Not Quite Shamans

In Not Quite Shamans, Morten Axel Pedersen explores how the Darhad people of Northern Mongolia's remote Shishged Valley have understood and responded to the disruptive transition to postsocialism. For much of the twentieth century, shamanism was eradicated by Mongolia's communist rulers, but with the transition to a global capitalist market and liberal democracy in the 1990s, the people of the Shishged were plunged into a new world that seemed beyond their control. The "not-quite-shamans" - young, unemployed men whose undirected energies erupted in unpredictable bouts of violence and drunkenness - became a serious threat to community life. Pedersen details how, for many Darhads, the postsocialist state itself has become shamanic in nature. In traditional Darhad shamanism, shamans can control when and for what purpose their souls travel. However, caught between uncontrollable spiritual powers and excessive physical force, these individuals embody the chaotic forms of the free market, neoliberal reform, and government corruption that have created upheaval in people's lives. Through long-term fieldwork in Northern Mongolia, Pedersen sheds light on how the Darhad people have engaged with shamanic beliefs and practices associated with the past to make sense of their new world.