SAN6 Michaelmas

Lecture 1 – Idioms for Transition

 Importance of morality & cosmology in daily life of Mongolians – considering distinctly

anthropological perspectives on subject matter that might broadly be glossed as ‘pol-econ’;
anthropology is best when it’s on the front foot – lots of other disciplines studying pol econ,
but anthropology shouldn’t be lab for testing concepts/theories of other disciplines – the
endless anthropological undercutting of the universal applicability of western theories might
not have an impact on those in power – anthropology should provide alternative concepts &
empower its own capacity to generate answers & produce positive arguments, as much as it
deconstructs – look up ‘speculative realism’, philosophical trend
o We shouldn’t simply deploy, relativize & provide empirical evidence for theories of
other disciplines, but produce our own
 Anthropological capacity to blur boundaries (kinship, religion, econ, pol etc.), but in looking
at these things separately, it can provide a particular lens on social life – acknowledge
connection btw them & uses cosmology as a way to presuppose links, but how? Think about
connection & causation btw pol, econ & social at abstract level, but w concrete case studies
o Think about anthropological politics, as opposed to anthropology of the political
 Mongolian shamanic nationalistic hip hop is an example of link btw cosmology & pol; deals
w ideas of corruption & social change, using idiom of spirits: “don’t ask irresponsible people,
ask the few really knowledgeable people, don’t ask the officials”

Cosmology

 Theories of the cosmos – much more popular in pre-1980s anthropology, experiencing mini-
rebirth now – broadest frame we can give to ourselves is the universe, so anthropology of
cosmos = comparative examination of how people conceive of the forces & relations of
causation that form the world & their experiences of it – doesn’t imply a singular cosmology
inherent to particular settings, but examines cosmologies that emerge & draw upon
divergent projects in any given contexts – cosmological forms can be seen as windows into
localised instances of social/pol/econ transformations, based on shared assumptions

Mongolia

 After independence from Qing dynasty, Mongolia became heavily dependent on Russia;
equivalent purges in Mongolia to 1930s Stalinist ones, but vs Buddhists – also Mongolia
transitioned to demo after collapse of USSR in 1990, elected communist govt
 IMF structural adjustment progs caused econ crisis, pushing people into poverty & return to
mobile pastoralism, herding practices – during socialism, lots of herders were centralised
into state farms & sedentarised, but took it up again in 1990s – also resurgence in practice of
shamanism which had been repressed under socialism, Mongolia is officially Buddhist but
references to Shamanism dating back as far as Chinggis Khan
o Shaman = person who has relationship w spirits, which possess the body of the
shaman & allow him to produce advice – resurgence of shamanism & pol/econ shifts
in Mongolia = majority of ethnography until about 2012

Ethnographies of Mongolian shamanism

 Manduhai Buyandelger – influential anthropologist, worked in far east of Mongolia among

Buriyat (?) Mongols – shamanic spirits were forgotten during socialism but returned at turn
of 21st C, transition to demo & shock therapy of IMF econ → major econ crisis, heightened

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for Buriyat Mongols by their pol/econ marginalisation as an ethnic minority → pol & econ
uncertainty, could suggest shamanism helps to ease this & provide psychological security
o But more complex – people did go to shamans to try to counter uncertainty, but
historical rupture of absence of shamans during socialism → scepticism of
authenticity of shamans, people saw them as charlatans there to make money →
paradoxically led to increase in numbers of shamans, as people sought out other
shamans to validate/disprove the words of ones they’d been to – institution of
shamanism isn’t doubted, just individuals
o Revival of one cosmological form (shamanism) is far from return to trad – engages w
& builds on hyper-modern pol-econ forms that can be glossed as neoliberal (in this
case, IMF is almost textbook neoliberal) – links to music video as shamanism is
modernity, not reacting against modernity, but can provide window into the past
 Buyandelger suggests that shamanism is way of dealing w violence of Russian colonial state
& pol repression during socialism, emerges from this violent history – shamanism in its
present form can illuminate pol/econ transitions, b/c it is an idiom for pol/econ change, it
engages w capitalist relations but is essentially a detached comment upon it – relationship
btw pol econ & cosmology seems a bit one way, as shamanism & cosmology is all about pol
but we assume that this is present, post-socialist & neoliberal, rather than anything else
 Ippei Shimamura – describes cosmological underpinnings of shamanism, same district as
Buyandelger, discusses context of neoliberal uncertainty in post-socialism – concern at the
time w ‘pure-bloodedness’, which was reaction to discourses of pure bloodedness among
ethnic majority – socialism destroyed genealogies of families b/c they saw it as maintaining
tribal allegiances, so identifying one’s origins could help to correct this
o Identifying w shamanic ancestors could help to correct problematic ‘mixed’ ethnic
identity of shamans – so shamanism is an idiom of neoliberalism, but also tool for
navigating it & constructing particular form of ethnic identity that is vital in new
state – shamanism is about modernity in Mongolia
 Laetitia Merli – shamanism in early 2000s is being reinvented & institutionalised as a natl.
religion, can be seen as indigenous religion in a way that Buddhism cannot so can be drawn
on as transitional & nation-building – w/o sense of communist nation striving towards s/t,
Mongolia needed resource for nationalism & shamanism provides that
o Concept of hemor (?) means vitality, kind of energy within people that can be
harnessed from diff things to improve your own life & wealth – was previously an
individual concept, so people would go to shamans to increase their vitality, but has
undergone a scale change, so many shamans now work to protect vitality of nation;
accompanied by more references to Chinggis Khan & Mongol Empire as ‘golden age’
o Shamanism erupts as response to ultra-modern crisis & used for nation building
 Judith Hangartner – seems to superficially contradict Merli’s claim that shamanism provides
a unifying role, but ultimately based on same assumptions – Hangartner shows how
shamanism associated w specific ethnic groups e.g. Dachad (?) minority in north Mongolia,
constructed as ‘wild’ & ‘isolated’, which is often linked to being seen as powerful – but she
demonstrates origin of status of marginality e.g. Soviet ethnographers under socialism found
presence of shamanism in 1960s & 70s, although it was an officially atheist country
o So, presence of Shamanism was essential to communist state b/c it allowed them to
construct Dachad as a more primitive form, further back along the trajectory to
socialism, in contrast to ethnic majority Mongols – suggests shamanism is as much
about ethnic division as unity
o Also suggests shamanism is acting against capitalism & hand of the market

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 Seems to be opposition, but both authors suggest shamanism provides a lens for pol-econ in
exact same way, as it is an eruption from neoliberal uncertainty, post-socialism, nation
building & need for ethnic identities – cosmology is reflecting & emerging from pol-econ
processes, whether it supports or resists it
 Since about 2010, mining investments from foreign companies → econ explosion in
Mongolia, so many concerns w govt corruption & resources being taken by foreign (GB,
Chinese & Australian) companies, wrong people benefiting from it
o Increase in number of snake & vulture designs in shamanic outfits – rather than
symbolising things, Mongolians say these do things – snakes associated w particular
kind of spirit that exists in the landscape, linked to digging – vultures eat dead flesh,
so are about purification processes to clean up pol in response to corruption
o Example of how material culture of shamanism can respond to pol/econ shifts
o Ellis also works w women who are being abused by alcoholic husbands – shamanism
is only space/idiom for them to talk about abuse, in complex dynamics

Ethnographies from elsewhere

 Explanations within Mongolia = shared way for situating

 Comaroffs – define ‘occult economies’ as social forms which use magical methods to obtain
material ends – work in Africa & concerned w creation of zombies, way to profit & critique of
western capitalism, so witchcraft is idiom for critique of power structures & alienation that
exist in modern industrial late-capitalism
 Peter Geischere – ‘modernity of witchcraft’ in Cameroon, similarly about post-colonial forms
of capitalism & labour

Conclusion

 Emergence of & transformation within cosmological forms = idioms through which

discourses on pol/econ changes are communicated, so cosmology must be thought of as
indigenous theories about pol/econ shifts as much as about witchcraft & yet, this
recognition was produced by shared heuristic move that we should think about
 Next lecture will consider what is discarded when cosmological is rendered as a function of
the pol-econ – reasons we can read pol/econ change through cosmology is b/c it emerges
from pol/econ changes that we assume to be there – witchcraft is modern in so far as it is
seen as a response to capitalism, but can cosmology & shamanism have meanings & value in
other ways, not just as a function of the pol/econ? Think of relationship in diff ways,
specifically how they are connected – can radicalise local cosmologies of capitalism &
understand them more than as a comment on what we consider to be real (pol/econ)

Lecture 2 – Cosmologies of change

Introduction

 Cosmological forms = idioms for ‘other things’ – case studies from Mongolia, econ crises
after collapse of USSR & people returned to rural pastoralism – also resurgence of
shamanism which had been repressed under socialism
o Buyandelger argues mistrust & uncertainty from post-socialism/neoliberalism was
translated into cosmological realm, but rise of shamanism isn’t a return to trad, it
arises from, comments on & engages w hyper-modern neoliberal forms & provides a
mechanism for connecting to violent histories

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o Comaroffs argue that occult forms (witchcraft & zombie discourse) in southern
Africa as a critique of the alienation produced by late-capitalism, so witchcraft is an
idiom to implicitly critique pol econ
 Resurgences of shamanism = expressions, theories & responses to contemporary pol-econ
processes, not an exotic backwards remnant but a vantage point to modernity – applies to
lots of places – cosmologies are theories of material transformations, so we should pay
attention to them – but is this a distortion to think it’s all about late capitalism?

Edward Evans-Pritchard – Azande

 Are magic & ritual rational? Can think about anthropology as a rationalising machine, it has
often tried to make the unfamiliar familiar/rational throughout its history
o Evolutionist school – Tyler would say magic is irrational, but uses that to support
idea of universal human dev, so level of irrationality is used to measure position on
the schema, meta way of rationalising
o Structural-functionalism – magic & ritual are rationalised through their functions in
society e.g. providing social cohesion/easing anxiety – ethnocentric approaches,
justified from anthropologists’ perspective through their privileged access to nature
 Evans-Pritchard is structural-functionalist – in his unpacking of the rationality of the Azande
ritual, can be seen as a form of cultural relativism, as local rituals are explored through local
idioms & customs, shifting from universalist assumptions to local context
o Where does the work discussed in the previous lecture fit in?

Harry Englund & James Leach – Meta-narratives of modernity

 Read this article! Example from Rai coast of PNG, discusses rumours of gangs of criminals led
by white men who were killing locals & selling their organs overseas – reflects idea of violent
extraction of market capitalism – but danger of assuming that this is about capitalism,
means that ethnographic observations, apart from the narratives themselves = redundant
o Perhaps narratives aren’t critiques of global capitalism but about local econ theories
of exchange – easy & tempting to slot diverse ethnographic cases into an almost
global context of ‘modernity’
 Shamanism is a fundamentally modern phenomenon that addresses many contemporary
concerns, but unproblematically reifies pol forces – capitalism is thought about similar to
how nature used to be thought about, as a universal thing that all else can be based off,
except w additional sense of ownership in the west, idea that ‘we’ can control it
o The way capitalism operates in these accounts blocks you from understanding what
it even is – making cosmology political reduces it to that & nothing else
o Other ways of considering connection btw cosmological & pol econ that avoid these
reductive & problematic ideas

Morten Pederson – ‘Not Quite Shamans’

 Worked in northern Mongolia w Darhad Mongols in late 1990s – examines concept of agsan
linked to wildness, vulnerability to spirits & semi-possessed so not responsible for actions;
ambiguous in people’s accounts as to whether this was a result of post-socialism or spirits
o Could perform a parallel style of analysis as Comaroffs on his field site, but that this
would obscure the ways in which dual cosmological & econ crisis was experienced
o Instead, he argues that the resonances btw the shamanic & pol-econ were not a
projection of symbolic meaning, but reflected an ‘isomorphism of form’ btw the 2

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 Both the state & cosmology were emanations of a more fundamental immanent ontology of
transition – cosmological is seen as semi-autonomous sphere that requires ascription in its
own terms, not just description of how it relates to the pol-econ
 Ontology is a heuristic to avoid reduction to pol-econ & a ‘technology of description’ that
takes cosmology on its own terms & explores content of it as its own world

Resisting reduction

 Swancutt (2006 & 2012) – focuses on internal dynamics of ritual, innovation in healing
practices from shamanic ritual itself
 Hojer (2004, 2007 & 2009) – various forms of distrust & cynicism about shamanic forms in
Mongolia, but Hojer shows that absence of doubt & unknowing in ritual aren’t function of
post-socialism, but precisely how cosmological forms came to be seen as powerful
o Holy books are written in Tibetan script, which most Mongolians & even some
monks cannot read – ambiguous if they’re reading it right
o Partiality of knowledge is inherent to the cosmological, as ambiguity makes it
powerful & this is a product of cosmology not pol-econ
 Holbraad (2012) – analysis of Ifa divination in Cuba, ritual can’t be analysed w western
philosophical/anthropological definitions of truth – can’t render them as rational in their
social function, but forms of rationality require conceptual innovation to describe them
 Pederson, Swancutt, Hojer & Holbraad all attempt to resist the reduction of the
cosmological to the pol-econ, set them up as autonomous spheres
o But does this mean we lose the window on to what cosmology can show us about
the pol-econ? And does this matter?
o Cosmology is vehicle for the destabilisation of western ideas – but can think about
how interlocking cosmologies affect interlocutors’ lives – it matters b/c it affects life,
but Holbraad sees this relevance to the social field as an act of reduction

Inverting reduction

 Cosmological & pol-econ were connected, as former arises from/is an idiom for the latter;
other theorists detach these 2 & portray cosmological as irreducible & separate – what
happens if we connect the 2, but invert the directionality & previous dynamic? Think about
how cosmologies generate pol-econ contexts & drive change
o Inversion has been relatively rare, so can read it into previous ethnographies
 Empson – cosmoeconomics – examines mining companies in Mongolia, laws that dictate
how they operate are derived from ideas of temp possession, assuming existence of land-
master spirits that live in the land – complex b/c during socialism there was no land-
ownership, but mining requires ownership – laws that structure econ activities of giant
multi-national corporation are cosmological in their origin
 High – cosmoeconomics of informal ‘ninja’ miners in Mongolia (sieves on their backs make
them look like teenage mutant ninja turtles??) – must understand non-human cosmological
forces that make mining so dangerous, as land-master spirits own the ground & detest
humans digging in it – value isn’t just about money but hishik (?), fortune, which is about
wealth but also happiness, family, success etc. & can be reinforced by shamans – profits
made from mines requires spending in particular ways & forms of purification by lamas,
purify the ‘dirty’ money from mining to put it back into society
 In both cases, can see how the pol-econ emerges from the cosmological, is an idiom for it;
cosmological ideas can be more than examples, analytics

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 Taylor (1999) – v graphic descriptions of violence in Rwandan genocide – argues that

Rwandan cosmology hinges around the circulation of bodily flows & substances – during the
run-up to the genocide, the Tutsi were seen as blockages to these flows, so in part the
violence erupted from these cosmological ideas & cosmology also caused violence to be
carried out in a v particular way
 Kapferer (1988) – diff nationalisms in Sri Lanka & Australia can only be understood by
examining the myths & legends which they are based on – pol pragmatics alone don’t
explain the diff types of exclusions & pol issues in the 2, need cosmologies as well
 Sahlins (2000) – argues that there are cosmological origins of western capitalism itself e.g.
understands scarcity, at the heart of econ theory, in terms of the fall from Garden of Eden,
so Christian cosmology leads to capitalist econ (resonates w work of Weber)
 Even western pol-econ experience is itself produced by cosmology

Conclusion

 Cosmology = critical resource for thinking about pol-econ in Mongolia & elsewhere; must
think carefully about precise nature of the connection btw the 2, as trend in anthropology
for cosmological efflorescence to be reduced to explanation of western capitalism, based on
assumption of universalism of capitalism
o Resistance to this is visible in works of Holbraad, Pederson etc., but can go beyond
this to think about how cosmology matters to the people & see relevant connection
btw pol-econ & cosmology while avoiding the problems of reductionism
o Not trying to replace one idea w another but think about things in diff ways – see
Yael’s article on divination, tendency to discard the past & move on is problematic,
but can recognise diff ways of seeing things
 Consider how thinking about dynamics btw pol-econ & cosmological can be political