In March of 2011, I started my Fulbright grant on modern Mongolian female body and beauty ideals. I have now spent the last year of my life traveling across this wide and beautiful country, living with nomadic herders, single-mothers in mining villages, shamans, and parliament members and have asked all of them what they think is beautiful. What I have found is a complex web of tradition and modernity, nomadism and capitalism, gender chaos, stories of Mongol queens not forgotten, and the quest to create a unique identity in this globalizing world.
I am a gender anthropologist researcher. I am based in Berlin, was born in D.C. and raised on two continents.
Би монголд хүмүүс сэтгэлдээ бодож юм, төсөөлэж явдаг гоо саихан, үзэмжийн тухай судалгаа хийж баигаа.
Hallo,
I got your blog adress from Sarah.
My wife and I have been in Mongolia 6 times and we run a german website on mongolian affairs. I would like to get in closer contact with xou and to publish your experiences on our website
http://www.munx-tenger.de
I heard from Ines stolpe, mongolist at Humboldt-University, that they are planning some work on gender; the situation of mongolian women after political change.
Perhaps you are interested.
Eike
[...] Monfemme: gender, feminist, and medical anthropology in the steppes and deserts of Mongolia (Blog [...]
Dear Ms. Hedwig,
I’ve come across your blog while researching for International Women’s Day.
It’s been very interesting reading and watching your research outcomes.
If you are still in the country, I would like to know if you would do a profile interview for a publication in UB.
All the best with your work.
Dear Ms. Waters,
I have been doing some research on Mongolian perceptions of gender distinction as expressed in clothing, and have found your blog a fascinating source of information. Thank you!
I have a few questions I’d love to have answered by you. (If you are too busy to respond to a random stranger, I understand.) Here are my questions:
* What percentage of Mongolian women ever wear Western style dresses?
* How often? When? Where? Why?
* How long ago did Western style dresses first begin to be adopted by Mongolian women?
* Did Mongolian women begin adopting Western dresses before beginning to adopt Western pants?
* Which description sounds most accurate to you:
A. Most rural Mongolians still wear deels. Most urban Mongolians (both men and women) wear Western style pants and shirts. Unlike in America, where it used to be that pants=men and dresses=women, Western pants arrived in Mongolia at the same historical time for men and women, and are essentially gender-neutral.
B. Most rural Mongolians still wear deels. Most urban Mongolians (both men and women) wear Western style pants and shirts. However, Western pants were adopted by Mongolian men before they were ever worn by Monglian women, and a woman who wears pants is assumed to probably be questioning traditional gender distinctions.
C. Most rural Mongolians still wear deels. Most urban Mongolians men wear Western style pants and shirts. Some urban Mongolian women wear deels and some wear Western clothes. Those who wear Western clothes are somewhat evenly divided between those who wear pants and those who wear dresses/skirts. To be seen as clearly affirming traditional gender distinctions a woman must wear either a deel or a dress/skirt.
Thank you in advance for considering these questions!
Sincerely,
Dwight
Hi Dwight, I have unfortunately been away from a computer for some time now and have thus been unable to respond. If you would still like me to respond to you, please write me an email at hedwigaw@gmail.com and I will write you in turn. Sorry for the wait, but I am traveling through Asia right now and my Internet access has been virtually nonexistent… Thanks!