If you ask nomadic Mongolians to identify themselves, you will never hear the occupational term “cashmere producer”. Instead, rural Mongolians will describe themselves as “herders”, “families with animals”, or “people who live in the country”. This is no accident: living in the countryside is a cultural way of life, defined less by a mode of production than by relationships with animals, people, and places.
The vibrancy of nomadic culture depends on herders not simply being goat producers, but also dairy producers, airag (fermented mare’s milk) producers, felt producers, harvesters of natural resources, custodians of natural sacred sites, horse trainers, and so on.
Recently, we contributed to discussions intended to lay the groundwork for two new nominations to the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list — “nomadic customs” and “animal husbandry knowledge”.
Within the scope of these two nominations, we can list a wide range of cultural practices that are more-or-less directly related to goat herding: notching of ears, identifying rangeland plants, selecting suitable areas to graze livestock, combing cashmere, selectively breeding goats, birthing kids, moving to a new camp, going on otor (short-term) moves, milking goats, processing goat milk into various dairy products, dealing with drought and zud (severe winter), preparing supplementary feed and infusions, providing traditional veterinary treatments, and communicating with livestock through a variety of calls or vocalizations.
These are just a few examples of traditions that are related specifically to goats and cashmere production. More broadly, within Mongolia’s Intangible Cultural Heritage lists, we also see several dozen other higher-level elements that are unrelated to goats but could not really survive without nomadic livestock production as a holistic system. These range from camel polo to felt handicrafts, from traditional meteorology to horse brands.
The posts in our “nomadic culture” series highlight various elements of Mongolia’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. By sharing information about these traditions, we hope to provide an understanding of the importance of nomadic culture as a holistic system.