A Study on Pandemic of Shamans and Globalised Society in Contemporary Mongolia

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370956
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cultural anthropology
• Research Institution: The University of Shiga Prefecture
• Principal Investigator: Shimamura Ippei 滋賀県立大学, 人間文化学部, 准教授 (20390718)
• Research Collaborator: Sampildondov Chuluun モンゴル科学アカデミー, 歴史学・考古学研究所, 所長 ; Birtalan Agnes ハンガリー・ローランド・エトヴェシュ大学, モンゴル・内陸アジア学部長・教授 ; Somfai-Kara David ハンガリー科学アカデミー, 民族学研究所, 研究員
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: シャーマニズム / モンゴル / プライド / 資本主義的競争 / グローバリズム / 富の再分配 / 親族組織の再構築

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, I examined the phenomenon I describe as "a pandemic of shamans" in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar and elucidated the nature of the shamanism that, while building cultural and social bonds on the one hand is also fracturing and splintering those bonds on the other. By acquiring an imaginary social position, the people who become shamans overturn social relationships and fracture family bonds. Shamanism also gives birth to ethical models that differ from shaman to shaman. I concluded by examining whether the practices of the shamans is a phenomenon unique to the post-socialist/ glovilising period or a phenomenon unique to shamanism. In this theme, I wrote several academic papers both in Japanese and English, and finally I organized the International workshops entitled Between Secularity and Religion: Shamanic and Buddhist Practices in Mongolia: Past and Present, which ended successfully.

Free Research Field

文化人類学