Jessica Vinson
Illinois State University
The traditional environment of pastoralism is under assault from land degradation,
rangeland conservation, and development paradigms that alter the everyday lives of Tsataan
Dukha reindeer herders in the Mongolian taiga. This thesis seeks to analyze the ways in which
seminomadic pastoral identity is shaped through experiences of or relationships with particular
nonhuman places and beings, and how the Tsataan Dukha renegotiate their individual and
collective identities with changing local landscapes that exert considerable pressures upon the
social, political, and economic organization of Dukha life.
By exploring place attachment, place identity, and an analysis of Tsataan Dukha visibility, this
research seeks to ethnographically anchor the complex specifics of local and global
socioeconomic and environmental frictions in the lives of those being affected by rapid
transformations of natural landscapes. This research also examines how the Dukha may operate
beyond the liminal constraints of their current conditions by maintaining traditional landscapes and identities while simultaneously adapting to development paradigms, modernization
initiatives, and changing natural environments in the Mongolian taiga.
KEYWORDS: reindeer husbandry, symbiotic pastoralism, environmental identity, liminality,
human/animal relationships, visibility, place meaning, place attachment