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Rural livelihoods worldwide are being transformed by the increasing financialization of agricultural production. Microlending and the deeper integration of production cycles in commodity markets are clearly at the vanguard of these transformations, but insurance and similar financial products have become a new frontier. Here, we explore index-based livestock insurance in Mongolia, where even in the face of disaster and worsening climatic conditions, herders have expressed limited interest in, and some outright rejection of, index insurance. Using a decade of ethnographic research, we explore herder perceptions of index insurance, its effects, and the contrast with local moral economies of mutual aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoral nomadic regional confederations, states, and empires have assumed a prominent place in the histories of the Eurasian steppe zone; however, anthropological theory devoted to understanding these political systems is still debated and relatively inchoate. A major question concerns the techniques of political integration that might have brought together dispersed mobile herders under the aegis of these complex, large-scale steppe polities. The first such polity in East Asia, the Xiongnu state (c. 250 BC–150 AD) of Mongolia, has been characterized as a polity built by mobile herders, but in fact the steppe populations of this period followed quite diverse lifeways. Most notably, the establishment of more permanent settlements for craft and agricultural production has complicated the typical narrative of the pastoral nomadic eastern steppe. This study considers ways to conceptualize these interesting variations in lifeway during the Xiongnu period and raises the question of how they might have promoted a novel Xiongnu political order. We analyze transformations within the Egiin Gol valley of northern Mongolia to better understand the organizational, productive, and settlement dynamics and present the first regional landscape perspective on the local transformations incurred by the creation of a Xiongnu agricultural hub. To understand these radical changes with respect to the long-term pastoral nomadic and hunting-gathering traditions of the valley's inhabitants, Salzman's flexibility-based model of multiresource pastoralism is of great use. Egiin Gol valley transformations indeed attest to a scale of political economy far beyond the bounds of this local area and suggest an innovative role for indigenous farming in Eurasian steppe polity building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite playing a key role in the history and prehistory of human societies in eastern Eurasia, the archaeological record of eastern Mongolia—particularly its rich tradition of rock art and petroglyphs—has been poorly integrated into western archaeological literature. We summarize a large body of recent scholarship from Mongolia’s three eastern provinces, Khentii, Sukhbaatar, and Dornod, to identify evidence of cultural activity in the region stretching from the Palaeolithic through the historic era. Rock art imagery from Eastern Mongolia reveals key insights into the region’s under-investigated archaeological record, including the co-occurrence of humans with megafauna such as the wooly rhinocerous and mammoth during the last Ice Age, occupation of the region by pre-pastoral cultures during the Holocene, and important pulses of activity associated with early pastoral cultures and empires during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Future analysis of these sites promises to help us understand the murkiest chapters in the region’s past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global drylands host more than USD 1 trillion in resource extraction investments, which serve to reconfigure communities and landscapes. In Mongolia's Gobi Desert mega-mining brings social challenges and environmental changes that question if nomadic herding and mining can co-exist. Whilst company and community conflict are common, nascent frameworks and mediation models suggest alternate ways to resolve the mining–community conundrum. Here we investigate environmental transformations that herders encounter in the presence of the Oyu Tolgoi mega-mine in Mongolia's Khanbogd soum (district). Using socio-economic and physical data collected through interviews, field studies and climate records, we assessed local engagement and adaptation to large-scale mining. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods enabled us to examine the implications of mining for herder lives and lands in an integrated way. This study presents a holistic assessment of the roles of herders, governments and mines in reshaping pastoralism. In our chosen case study, we find that—contrary to common narratives—mining and herding can, and do, coexist in Khanbogd soum, though ongoing challenges exist which deserve critical attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an insight into the framework employed to revisit Mongolian modern history. The term "environmental disaster" signifies the social process of entanglement in human-environmental interactions, emphasizing the failure of human actions. The Mongolian pastoral society is vulnerable to various kinds of disasters, among which the most problematic is dzud (cold and snow disaster), resulting in heavy damage to livestock. A severe disaster can be a cue to initiate social change, which emerges at the phase of resilience, as disasters may be recognized as a result of social instability. Although there were two severe dzud, the total number of livestock was relatively stable during the collectivization era (1959–1992). After the collapse of the socialist regime and the end of economic dependency on the USSR, the nation's total number of livestock increased until 1999. However, it saw a sharp decrease during the nationwide dzud (in 1999–2002), which continued for three years. This unprecedented dzud also brought about a change in pastoralism. Nowadays, even the people in pastoral lands depend on imported commodities associated with globalization. The rural landscape in Outer Mongolia has changed into two types: suburban areas, including areas around cities and near major roads; and remote areas, including typical Mongolian rural areas that do not have up-to-date socio-economic services. This distinction makes it a complex situation, especially when the questions of disasters arise for the Mongolian people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between the socialist industrialization of pastoralism in Mongolia and the government's perception of severe winter disasters (dzud), as well as the countermeasures taken against them. It aims to do so by focusing on pastoral production and dzud's impact under pastoral cooperatives (negdel). During the collective period from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, the government regarded dzud as the greatest threat to the livestock sector and explored ways to prevent and mitigate the ensuing damage. In theory, public regulation and support for dzud prevention and mitigation could decrease the frequency and severity of a large-scale dzud that may affect the entire country. However, dzud occurred occasionally at the province (aimag) or district (sum) level and had a serious impact on pastoral production in rural areas. In addition to the positive aspects of local society and larger structures, such as rescue and recovery, there was also a negative side to the industrialization of pastoralism, such as decreased resilience to dzud damage. Along with the expansion of pastoral production for domestic and foreign urban consumers, the consistent demand for individuals and pastoral cooperatives to achieve strict production quotas, regardless of any conditions, has exacerbated the damage from dzud. That is, the slump in rural pastoral production during the collective period may have been caused by the interaction between the damage from dzud and the problems concerning the labor production system that was revised in response to the challenges of industrialization under pastoral cooperatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used common pool resource experimental economic games to explore the effects of natural disasters on Mongolian pastoralists' common pool resource management. In this game, two anonymous players have access to a hypothetical envelope of money from which they can withdraw funds. Three versions of the game were used: a version in which the amount of money players can withdraw is constant, one where the amount of money could change by chance, and a version where the amount could change because of a hypothetical natural disaster (dzud in Mongolian). The results indicate that framing the game as a natural disaster had no framing effects on players' behavior in two regions of Mongolia: one that is highly susceptible to winter weather disasters and one that is less susceptible. These results suggest that cultural norms and values regarding common pool resource use might prevent over-extraction in rural Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mongolian nomadic herders traditionally pass on ecological knowledge intergenerationally, mainly within families. However, little is known about how current societal transformation processes may impact the application and transfer of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) amongst herders. Combining quantitative household survey data with qualitative interviews, we show that TEK is still widely applied amongst herders. Our data show that households living under conditions of greater societal transformation apply TEK more often in order to adapt to the situation than households under lower transformation pressure. High transformation pressure goes along with high human population and livestock density and thus competition for good pastureland. In addition, our results show that intragenerational knowledge transfer between families is gaining more importance nowadays. For Mongolia, we recommend facilitating access to and strengthening the exchange of TEK to prepare herders for the future due to the high level of uncertainty accompanying societal transformations., Competing Interests: Declarations Conflict of interest The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this paper we utilize a nationwide dataset on plot-level rangeland health, which has not been used in previous studies on the economic impact of rangeland degradation in Mongolia. Taking account of typical reverse causality between grass condition and pastoralists' activities, we adopt a 2SLS instrumental variable approach to identify the impact of rangeland degradation on pastoralists' farm performance and welfare. We find that rangeland degradation causes a significant decrease in livestock product sales, farm income, and total paid-out costs. But we do not observe a significant decrease in farm profit and total income of the households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this photo essay, I illustrate ethnographic encounters with dairying practices and dairy microbes in various regions of Mongolia. Drawing on fieldwork conducted during two consecutive summers, this essay focuses on the sociocultural role of microbial starter cultures in producing diverse dairy products (such as fermented mare’s milk) and in cross-generational knowledge transfer. The Mongolian word for starter culture is khöröngö, which also means capital and heritage. In this context, a sociocultural anthropological approach sheds new light on starter cultures as mobile entities of value across space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoralists in Western Mongolia face a range of challenges during their annual grazing cycle due to the simultaneous but conflicting needs for secure allocation rules and a high degree of flexibility. In this paper, I analyze the seasonal arrangements and corresponding strategies that households adopt to deal with unpredictable environmental conditions and the demands of supplying livestock with sufficient forage throughout the year. In contrast to game theory simulations, I argue that dilemmas are: a) often not a question of cooperating or not, but form continua of more or less; and b) socially embedded as people operate in a multitude of relationships that influence their decision-making. Therefore, sharing information in a manner that prioritizes the requirements of individual households while not jeopardizing social reputation is crucially important. Rhetorical skills play an important role in this regard, but there are also situations when herders blatantly ignore state law or local institutional arrangements and risk confrontation to ensure the survival of livestock leading to a situation where free-riding may at times become the dominant strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mongolians have long known of the association between marmots and the plague. We examine their understanding of the marmot not only as a biological species that can harbour the plague, but also from a cosmological perspective as a chimerical being with potential punishment on hunters who have transgressed ancient taboos. To do so we deconstruct the multiple image of the chimerical marmot in legends, stories, and beliefs. Many Mongolians believe that if the marmot is over-exploited and the population decimated through excessive hunting, hunting households may be punished with infections of the plague. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounts of Mongol mountain sacrifices (ovoo takhilga) variously focus on transactional offerings that elicit benefits from local spirits and on the patron-like position held by spirits towards those who supplicate them. In contrast this article explores how, in such ceremonies, human–spirit relations are shaped through the enactment of emotions: in this context, happiness. Bringing classic literature on sacrifice into dialogue with recent studies of happiness as a social phenomenon, we argue that the generation of happiness (bayarluulakh; bayasgakh) in local spirits is of great importance in mediating the distance between spirits and their human neighbours. This mediation allows for the shaping of optimal post-sacrificial relations between these two categories of being. Our argument is made through an analysis of ethnographic and linguistic data relating to an ovoo takhilga in a Khalkha area of central Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on the origins of domesticated herd animals and bronze metallurgy in China suggests that the Ejiin gol in western China was a primary conduit of trade between northern pastoralists and southern agriculturalists (Jaang, 2015). It is within the context of long-distance trade in luxury goods that we see the shift from isolated populations of pastoralists in the mountains of western Mongolia to the widespread adoption of pastoralist cultural traditions. Based on evidence of interaction between Gobi Desert groups and agrarian villages to the south, we see this desert region as the geographic core of cultural transformations among indigenous populations, and at the forefront of a third stage of advance in the spread of East Asian pastoralism. Evidence presented here for increased trade in luxury goods at the beginning of the second millennium BC, when production was at its height, combined with the rapid pace of transformations in burial culture during the mid-second millennium BC suggests that the movement of goods held extreme significance for the spread of pastoralism. Therefore, the role that Gobi Desert groups played in the formation of early trade networks is vital for understanding the spread of pastoralism in Mongolia. Here, we present new evidence for stone bead production and dairying in the Gobi Desert, and discuss the full range of evidence for the role of Gobi Desert groups in emerging long-distance trade networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as cell phones, WIFI connections, and social media has broadly changed communication norms amongst mobile pastoralists. Scholars and development organisations have reported on the end results of digital tools, for example by examining the ability of governments and development organisations to send early-warning weather reports through enhanced cellular access; the use of SMS to engage in deliberative polling; and the use of WIFI connections to provide banking services. However, researchers have not yet fully addressed how these tools are changing the communicative norms and ethnographic research methods used between researchers and mobile pastoralists. These changing communicative norms embed relations that inform academic understanding of the opportunities that arise from the interplay of complex forms of social and economic variability as experienced by herders. This paper draws from the fields of Communication and Anthropology to understand how these same ICTs have changed the complex communication between herders and researchers through the establishment of new communicative networks. I ask how new communicative networks impact on both existing and emerging ethnographic research practices and how the emergent 'digital field' of research might open space for new communicative networks and research projects. Then, I propose that digital ethnography may be one way in which both herders and researchers can respond to variability while establishing research projects wherein herders are recognised both as participants in a research project and as co-producers of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent anthropology reflects on how scales are contested and contingent products of heterogeneous social interactions, not the 'ontological givens' (sensu Carr and Lempert) described in earlier scholarship. This article examines the importance of number in the formation of scales of measurement. It does so regarding a pastoral Mongolian scale of livestock-counting based on the number ten thousand, or tüm[en]: a qualitative-cum-quantitative term suggesting plenty and abundance. Drawing on literature on the anthropology of number, and bringing it into dialogue with studies of scale and ideology, this article argues that number is not just a means for calibrating pre-existing scales. Instead, as something endowed with particular qualities and conceptual stability, number can be mobilized to produce ideologically charged scales of measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research examines herder livelihoods strategies in a region of the South Gobi desert that is heavily affected by both formal and informal/illegal mining and is exposed to natural hazards such as dzud (lethally severe winters) and drought. The term 'herder' encompasses a wide range of animal-related activities and households correspondingly utilize a complex range of strategies to respond to environmental, political, and socioeconomic conditions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with local herders as well as with individuals who had abandoned herding practices. We discuss how climatic factors such as dzud and drought can affect herders' livelihood decision-making, including engaging in informal/illegal mining, becoming a contracted herder or opening a small business in settlements. We also demonstrate that both social aspirations and climate-related economic vulnerability play a role in the decision to pursue alternative livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Local spatial choices and their impact on mobility networks are seldom considered in archaeology. • A mapping strategy for the Gobi Altai Mountains' palimpsest landscapes of movement is presented. • The method encompasses remote sensing, a rescaling of the research area, and a 'linear' survey. • Late Prehistoric mounds, 'modern' springs, pastoral campsites, and paths are analysed. • The study illuminates connections between local and long-distance mobility networks over time. The significance of local spatial choices and memory and their impact on mobility networks is scarcely recognised in Mongolian archaeology. Here, we present a mapping strategy aimed at disentangling the landscapes of movement and investigating the materiality that accumulated in the palimpsest of the Ikh Bogd Uul Mountain (Bayankhongor, Mongolia). Based on an integrated and diachronic approach, our analysis encompasses a variety of strategies and sources: satellite imagery and historical cartography, a rescaling of the research area and path-centered fieldwork, which we conceptualize as 'linear' survey. We document Late Prehistoric mounds as well as 'modern' springs, pastoral campsites, and paths. They are interpreted as landscape-objects associated with persistent mobility patterns and the construction of local knowledge and identity – in the sense of a nutag or homeland. This study thus contributes to expanding the archaeological information available for a remote and scarcely investigated area and enriching the archaeological approach to a complex and highly mobile context over time. It also offers new insights into how ancient mobility contributed to shaping the local landscapes of movement, both in terms of seasonal pastoral shifts and long-distance networks in the Mongolian and Central Eurasian Late Prehistory and afterwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a historical overview of the administration of mobile pastoralism in Mongolia, with a focus on the period from 1924 to the early 2010s. The historical links between pastoralist land use and governance administrative structures provides a context in which to better understand changing legal frameworks in Mongolia today. Common development discourses and research on contemporary pastoralism tend to overlook the many ways in which herders participate in local governance institutions. An aim of the article is to demonstrate that both environmental and political conditions have shaped the organisation of pastoralism over time. The legacy of these histories and how they are enacted today should be a consideration in the planning and design of rural development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I use absence as a lens to explore social change and masculinity in rural Mongolia, with a focus on household splitting during winter months. Since the breakdown in state-sponsored dormitory systems, many mobile pastoralists split their households to accommodate children during the school year. This results in women moving to settled centres while men remain in pastures to care for livestock. In critical reflections on rural work, both male and female herders have underscored concerns around the absence of women in rural homes. In Mongolia, absence has different implications for men and women, gendered division of labour and social roles, which are tied to household economies and pastoralist work practices. Drawing from ethnographic field research, the cases contribute to understandings of the co-constitutive nature of space and society, and attempts to dislodge ideas about the fixed nature of households in rural Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role of kinship in herder claims for winter shelter ownership in rural Mongolia, where pastureland is currently designated as state-owned property in the national constitution. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted amongst mobile pastoralist households, this article demonstrates how contemporary winter pasture rights take shape within a locus of political relations structured by custodial land-use practices. It highlights the ways that herders negotiate for territorial rights through appeals to established regional families and are how these appeals are mediated by local government administration. From this analysis, I argue that concepts of kinship in the political economy of pastoralism should be re-examined in light of current debates around land-tenure legislation in Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary A critique of property theory points to the limitations of policies that seek to specify property rights, to strengthen or to re-establish common property institutions. Drawing on property theory and its critique, this paper presents a detailed case study of two waves of reform that attempted to reorganize property relations in Mongolia. Despite their analytical sophistication, property theories face particular challenges when translated into policy prescriptions. Reforms need to build on a broader understanding of the practices and mechanisms involved in governing resources, thereby providing a means to improve resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The compound-specific δ13C values of n -alkanes from pastoralist winter campsites in Mongolia have great potential to reconstruct dietary seasonality of livestock and local vegetation. We analysed leaf wax n -alkanes and their carbon isotope ratios in common fodder plants (Artemisia mongolica , Chenopodium album , Elymus dahuricus , Elymus sibiricus and Stipa sibirica) fed to domesticates during the winter months, and also in topsoils (0–8 cm) from four livestock corrals in northern and southern Mongolia. n -Alkanes identified in fresh plant parts reflect signatures with mean δ13C stable isotope values of individual n -alkanes typical for C 3 plants (−34.1‰). Plants from forest- and desert-steppe exhibit similar mean n -alkane δ13C values but significantly wider isotopic variation in the desert steppe flora. The non-anthropogenic control samples exhibit δ13C mean values significantly higher from that of dung deposits and fresh plants for the same regions. Our data support previous research that n -alkanes profiles and their carbon isotopic values vary depending on the local vegetation and environment, while simultaneously demonstrating how anthropogenic activity, such as corralling of livestock, is recorded in the n -alkane of domesticates dung validating the use of biomarker studies in pastoralist archaeological contexts for distinguishing seasonal foddering, local environmental data and to an extent grazing habitats. •Anthropogenic activity (i.e. corralling of livestock) is recorded in the n-alkanes of animal dung. •n-Alkanes identified in fresh plant parts and dung reflect signatures for vascular C3 plants. •Herbivore dung from winter camps reflects ingestion of plant fodder collected in summer. •n-Alkane 13C values from penning deposits are depleted regarding those of non-anthropic deposits. •Pastoralist grazing habitats (forest and desert) are detected through a biomarker approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary We investigated the role of formal community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in responding and adapting to the 2009–10 winter weather disaster in Mongolia, by comparing herders’ adaptation strategies and adaptive capacity in communities with and without formal CBNRM. Livestock mobility and forage and hay storage were the most important strategies for limiting livestock loss, but these depended on resource pooling and exchange strategies. CBNRM herders demonstrated greater adaptive capacity than non-CBNRM herders, due to greater knowledge exchange, information access, linking social capital, and proactive behavior. Social factors mediate and institutional constraints limit the implementation of adaptive strategies in Mongolia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alicia Campi and her Mongolian co-author Baasan reconstruct a largely unknown historical record indicating that relations between Mongolia and the U.S. might have been established a century ago, had opportunities not been missed and the 'China question' not predominated. Ambassador Jonathan Addleton provides an account of the official establishment of U.S.-Mongolian diplomatic relations in January 1987, as perestroika was already eating away at the foundations of the first 'people's republic', and shows how freedom and democracy have flourished there in the era of globalisation. Dierkes and his contributors indicate some of the challenges Mongolians face in adapting the traditional and the modern to their new society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article links ecological, social, and cultural data to analyze relationships between wolves and herders in a pastoral setting, the Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Dornogobi Aimag, Mongolia, an area representative of the broader Gobi-Steppe ecosystem in northern Asia. This article is specifically interested in understanding the contemporary lifestyles of herders in this area, their relationships with wolves, and the perceived and actual risks posed by wolves to both livestock and humans. Data show that herders differed in their views of and actions toward wolves based mainly on the size of herds they managed. But, their cultural stories continue to reflect traditional values and images of wolves and herders. This research argues for an appreciation of cultural contexts in conservation planning, especially in transitional societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

How does subjective well-being depend on the fate of others when a covariate shock strikes? We address this question by providing novel evidence on the impact of shock-induced damages experienced by individuals and their reference group on life satisfaction. We do so by examining the case of pastoralists in Mongolia, who faced a once-in-50-years winter disaster. Our identification strategy exploits the quasi-experimental nature of the extreme event. The empirical analysis builds on a detailed household panel survey, complemented with aggregated climate data and historic livestock census data. Results show that exposure to the extreme event significantly and strongly reduces subjective well-being even 4–5 years after the event occurred. The negative shock impact is amplified by observing peers doing economically worse. Similarly, exposure to the extreme event increases the perceived inequality among households with assets at risk. We argue that the event increased sectoral disparities between pastoralists and those households not engaged in agriculture. • We analyze the effect of asset losses caused by an extreme weather event on individuals' subjective well-being. • The analysis exploits exogenous variation in the intensity of an extreme winter event in Mongolia. • Experiencing the extreme weather event causes a reduction in subjective well-being among individuals with assets at risk. • The negative shock impact is amplified by observing peers doing economically worse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mongolian plateau in East Asia is part of a new hotspot of land cover change. Recent human activity and natural forces have degraded grasslands in northern China with the southern Mongolia steppe similarly vulnerable. Investigating vegetation patterns at piospheres (the area around water points) can identify herder influence on pasture conditions. Through fieldwork and remote sensing this paper examines plant density and species richness at water sources to establish land cover patterns in two Mongolian provinces where overgrazing is thought to be the major cause of degradation. In contrast to standard piosphere patterns, vegetation was greater near water points and decreased with distance. This suggests that livestock are not concentrated at water points in Mongolia and that piosphere dynamics are more influenced by precipitation, edaphic factors and potential distinctive processes in cold drylands. It implies that pastoralism, with mobile livestock management, is a suitable adaptive strategy to the low forage capacity of steppe grasslands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, postsocialist rural contexts have afforded commons scholars particularly fertile ground for examination of institutional change and evolution under new modes of governance. In Mongolia, as elsewhere, such transformations have been characterized by the erosion of state control and de facto or de jure devolution of land and resource rights. Particularly since 2000, policy and practice in Mongolia have reflected state and donor concerns with the formation of herders’ groups and the implementation of group tenure solutions in pursuit of environmental sustainability. Drawing on data sets from the Gobi region, this article examines the nature, impact and limitations of recent state-, donor-, and community-led tenure reforms and social innovations with respect to land rights and practice, including with regard to mining-related land alienation. The article provides a critical analysis of recent, complex institutional innovations in Mongolia and their role in shaping contemporary commons management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International interest in the prehistory and archaeology of the Eurasian steppes and Mongolia has increased dramatically since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This article surveys important new evidence and interpretations that have emerged from several collaborative projects in the past two decades. A particular emphasis is placed on issues that are crucial to regional studies in the steppe ecological zone; however, it also is suggested that steppe prehistory must come to play a more significant role in developing more comprehensive understandings of world prehistory. Key developments connected with the steppe include the diffusion of anatomically modern humans, horse domestication, spoke-wheeled chariot and cavalry warfare, early metal production and trade, Indo-European languages, and the rise of nomadic states and empires. In addition to these important issues, thoughts are offered on some of the current challenges that face archaeological scholarship in this region of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predictions of climate change and its impacts are highly uncertain at regional and local levels. Downscaled models often operate with a too coarse scale and look at standard parameters that may be irrelevant to resource-dependent people. This article argues that a more robust analysis and prediction of climate change at local levels can be inferred from the integration of local people's observation of change with meteorological records and models. The example proposed here is the analysis of climate change in the desert-steppe region of Mongolia. While regional models and local analyses agree that Mongolia has become warmer, predictions either ignore or are contradictory about the changes in precipitations and sand storms. The Mongolian pastoral nomads on the other hand identify longer and more intense droughts and sand storms as the most important recent climatic changes, relevant to their livelihoods. In addition, they record detailed changes in the precipitations regime. Thus, they are unequivocal that rains have become patchy –‘silk embroidery rains’ – (forcing pastoralists to move farther and more frequently), more intense (thus less effective due to runoff) and that summer rains are delayed (reducing the growing season). The observations of the pastoralists can only partly be investigated in light of meteorological records due to different parameters observed by the two systems. Nevertheless, additional evidence derived from the analysis of meteorological records resonates with the perceptions of the herders and adds elements for further investigation. This combined evidence suggests that due to a southern shift of the East Asian Monsoon, rains in southern Mongolia rely on re-circulated local moisture, leading to large-scale droughts and in turn more frequent sand storms. The analysis provided herein shows that combining the two knowledge systems (local people's observations and climatology) holds the potential to provide more reliant and relevant investigations of climate change and allow for better planned adaptations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The 2010 extreme winter disaster (dzud) in Mongolia has lead to great livestock mortality (around 20 per cent of the national herd), the loss of pastoral livelihoods and rural displacement and affected 28 per cent of the country's population. Whilst environmental conditions were the immediate cause, contributory factors include a changing climate, current herding practices and weak governance. The severity of the event points out herding vulnerability, a lack of dzud preparedness and climate's disruptive impact on steppe pastoralism. This article examines the intertwined natural and human processes that shaped the dzud and the implications for pastoralism in Mongolia. Learning from the 2010 event is critical to reduce disaster risk and hazard impact on steppe livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review covers two major causes of change in pastoral systems. First is fragmentation, the dissection of a natural system into spatially isolated parts, which is caused by a number of socioeconomic factors such as changes in land tenure, agriculture, sedentarization, and institutions. Second is climate change and climate variability, which are expected to alter dry and semiarid grasslands now and into the future. Details of these changes are described using examples from Africa and Mongolia. An adaptation framework is used to place global change in context. Although pastoral systems are clearly under numerous constraints and risks have intensified, pastoralists are adapting and trying to remain flexible. It is too early to ask if the responses are enough, given the magnitude and number of changes faced by pastoralists today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Current state and development-led land reform agendas encompass formal recognition of customary rights to an historically unprecedented degree. Through analysis of historical transformations in customary tenure amongst Mongolia’s herders, this paper maps the dynamic interplay between state influences, customary rights and practice. It questions unrealistic dichotomies between “state” and “custom” in derivation of rights, though examining process of “institutional bricolage” at four case study sites. Results indicate the limitations of both state and particular manifestations of community-led land reform in promoting desirable or predictable trajectories of change, and the centrality of local reworkings of particular interventions in shaping actual practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The desert-steppe region of southern Mongolia is susceptible to drought and extreme winter weather ( dzud) that in combination form Mongolia’s worst natural hazard. Low precipitation and high climatic variability in this dryland environment impact the landscape and affect pastoralism, the dominant rural lifestyle. Using the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI), this paper identifies drought occurrence in South Gobi Province, Mongolia. It then examines the relationship of drought with climate factors, interaction with vegetation (derived from Normalised Difference Vegetation Index - NDVI - data), and local human and livestock populations, and the dzuds of 1999–2001. Results show that drought is recurrent in the region, reaching extreme intensity most recently in 2005–2006. In contrast with the prevailing concept of drought impacting dzuds, the study did not find a connection between drought and dzud in South Gobi Province. Though repeated events, these natural hazards occur independently in the region. Climatic variables show increasing temperatures (>1°C), fluctuating precipitation patterns and a decline in vegetation cover. The principal long-term correlation of drought is with human population rather than natural factors, dzud or livestock numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: Changing environmental, economic, and political conditions since 1990 have impacted Mongolian pastoralism. Privatization of livestock, reduced government support, and immediate livelihood needs have affected traditional herding practices and human-environment dynamics. This study examined herder perceptions of major challenges facing pastoralism today. Mongolian herders identified ongoing ecological processes as dominating daily life and actions. Results established that environmental conditions, particularly water resources and pasture quality, were paramount concerns. Transformation to a market economy coupled with limited state assistance over the last 15 years has decreased rural water supplies, reduced mobility, and increased overgrazing, leading to land degradation. Herders specified water availability, variable precipitation, insect invasion, adequate pasture, and extreme winters as the primary pastoral challenges. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It is not scientific to manage grasslands as farmland and manage nomads as farmers. We report evidence from Inner Mongolia that privatization of grassland use rights has led to large-scale wire fencing, grassland conversion to farming, excessive livestock stocking, and crises in grassland ecology, herders' living conditions and the Mongolian nomadic culture. The paper concludes that the ecological and cultural function of nomadism is non-substitutable from the perspectives of ecological security and cultural inheritance. The authors suggest that we should abolish private grassland use rights, tear down wire fencing, abolish set stocking rates and establish a legal nomad administrative licensing system to resume nomadism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Otor is a traditional mobility strategy developed by Mongolian herders to cope with their highly variable and uncertain environment. The Livestock and Rangeland Double-Contract Responsibility System (LRDCRS) implemented in pastoral Inner Mongolia (People's Republic of China during the mid-1980s) has encouraged a settled mode of livestock husbandry within a delimited household rangeland area, depending primarily on fenced pastures. Practical results from the past 20 years indicate that this settled pattern can not completely replace the traditional herd mobility strategy that was anticipated by LRDCRS. A case study from a village in Xilingol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia explores the reasons why herders insist on otor. The paper evaluates the impact of changes in rangeland tenure and social relationships brought by LRDCRS on the herders' ability to access key resources in adverse weather. It is found that otor movement provides herders with the means to maintain livestock husbandry in highly variable and uncertain arid and semi-arid environments. Rangeland semi-privatization results in a loss of de facto guarantee of access to key resources. Faced with barriers to accessing resources, reciprocal bonds are weakened for conducting otor. As a result both sustainable pastoral livelihoods and sustainable use of rangelands are doomed to suffer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoralism in Mongolia has increasingly been portrayed by two powerful and mutually reinforcing discourses. First, the neo-liberal discourse enthusiastically embraced and reproduced by most of the Mongolian political elite constructs pastoralism as backward and unproductive, in need of modernization, and sedentarization. Second, an increasingly powerful essentialist discourse argues for the preservation of 'traditional' Mongolian pastoralism. By presenting a stereotypical image of 'the nomadic culture' on the brink of extinction, outsiders (e.g. NGOs, the tourist industry) become stakeholders in the debate on Mongolian identity and the country's development path. They also help (unwillingly perhaps) reinforce the image of the pastoralist as obsolete and 'timeless'. The article shows that the realities of Mongolian pastoralists lie beyond these two constructs. The pastoralists have taken steps toward adapting to the new socio-economic realities: they use veterinary services, try to use the market system and social services. Yet their adaptive capacity is severely limited by unfavourable social and economic circumstance endorsed by the State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]