Ancestral Spirits Love Mining Sites
Ippei Shimamura
Inner Asia December 10, 2014 DOI: 10.1163/22105018-12340025 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Shamans and shamanic practitioners around the Oyu Tolgoi mining site in South Gobi, Mongolia |
| Key findings | Argues that the dramatic increase in shamans over the past decade, particularly in Ulaanbaatar and mining towns, is connected to social instability arising from Mongolia's rapid natural-resource-driven economic growth. The paper investigates who becomes a shaman, how they become one, and their activities amid socio-economic and environmental change around the Oyu Tolgoi mine. |
Abstract
In recent years, Mongolia has been enjoying rapid economic growth thanks to the development of its enormous natural resource deposits of copper, coal, gold, petroleum, and so on. However, due to the consequent social instability, the number of shamans has increased dramatically over the last 10 years, especially in the capital city Ulaanbaatar and mining towns. In this paper, I will explore shamanic activities around the Oyu Tolgoi mining site in South Gobi, examining what kinds of people are actually becoming shamans and how they become shamans, as well as what activities they are involved in with relevance to the dramatic socio-economic and environmental changes.