Feeding wolves with sheep and turning an act of predation into a “meritorious” gift among nomadic herders in Mongolia
Charlier, Bernard
Feeding wolves with sheep and turning an act of predation into a “meritorious” gift among nomadic herders in Mongolia - 2018.
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This article analyses one of the ways in which Mongolian herders interpret an attack of wolves on their herds. The loss of domestic animals is sometimes perceived as a gift to the wolves and more particularly to the spirit master of the land and wild animals. The question investigated in this article is: why do the herders transform a loss resulting from an act of predation into a gift? The answer to this question brings into play a particular perception of the environment, the circulation of a symbolic good, hishig, traduired as “grace” or “fortune,” and the Buddhist notion of “merit,” buyan.
Feeding wolves with sheep and turning an act of predation into a “meritorious” gift among nomadic herders in Mongolia - 2018.
60
This article analyses one of the ways in which Mongolian herders interpret an attack of wolves on their herds. The loss of domestic animals is sometimes perceived as a gift to the wolves and more particularly to the spirit master of the land and wild animals. The question investigated in this article is: why do the herders transform a loss resulting from an act of predation into a gift? The answer to this question brings into play a particular perception of the environment, the circulation of a symbolic good, hishig, traduired as “grace” or “fortune,” and the Buddhist notion of “merit,” buyan.
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