Inviting Happiness. Food Sharing in Post-communist Mongolia

Sandrine Ruhlmann (1)

1 CCJ - Chine, Corée, Japon

For Mongols, sharing food is more than just eating meals. Through a process of "opening" and "closing", on a daily basis or at events, in the family circle or with visitors, sharing food guarantees the proper order of social relations. It also ensures the course of the seasons and the cycle of human life. Through food sharing, humans thus invite happiness to their families and herds. Sandrine Ruhlmann has lived long months, since 2000, in the Mongolian steppe and in the city. She describes and analyses in detail the contemporary food system and recognizes intertwined ideas and values inherited from shamanism, Buddhism and communist ideology. Through meat-on-the-bone, creamy milk skin, dumplings or sole-shaped cakes, she highlights a whole way of thinking and living.

Mots clés: Shamanism; Ritual practices; Material culture; Techniques; Buddhism; Mongolia; Food; Hospitality; Food sharing; Alimentation

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

Sandrine Ruhlmann. Inviting Happiness. Food Sharing in Post-communist Mongolia. Brill. , 11, 2019, Inner Asia Book Series, D. Sneath, C. Humphrey, Uradyn E. Bulag, 978-90-04-40965-1. ⟨hal-02274891⟩