Partnerships and understanding between Kazakh pastoralists and golden eagles of the Altai mountains : a multi-species ethnography
Abstract
This thesis is a study of the Kazakh tradition of hunting in partnership with golden
eagles in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia. It represents a unique relationship
among the spectrum of human-animal interactions – here eagles live both fully
independent lives in the ‘wild’ and yet, for a time, are brought into the domestic
sphere by Kazakhs and behave, in many ways, as a domesticated animal would.
Kazakhs are able to accomplish this through the deep ethno-ornithological
knowledge of the lives of eagles and a willingness to see eagles as beings with
agency and engage in an intersubjective relationship with them.
Kazakh pastoralists rely entirely on animals for their livelihood, and therefore
communicate with goats, sheep, horses, camels, yaks and eagles on a daily basis.
None of these relationships are of dominance, but rather co-domesticity. The aim
of this thesis is to use the lens of cultivating a relationship with an eagle to better
examine how human-animal interactions make us who we are, and help us
understand the world around us. There are strong parallels in the lives of the
eagles and Kazakhs of the Altai Mountains – both migrate with the seasons and
utilize landscapes in similar ways. Along with notions of ‘domestic’ and ‘wild’,
apprenticeship is a strong theme in this thesis. A Kazakh hunter must apprentice
himself to both his eagle and his human mentor. In turn, the eagle becomes an
apprentice of sorts as it learns to communicate with humans. Layers of
interspecies communication saturate the landscape and challenge the notion of
human exceptionalism. When we think about animals this way, like the Kazakhs do,
truly special human-animal partnerships can occur.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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