WHEN SAIGA MEETS SPIDER: SOCIAL THEORY FOR NOMADIC MAMMALS.
Keywords: Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Ger District, Dzud, pastureland, Saiga, nomadic movement, resource utilization, mass mortality event, universal entanglement, meshwork theory
Abstract
In this paper, I will switch between three animals and their narrative. “The Goat with a Herder” portrays the dust and pollution of the post-Russian, semi-nomadic (1) Mongolia. And “The Spider with the Web” relates directly to Tim Ingold’s theory about Skilled Practice Involves Developmentally Embodied Responsiveness (2). Lastly, I will bring in the nomadic antelope “Saiga of the Steppes“.
After the nomads entered the free market, the cashmere export becomes a steady cash income. This called for a new generation of nomadic herders, with goats that outnumber the other livestock. In recent years, the unbalanced ratio of domestic animals resulted in extreme weather changes and notable environmental issues like desertification due to overgrazing. Each year there have been severe cases of prolonged drought or Dzud, where millions of livestock starve to death. There is a consistent wave of people permanently moving into the capital city, as the Dzud gets deadlier. Not only herders with no livestock to sustain, but also those who are pursuing better opportunities often settle in the city slum, also known as Ger District.
However, excluded from the modern info-structural necessities, slum burns toxic raw coal for their daily life. Such excessive coal burning and extreme weather conditions subtly transformed the city air into an impenetrable and hazardous fog.
To understand “The Goat with a Herder” character, we must take a closer look into the world of the arachnid and arthropods. Approaching the problem with the help of Tim Ingold’s SPIDER, is my naive attempt to experiment/explain and as well to see the so-called “Big Picture” of the air pollution caused by the ever-expanding city slums in Ulaanbaatar. I might be forced to scientize yet another man-made mess, but the focus will be concerned with how over/under balance or utter absence of one minor factor can cause irreversible damage to the mandatory condition of nature. Furthermore, to raise awareness about the ongoing capitalism-induced mass extinction between various wild or domestic animals, plants, and mushrooms along with the indigenous minority and their culture in Mongolia.
Introduction
Mongolia is enormous. It is 1,566,000 km2 to be clear, five times the size of Germany alone and the twentieth-largest country by territory wise (3). Landlocked Mongolia holds the title of sixth of the least populated country per square kilometer. Barely two people occupy each square kilometer of this wide land (4). This is where you could feel truly alone and forgotten. Almost half of the entire population, 1.444.700 (5) people, is located in the capital Ulaanbaatar (other spelling Ulan-Bator, UB) and that makes UB the largest city in Mongolia. Comparing with the rest of the landmass, the capital is only 4,704.4 km2 (5) and facing problems of overcrowding already. This is a city where people came to have a better life and flee from the harsh living conditions. However, the air in winter is hazardous in UB. How come few people can produce so much pollution, you might wonder. In simple terms, the direct source of the pollution is the slum Ger District that burns raw coal to stay warm, cook food and boil water for domestic and hygienic needs. Ger, Mongolian “Гэр” or Yurt, is a circular tent of felt or skins on a collapsible framework, used by nomads in Mongolia, Siberia, and Turkey (6).
As the weather hits minus thirty in the coldest capital in the world (7) there is no affordable way to keep warmth inside other than raw coal. Ger Districts is in the north of the city and in 2018, fifty-four percent of Ulaanbaatar’s population occupying the District. Consistent migration into the city became relevant at the beginning of 2003, and after that, the district population grew faster than ever. In 2008 sixty-one percent were living in the slums, the highest there ever recorded. In recent years there are more apartments for subletting or buying with monthly payment plans so that the number of people who are still living in the ger district is now continuing to lower. As the air pollution gets worse every winter, some are resettling out of the capital city (5). Traditional mobile tent homes are now the symbol of poverty. It is easy to spot the Ger District from above, cannot miss it because of its white round shape (fig. 1). The district, most of its parts are established without any infrastructural planning involved so it is completely left out from central heating, plumbing, and often inaccessible for ambulances or fire trucks. People use public reservoirs/wells for their water supply, and it is often located sparsely. Some areas of the Ger neighborhood have gradually improved and have no longer Yurts; as an alternative, houses are wooden, brick, or concrete with plumbing, power, and the heating system already worked out. The National Statistics Office of Mongolia estimated that in 2018 forty-seven percent (100.3 thousand households) of the ger district lives in the traditional yurt and fifty-two percent (111.6 thousand families) are accommodating in improved houses or built shelters. But not everyone can afford to turn on an electric heater every hour of the day.
Seasonal movement with livestock is essential for nomads to avoid extreme weather conditions and overgrazing (8). The herders depend on their livestock for meat and dairy in their diet, and livestock solely depends on humans for fodder, water, and shelter during the winter months. There is a broad common sense among Mongolian people about how all the necessity must come from somewhere that near to you. This why I assume that coal was never been so popular around the nomads because of its big mass and lack of availability. In fact, herders most commonly use livestock dungs as the main burning material for heating indoor, cooking, conserving food, or during the summer days repellent against small insects. The danger of air pollution from coal is still very new for Mongols. Today more than 2 billion people across the planet burn dried animal dung for energy. Unfortunately, burning dung efficiently is even more difficult than burning wood efficiently. It also produces several pollutants and is a major health hazard in countries where it is burned indoors with limited ventilation (9).
“A Dzud is a natural disaster when the animals of the Steppe die in vast numbers following dry hot summers and icy winters. Without pasture to eat during the summer, animals do not put on the protective fat needed to last the raw winters. The herders cannot collect enough hay for their stores. If the winter is too severe, the animals must rely on stores of food rather than grazing. When the supplies run out, the animals get weaker until they freeze or starve to death”. (10)
In recent years there have been numerous cases of mass livestock mortality events caused by Dzud, (Mongolian “Зуд”). Dzud became more prolonged and severe by global warming and desertification. When Mongolia entered capitalism the number of livestock skyrocketed to 40 million. Above all, goats are most preferred by the modern Nomads, because of their cashmere. This results in over-exhausting the grazing lands. Goats eat grass by digging and chewing at the roots, this process permanently damages the grass and eventually causes the wind to blow away the protective topsoil. End result is desertification (11). Prolonged Dzud means decreased pasture vegetation, decreased palatable plant species, reduced water availability, and absence of grass on pasture, and increased prevalence of pests. (12)
6 TYPES OF DZUD
1. Tsagaan (White) Dzud
is a result of high snowfall that restricts livestock from reaching the grass. It can cause a profoundly serious disaster if it covers a broad area. Tsagaan (White) is the most common and destructive form of Dzud. White Dzud has a long-lasting effect when there’s a large amount of snowfall at the beginning of winter, however, if it is the end of winter it is moderately manageable.
2. Khar (Black) Dzud
which occurs when lack of snow in grazing areas and leaves the livestock without any unfrozen water supplies where wells are unaccessible. So, both the human and animals suffer from lack of water to drink. This form frequently happens in the Gobi Desert region. Khar Dzud directly results in no winter forage in summer, because of drought and overgrowth of insects like grasshoppers, in severe cases follows with forest or steppe fire.
3. Tumer (Iron) Dzud
occurs when snow cover melts and refreezes to create an impenetrable ice cover that prevents livestock from grazing. It happens when there’s short rapid warming in winter followed by sub-freezing temperatures.
5. Khavsarsan (Combined) Dzud
is when a combination of at least two of the other phenomena occurring at the same time.
4. Khuiten (Cold) Dzud
occurs when the air temperature drops to extremely low levels for several consecutive days, therefore extreme temperatures and strong freezing wind prevent animals from grazing.
6. Tuuvaryin (Camp) Dzud
is a geographically widespread white, black, iron, or cold Dzud combined with overcrowding of livestock and seasonal migration of livestock over certain territory that results in overgrazing and exhaustion of pastureland resources. (12)
Mongolia and other transhumance-agrarian countries are based their survival on pasture practice of co-existing with the herd and the environment. Before Mongols joined the capitalist market, the soviet government tightly controlled nations’ livestock numbers (11). But even before that, the nomads knew the consequence of overgrazing and its permanent damages to the neighboring rivers and lake banks. With limited resources and extreme weather highs and lows, the native Mongolic, Turkic, and Altaic people learned how to live synchronically with nature. In addition, there are many oral laws, that often come in superstitious catchwords or sayings about protecting/respecting/obeying “mother nature”. This tradition is still very relevant and mostly taught by the elders to their next generation, more on that later.
Having said that, I speculate that this whole goat problem is a clear example of how there is no efficient mass consumerist nomadic society. Now we must bring in Tim Ingold’s Spider. In 2011, he initially introduced the Meshwork theory in his book Being Alive, challenging Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory. To go further we must first discuss the ANT (13). It is a popular social theory, about how we act on things but at the same time, things act on us. And how an action is distributed through human and non-human actors called Actants. This theory is mostly incorporated with or to understand the correlation between humans and technology or vice versa. (13) Ingold in his short essay “When ANT meets Spider: Social theory for arthropods” characterizes the theory with the help of a SPIDER (Skilled Practice Involves Developmentally Embodied Responsiveness). This essay is a hypothetical conversation between Latour’s ANT and Ingold’s Spider.
SKILLED
PRACTICE
INVOLVES
DEVELOPMENTALLY
EMBODIED
RESPONSIVENESS
“And I’, SPIDER goes on, ‘must return to my web. For I have to say that what air is for the butterfly and water is for the fish, my web is for me. I cannot fly or swim, but I can weave a web and exploit its properties of stickiness, tensile strength, and so on to run around and catch flies. I may dance the tarantella with the fly that alights on my web, but the web itself is not a dancing partner. It is not an object that I interact with, but the ground upon which the possibility of interaction is based. The web, in short, is the very condition of my agency. But it is not, in itself, an agent’.” (2)
There’s an old saying in Mongolia, which goes like this:
“Do not take gravel particularly from a lake or river, without any reasoning or offering, bad luck will come to you and your family until the gravel travels to its original location.”
If we numb out the spiritual or pagan paraphrasing, it is a short story about a piece of stone. This rock formed with time and space, attached to that specific river. Presumably shifting inch by inch down the stream as water flows. It might have a complete selection of aquatic wildlife as a companion. The rock is never alone, rather, it is a part of the universal ensemble. Ingold’s Spider describes to us that the web, not just an agent, is supported by its surrounding factors. Just like how the spider web, clean air, or flowing water is not an assemblage of heterogeneous points but an entanglement of lines or paths of strings that are anticipating the ideal moment for something to happen. These lines are a stream of a material substance its properties preserved through deformations, twistings, and stretchings in fluid space (2).
The meshwork of entangled lines is a borrowed term from the philosopher Henri Lefebvre, who uses the term in relation to how the patterns from animals and humans are reticular and its movement is weave like not architectural (31).
“The Meshwork of entangled lines (above) and the Network of connected points (below)” (Ingold, 2007)
OVER HERE I WOULD LIKE TO ADD THAT IT IS NOT MY INTENTION TO CRITICIZE THE ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY NOR TO ADD MORE EXAMPLES ABOUT SIMILAR THEORIES ABOUT UNIVERSAL ENTANGLEMENT. RATHER, I WILL INVITE THE SPIDER TO CONTINUE ITS JOURNEY IN THE VAST STEPPES OF MONGOLIA.
WHAT ABOUT FINDING A SOLUTION FOR THE AIR POLLUTION?
It is important to note that geographical location plays a big part in air pollution. Ulaanbaatar City is located at the bottom of a valley that traps a layer of cold air below a layer of warm air so that the fine particle matters are stuck in this thermal inversion. However, as a solution state officials chose to ban the use of raw coal entirely for the first time. The alternative fuel which is a by-product of coal has been reinforced after the complete ban in May 2019. This alternative fuel is more expensive but assured to burn longer and release less toxic fumes than raw coal (14).
From the air quality index comparison by recent years, we could say that January and February of 2020 had fewer days with unhealthy air in contrast to the prior years. Is this mean, the coal ban was successful?
In 2020, according to the National Agency for Meteorology and Environmental Monitoring of Mongolia, 50 percent of the entire land was, is at extremely high risk of Dzud with unusually below-average temperature (15). January 2020 Red cross launched Dzud Early Action Protocol and planned to give assistance to both cash and livestock nutrition for expected 1000 vulnerable households (16).
Mongolia Ger with Solar Panels and Camel (Warmuth 2020)
In the last decade, the nomads of the steppe no longer feel alone. They are now enjoying the technological advances and practicalities gifted by the rest of the world. Remote nomad households have no need to wait for civilisation to reach them. “In 2000, the Mongolian government launched its National 100,000 Solar Ger Electrification Programme. Today, 70 % of nomads use mobile solar energy systems, which can power electrical appliances such as freezers, milking machines, or LED televisions.” (17). This self-sustaining travelling household is the proper way to combine human living and intelligent thinking. But the unforgiving weather challenges and hard manual labour work is uninteresting for those who live within the warm shelter and around the corner supermarket, city people have their city problems. Because of global climate change, the weather in Mongolia is unbearable each year. Consequently, the new age techno-nomads have a cold future ahead.
After the two decades of Stalin’s ethnic cleansing, the surviving indigenous tribes of Central Asia are now confronted with another mass extinction event. The locals of Ulaanbaatar are the ones who cannot write or read in the traditional Mongolian language. As I mentioned earlier, paganist, shamanistic, or Buddhistic sayings practice and festivals are still relevant and often orally told from elders to the younglings. But often such sayings are confusing, unfamiliar and ignored by the children who never grew up in the countryside on a horseback, because of this misunderstanding there’s the undiscussed distance between the soviet generation and generation born after the capitalism. It is relatively common for modern Mongolians, especially in young families not to introduce any of the old ways to their children, rather they concentrate on teaching other skills like a foreign language, art, sport, or mental sport. Nomadic people are however referred to as “poor” and “country person” by the city natives and often picked on by those that are fortunate to be born in a warm apartment. A capitalism-induced mass extinction event is reshaping the ethnic minority and indigenous tribes of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia from the Chinese autonomous region, the Republic of Kalmykia from Russia, the Republic of Buryatia from Russia, and more.
“Very small minority and indigenous communities
have garnered some international attention
in recent years.”
have garnered some international attention
in recent years.”
— World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples
Saiga antelope at the Stepnoi Sanctuary (Andrey Giljov, 2016)
MASS MORTALITY EVENTS: ENDANGERED SPECIES.
After the first half of the 20th-century ex-socialist, West and Central Asian countries went through rapid population growth. Such dense population growth caused many social-economic problems that resulted in over-exhausting the wildlife. Wildlife is one of the most important renewable natural resources (19). There’s a Pleistocene, a.k.a Ice Age, mammoth-steppe antelope (20) named Saiga, few of them remain in the Steppe of Mongolia. The majority of the living species are S. tatarica tatarica which are native to Kazakhstan and a lesser separate subspecies called S. tatarica mongolica, also known as Mongolian Saiga (21, 22). Two species of Saigas endured the world’s most recent period of glaciation but they are most likely to not survive this time. Mongolian Saigas are developed to have a nomadic lifestyle which demanded by the harsh environment, and no longer migratory like its cousin S. tatarica. (23) In early 2017 Mongolian Saigas have experienced an outbreak of plague that resulted in the death of 54 percent of the entire population (24). These mass mortality events (MME) caused by Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR), also known as sheep and goat plague, is a highly contagious animal disease affecting small ruminants. (The PPR virus does not infect humans.) (24) The numbers of endangered antelopes were already in decline due to extreme climate events (Dzud) and poaching for illegal trade in horns. One of the biggest importers of Saiga horns in China, other Southeast Asian countries works as a trading ground. (25)
MONGOLIAN SAIGAS HAVE A HIGH RISK OF FUTURE OUTBREAKS AS AN OUTCOME OF LARGE DOMESTIC SHEEP AND GOAT HERDS THAT PASTURE NEAR. IN 2010 AND 2015, THREE OTHER MMES OCCURRED IN THE S. TATARICA TATARICA IN KAZAKHSTAN AND WIPED OUT CA 200,000 ANTELOPES (24). SAIGAS HAVE A TRUNK-LIKE NOSE WHICH GIVES THEM A MAMMOTH-LIKE APPEARANCE. THE PLAGUE PATHOGEN HIDES IN THE TONSILS OF THE ANTELOPE. WITHOUT CAUSING ANY HARM THE BACTERIA REMAIN IN THE NOSE, ONLY WHEN THE HUMIDITY LEVEL AND AIR TEMPERATURES RISEs THEN THE BACTERIA STARTS ATTACKING THE BLOODSTREAM, RESULTING IN BLOOD-POISONING (26). NOW OVERALL THERE ARE ONLY ABOUT 3000 MATURE SAIGAS IN MONGOLIA AND 124,000 IN KAZAKHSTAN (24).
WHEN SAIGA MEETS SPIDER
- Saiga explains to the Spider how there are two opposing speculations about the nomadic animals. Humans hypothesize that nomadic movements in animals occur in response to limited resources so that the animals make regular moves around the hotspots in the area (27). Others concluded that animals undergo nomadic movement to discover the nearby resources by performing an erratic irregular movement, in case any extreme conditions might arise (28). It is clear to say that this cold and dry land transformed us the nomadic animals to live within nature. Then Saiga tells another parable about the migratory Zoo Saigas in Cologne. Imo (No. 2939), was S.tatarica tatarica and was born on 9th May 2002 in the Zoo Cologne, Germany. There have been few generations of Saigas previously living in the zoo since 1976. At first, Imo and his family were lived in between the big mammal enclosures until in May 2006 red fox entered the enclosure resulting death of Imo’s entire family. The last male sole survivor, Imo, was euthanized on 5th October 2009. This was the end of the captive breeding for the Saiga conservation program from the Zoo Cologne. Observers later noted that the Saigas had unpredictable and panic-driven behavior, suited for surviving the extreme conditions in the steppes, which made them not adaptable in captivity (28). My ancestors ‘Saigas’ pastured in wide strips of England and France to the North-West Territories in Canada to the New Siberian Islands. We covered many territories such as Carpathian Mountains, River Bug, River Prut, and even the entire European steppes and forest steppes (29). But not once did we Saigas thrived in captivity. It is in my characteristics to not comprehend the manufactured part of the world. My nomadic lifestyle is for you your web, little spider. To utilize the resource, to not over-exhaust the natural renewable resource, to limit overcrowding, and to survive weather abnormalities I, Saiga travel seasonally into different settlements across unforgiving terrain. To take me out of my role is taking gravel out of the river. Gradually at some point, the journey ahead, absence of some kind impact the other forces entangled right next to it. I, a nomadic mammal, can transcribe the clues provided by nature and travel far without knowing in advance. It is the sole condition of my agency, to be entangled in a meshwork of nearby acting force fields. This is why I could never thrive in captivity... -
CONCLUSION
Modern Mongols are now under post-colonial identity crises. Especially in the capital, you meet swastika bearing extreme nationalists to Buddhist temple scholars with I-Phone in their hands. Some say they miss the old ways of the soviet brotherhood, and the others even reminiscence the ancient days of Chingis Khaan. But without a doubt, there is no such thing as a mass consumerist nomadic society. Today in Mongolia wildlife and plants are drastically declining not only due to illegal hunting, competition for resources with livestock, climate change, wildfire, harsh winter, and droughts (29) but also from environmental impacts of mining. Today mining makes up 40 percent of all foreign direct investment, the two largest are Oyu Tolgoi and Tawan Tolgoi. The average investment from an external company is $293,000, average investment from a foreign mining company is $2,300,000. China alone spent $10.8 billion for road networks to connect the investment in UB (30). However, mining companies generate constant job opportunities as well as living space for the locals. As the wind blows colder and the sun shines brighter, the last nomads of the steppes prepare to move one last time. I heard many stories about how sometimes dogs or horses try to go back to their nomadic settlements once they come to the capital. People call it a “running horse”. A running horse will go vast distances without water or fodder.
For my conclusion, I would like to raise awareness about the most endangered species in Mongolia. Most of these animals are on the edge of extinction due to the destruction of their natural habitat.
Mazaalai, (Ursus arctos gobiensis), subspecies of brown bear, ca. 20 left in the world.
Tul, (Hucho taimen), Siberian salmon, world’s largest salmonid, ages 50-60.
Irbis, (Uncia uncia), ca. 700 to 1200 in Mongolia.
Huder, (Moschus moschiferus), sabertooth deer that poached for their musk.
Argali, (Ovis ammon), the world´s largest wild mountain sheep, ca. 700-800 in Mongolia.
Khoton Shubuu, (Pelecanus crispus), the world’s largest freshwater bird.
Takhi, (Equus przewalski), last wild horse, ca. 2000 in Mongolia.
Shonkhor, (Falco cherrug), the national bird of Hungary and Mongolia.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN READING MORE
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Visual Materials
Fig. 4 Ingold, Tim. “Lines: A Brief History.”, London, Routledge classics, 2007. Print. pp. 82 Fig. 5 AQICN. “Air quality historical data: M.N.B. past 63 months daily average AQI”, screenshot, aqicn.org/city/ulaanbaatar/mnb/, Accessed 13 May 2020.
Fig. 6 Warmuth, Danielle. “Mongolia-Ger-with-Solar-and-Camel-rotated- e1580959726276“, photograph, Accessed 22 May 2020.
Fig. 7 Giljov, Anrey. “Saiga antelope at the Stepnoi Sanctuary.jpg”, Wild saiga antelope, Saiga tatarica tatarica visiting a waterhole at the Stepnoi Sanctuary, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, photograph, 24 April 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga_antelope#/media/File:Saiga_antelope_at_the_Stepnoi_Sanctuary.jpg, Accessed 18 Oct 2020.