Between hearth and celestial court: Gender, marginality, and the politics of Shamanic practices among the Buriats of Mongolia (Russia, China)

This dissertation explores the ways in which ethnic Buriats living on the fringes of the Mongol state deal with the drastic social changes that have resulted from the unexpected collapse of socialism and the shift to a market economy. By living and traveling with rural nomads during my eighteen months of dissertation research (1998, 1999--2000) I sought to understand why the proliferation of shamanic practices after socialism became an integral part of daily life of Buriats. My focus is to show that the cultural practices and imaginings of people in the most remote corners of the world are connected with the larger power. Mongolia's "internal" politics, particularly state violence, were influenced by the geopolitical domination by Russia and China. In response to multiple dominations, the Buriats have constructed a Celestial Court---the ruling hierarchy of spirits and gods in the time-transcendent celestial realm. By way of a journey to the Celestial Court I trace the Buriats' tragic history of colonialism and marginalization.; The abuses by the state are most vividly realized by women in their subjective transformations towards becoming shamanic practitioners. By exploring the discrepancy between egalitarian ideals and the actual gendered hierarchy in the acquisition of powers by male and female shamans I problematize the issue of female empowerment and subordination both during socialism and after its collapse. The marginalized women, in particular, have developed creative non-conventional strategies for dealing with the repercussions of the state abuses by challenging the established norms of gender. The tragic stories of both male and female shamans and the rituals of healing and deflecting misfortunes offer mechanisms for defetishizing the state. Throughout the dissertation I have privileged the interconnected frameworks of gender, political economy, and geopolitics, which show that the shamanic practice is multisided, dynamic, and multilayered phenomenon.