Sacred land cairns and shamanic burial sites on the Sino-Russo-Mongolian borderlands
Aurore Dumont
Asian Ethnicity March 20, 2023 DOI: 10.1080/14631369.2023.2190875 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Minority groups on the Chinese side of the Sino-Russo-Mongolian borderland |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Key points | Argues that constructing and worshipping sacred cairns (oboo) and shamanic burial sites (shindan) is constitutive of practices through which borderland minority groups negotiate ethnic and clan belonging. Each monument links a community to its native land (nutag) and acts as an alternative territorial and ethnic marker in the multiethnic Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT This contribution explores the ways the different ‘minority’ groups inhabiting the Chinese side of the Sino-Russo-Mongolian borderland have negotiated their ethnic and clan belonging through the construction and worship of sacred cairns (oboo) and shamanic burial sites (shindan) throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Following the emic representation of oboo and shindan as powerful monuments allowing for the symbolic reproduction of life, the article examines how each monument connects a group of people to their native land (nutag) and how it represents an alternative territorial and ethnic marker in the most multiethnic area of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It will show that the construction and worship of these holy cairns and sites is constitutive of practices that represent a certain idea of the ethnic group as a specific social entity in the borderlands.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |