Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Contributors
Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments: "-Scaping" Mongolia
Theorizing Mongolia's Connections
1. General Comments on Mapping Mongolia and Mongol Studies
—G. Cameron Hurst
2. "-Scaping" Mongolia
—Paula L.W. Sabloff
3. Mapping and the Headless State: Rethinking National Populist Concepts of Mongolia
—David Sneath
4. Is There Such a Thing as Central/Inner (Eur)Asia and Is Mongolia a Part of It?
—Christopher P. Atwood
Extending Beyond Current Borders
5. The Geology, Climate, and Ecology of Mongolia
—Clyde E. Goulden, B. Nandintsetseg, and L. Ariuntsetseg
6. Nomadic Pastoralism in Mongolia and Beyond
—Thomas Barfield
7. The Prehistory of Mongolian Populations as Revealed by Studies of Osteological, Dental, and Genetic Variation
—Theodore Schurr and Lenore Pipes
8. Mapping Ritual Landscapes in Bronze Age Mongolia and Beyond: Unraveling the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Enigma
—William W. Fitzhugh and Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan
Connecting to Other Polities
9. Timescapes from the Past: An Archaeogeography of Mongolia
—William Honeychurch and Chunag Amartuvshin
10. Steppe Nomads as a Philosophical Problem in Classical China
—Paul R. Goldin
11. Mapping Foreign Policy Interests: Mongolia's Case
—Jargalsaikhany Enkhsaikhan
Index

Promotional Information

Would marginalized countries such as Mongolia benefit from a reconfiguration of area studies programs or even from another way of thinking about the way we group nations? This book uses Mongolia as a case study to critique the area studies methodology and test the efficacy of another methodology, the "-scapes" method proposed by Arjun Appadurai.

About the Author

Paula L. W. Sabloff is Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a former member of the Asian Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She is the author of Modern Mongolia: Reclaiming Genghis Khan, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reviews

"While paying its due to established scholarship, this collection advances Mongolia studies into the modern realm of globalization. Its combination of disciplines will likely stimulate a broader assessment of Mongolia as a geographic and historical nexus. Social scientists, archaeologists, geneticists, and experts on environmental history will all find novelty in this innovative, holistic treatment of Mongolia past and present, as will students focusing on Inner Asian studies more generally."
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