At the most general level, this dissertation is about postsocialist change. It is about how people living in a remote part of Northern Mongolia have experienced the recent changes to have... Show moreAt the most general level, this dissertation is about postsocialist change. It is about how people living in a remote part of Northern Mongolia have experienced the recent changes to have occurred over the last ten to fifteen years since the postsocialist transition. My main argument is that while Mongolia’s postsocialist transition occurred over twenty years ago it is not clear what has come after socialism, or how we as anthropologists might conceptualise the contradictory, fuzzy, and often reversible experiences of people during the so-called postsocialist period. To this end I develop in this dissertation a new hermeneutic framework for elucidating the polydirectional experience of postsocialist change grounded in skilled practice. This approach envisions the transmission of skills as not only being reproduced between the generations, but also new skills learnt in articulation with change, as well as skills that are lost, forgotten, transformed, adapted, and transposed in relation to transforming social, economic, and political contexts. By observing transformations in skilled practice I argue we are afforded better insight into the polydirectional experiences characteristic of the late postsocialist context, and which can better reveal a more diverse range of processes as they are experienced by people in their everyday lives. Show less
Connecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic... Show moreConnecting and Correcting is a case study of Sami healers in Porsanger, Finnmark, Norway, and focuses on two Coastal Sami healers, their worldview and healing practices. The cultural and historic context of Sami healing practices is explored, most notably Sami folk beliefs, the Laestadian branch of Lutheranism, and the changes in the discourse on the noaidi, a Sami term that is often translated as __shaman__. Healers today may be connected historically to the noaidi of the past, but they cannot be identified with the noaidi. The healers are Christian and conceive of their healing gift as a special connection to God. This gift resembles important Laestadian concepts. In Laestadianism the __congregation of the reborn__ holds the Keys to Heaven, which are the binding and unbinding keys received from the Savior. Having inherited the gift the healer can diagnose; bodily experiences, visions and/or thoughts are their guide. The leading principle for Sami healers, their __inside__ knowledge, is that a __correct connection__ is required. The local discourse concerning healers active during the twentieth century, shows that expectations are quite consistent, most notably healers can prophesize and render immobile. These were features already recorded by Schefferus (1674) and Laestadius (1843). Show less
It was in Central Asia that the shamanism of the Turko-Mongolians and the Islam of the Arabo-Persians were to meet. This zone is bordered by the Caspian Sea, Afghan Turkestan to the south, Hindu... Show moreIt was in Central Asia that the shamanism of the Turko-Mongolians and the Islam of the Arabo-Persians were to meet. This zone is bordered by the Caspian Sea, Afghan Turkestan to the south, Hindu Kouch, the Pamirs, the Tian Chan and Altai to the east, and southern Siberia to the north. Today, several states, in part or in whole, are found in this quadrilateral: Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Afghanistan. The ancestral shamanism of the Central Asians had to, after the Muslim take-over (8th century), progressively compromise with Islam. The result was an Islamized shamanism generally known as baksylyk. Show less
