Place Names and Kazakh Song Making in the Western Mongolian Steppes

Songs, Settings, Sociality: Human and Ecological Well-Being in Western Mongolia

“…The 18 songs referenced in this study are drawn from interviews with rural musicians during my nearly annual one-to three-month research stays in the province between 2005 and 2018. My research on both instrumental and vocal forms over the years has focused on sense of place (Post 2007), mobility (Post 2014), ecological knowledge (Post 2017), song mapping (Post 2019b), sounds and soundscapes (Guyette and Post 2015;Post and Pijanowski 2018), and climate change (Post 2019a). To date, few scholars have conducted research on musical practices in Bayan-Ölgii (Pegg 2001;Soni 2015).…”

“…Local communities identify with personal stories about place because they share lifeways, lands, and histories, including loyalty to tribe, clan, and residential community. They share experiences of movement from China into Mongolia, struggles to manage land under difficult weather conditions, and also respect for resources (Post 2007(Post , 2019a(Post , 2019b.…”

“…The songs Kazakh herders share contribute substantially to mobilizing communities to address adaptive needs of the system, especially when a respected singer raises local conservation concerns (Post 2019a(Post , 2019b. Zhangabyl (interview, July 2006), at a neighborhood celebration on the border between the Bulghyn and Deluun districts, sat in the center of a yurt to offer a terme to the community.…”

Ethnobiology through Song

“…Despite the many important contributions that music can make to our understanding of human-nature interrelations, the majority of research on the ethnobiological contexts in which songs are performed and transmitted comes from the field of ethnomusicology (e.g., Post 2019;Turpin et al 2017). Ethnomusicologists have long recognized the important role that music plays in building cultural identities (Balzer 2016;Bracknell 2015; flow.…”

“…Because of this, songs are also an important repository of language (Crate this issue; Grant 2012a; Turpin and Stebbins 2010). Traditional songs can, thus, be understood as rich systems of embedded knowledge and a powerful expression of local cultural values and worldviews (Post 2019;Thornton et al this issue;Walker 2003).…”