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Adjunct
Associate Research Professor of Anthropology University of Pittsburgh Office phone: (412) 665-2606 |
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Nomadic Pastoralists, their Livestock, and their Landscape
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Click on images for a larger version in a new window. Characteristics
of Livestock
Horses
Horses are also used to transport supplies and even the ger. They can carry about 1/3 of their total body weight. For pulling carts, four Mongolian horses can pull 2000 kg between 50-60 km a day. Important to the Mongolian diet is airag, or fermented mare's milk. Airag contains five times more vitamin C than cow's milk, but also yields vitamins A, B1, B2, B12, D, and E and contains between 1 and 2.5% ethyl alcohol (Kosikowski 1982: 43). Mare's milk is extremely lean (1-2% fat) and is therefore normally not used to make yogurt, kefir, cheese, dried curds or other dairy products. It is said to have many health benefits and is used to treat tuberculosis and other lung ailments. Because the people have few vegetables in their diet, airag is an important dietary staple. Airag is available for at least 6 months out of the year, starting in May when the foals are born. Both men and women milk the mares and it must be done about 5 times a day. The fermentation is done in a butter churn today and it can be accomplished in a day's time. In the past the milk was put in large horse skin bags for fermentation. The bags could be put on a horse to jostle the milk to facilitate fermentation, or hung up in the doorway of the ger so that family members could swat it every time they entered or exited the home. The mares produce 50 gm of milk at each milking and an average of 300 kg per year.
Rope is made from horse mane and tail hair and horsehides are made into clothing, containers, tackle, and other leather and rawhide objects. Horse dung, like cow dung, may be used for fuel in the stove and as an insulating material for roofs and walls of stables (Fig. 18). Sheep and Goats Sheep (Ovis aries) and goats (Capra hirca) are often kept together because the goats will guide the sheep and make the herd easier to control (Fig. 19). Both are milked once a day and cheese is made from their milk (Fig. 20). Because their herds are so large, the women tie all the sheep or goats together, with a rope around each animal's neck, prior to milking. As each individual milking is completed, that animal is set free. When all the animals are free, the woman knows she has successfully milked the entire herd.
There are five sheep breeding zones:
Depending on the breed, Mongolian sheep produce between 200-1000 g of milk per day, with an average of 300-600 g. Some breeds are not milked at all, however. In the past, more Mongolians drank sheep's milk, but now that cow's milk is plentiful, this practice is much less common. Sheep produce only about 1/4 as much milk as goats, so sheep cheese is less important than that of goats.
The Cashmere goat is a critical part of the economy, since Mongolia is a world leader in cashmere exports (Fig. 22). Mongolia produces the finest raw cashmere in the world. Cashmere products are the 4th most important export for the country and Mongolia's largest agricultural export. Per annum, Mongolia produces about 2500 tons of cashmere, which grosses almost $80 million. The local population, however, rarely wears attire made of cashmere, because it is expensive and too delicate to be practical.
Goat meat isn't eaten as much as mutton because the fat solidifies at air temperature, but the milk is preferred over that of sheep and is important for making cheese. Goat dung is used in the ger stove for cooking and heating the ger. |
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Nomadic Pastoralists, their Livestock, and their Landscape
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