information, and offers a fresh understanding of the widespread phenomenon of shamanism. This unique and detailed analysis of a fascinating subject combines a discussion of Urgunge Onon's memories of shamanism with Caroline Humphrey's text- and field-based analytical knowledge of Central and North Asian shamanism. It covers among other things: notions of gender in Mongolian society, including male and female traditions in ritual, female shamans, and goddess worship; attitudes to death, and funeral rituals; the importance of old men and of ancestors; and Daur notions of landscape within their direct experience (the importance of the sky, of the mountains, of the forest, rivers, etc.) and beyond. In covering these diverse areas, the authors depart from the general cultural models usually offered in discussions of shamanism, providing a new vision of 'shamanism' as made up of fragmentary, non-formularized parts. It presents much-needed insight on a little-known world, and points to an original new way of doing anthropology.
An annotated translation of the third volume of the detailed, comprehensive history of the Mongolian People’s Republic.
This is an essential tribute to the vitality and breadth of shamanic tradition both amongst the most distant tribes of America and Asia, and within seemingly ordinary aspects of modern western culture.
The military might, tactics, and philosophy of Khan is explored in this “fine read” and “useful source for Mongolian . . . and medieval studies in general” (De Re Militari). As a soldier, general, statesman, and empire-builder, Genghis Khan is a near-mythical figure. His remarkable achievements and his ruthless methods have given rise to a monstrous reputation. But who was the man behind the legend? As historian Chris Peers shows in this concise and authoritative study, Genghis Khan possessed exceptional gifts as a leader and manager of men—ranking among the greatest military commanders in history. But he can only be properly understood in terms of the Mongol society and traditions...
Magic is arguably the least understood subject in anthropology today. Exotic and fascinating, it offers us a glimpse into another world but it also threatens to undermine the foundations of anthropology due to its supposed irrational and non-scientific nature. Magic has thus often been 'explained away' by social or psychological reduction. The Anthropology of Magic redresses the balance and brings magic, as an aspect of consciousness, into focus through the use of classic texts and cutting-edge research. Suitable for student and scholar alike, The Anthropology of Magic updates a classical anthropological debate concerning the nature of human experience. A key theme is that human beings everywhere have the potential for magical consciousness. Taking a new approach to some perennial topics in anthropology - such as shamanism, mythology, witchcraft and healing - the book raises crucial theoretical and methodological issues to provide the reader with an engaging and critical understanding of the dynamics of magic.Join the live discussion on Facebook!