Mongolia
This presentation examines data from my dissertation concerning the mtDNA of 28 ancient human samples from the Bronze age and Eneolithic of the Mongol Steppe, considering matrilineal population affinities and regional continuity patterns. The data support a substantial “western” mtDNA component in the Bronze Age population (>40%), which was “introduced” to the region at least by the beginning of the Eneolithic (~5000BCE). The data support hypotheses that link a western population movement across the Eurasian Steppe with the arrival of pastoralism and certain metallurgical technologies, and...
Please join the Council on East Asian Studies in celebrating the Lunar New Year. Please RSVP to eastasian.studies@yale.edu by February 1, 2018.
Lunch will be served. The Xiongnu have been of considerable scholarly interest since their first description by Sima Qian in his Shiji from the early first century BCE, and are best known as the nemesis of the “Middle Country” during the Han Dynasty, described by their Han contemporaries as brutal horse riding barbarians that live by the drawing of the bow. This lecture will explore the character of the Xiongnu from a four-field anthropological approach (Culture, Language, Archaeology and Bioanthropological), examining what each field has to offer to the discussion to date, and what we can...
Contrary to popular imaginings the Dharma has not historically been an inherently environmental religion. Rather, early Buddhism was a prosperity theology that succeeded largely on account of its willingness to exploit both people and natural resources on the commodity frontier. As such, by investigating the links between Buddhism and agricultural expansion this talk will explore how Buddhists radically transformed Asia’s environment. Johan Elverskog is Altshuler University Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at SMU. He is the author of numerous books and articles...
Ideas that climatic events were behind the appearance of nomads as raiders and conquerors of settled lands have been around for a long time. Unfortunately, historical records are seldom direct in linking cause and effect, and such theories remained highly speculative. Recent advances in historical climatology and other applications of modern science to the past are changing that picture. But does the input of science produce better history, or just a different version of it? This question will be discussed in relation to the history of nomadic conquests of China and in particular to the...
Peoples of the steppe zone, stretching from Eastern Europe to Mongolia, have played a pivotal role in Old World prehistory, though much about their societies and lifeways is still shrouded in mystery. The archaeology of this macro-region has developed rapidly since the 1990s, and this course presents an overview of major topics and debates in the region based on what archaeologists currently know about Eurasian steppe societies of the past.
Examination of peoples of the steppe zone that stretches from Eastern Europe to Mongolia. Overview of what archaeologists know about Eurasian steppe societies, with emphasis on the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron, and medieval ages. Attention both to material culture and to historical sources. Topics range from the domestication of the horse to Genghis Khan’s world empire, including the impact these events had on neighboring civilizations in Europe and Asia.
An image of the Gelugpa founder Tsongkhapa, cast in the exotic astadhatu alloy in 1781 as a copy of a golden image sent to the Qing court by the Panchen Lama speaks to the claim that Buddhist images gain power through displacement, by representing what is elsewhere or even nowhere. In the 18th-century Qing court in Beijing and even in China’s southern cities, Buddhist images of foreign make, exotic manufacture, or mysterious, self-generated origin figured in a self-conscious connoisseurial culture that asked where they had been made and when. The flood of images from Tibet and Mongolia...
Admission to the performance is free.The Alash Ensemble, masters of the ancient art of throat singing, perform on Thursday, December 11 at 8 pm in Yale University’s Levinson Auditorium, Sterling Law Building (127 Wall Street, New Haven). Alash has earned praise for their “beautiful emotional voices, with tones and expressiveness that match their vocal gymnastics.” As the Washington Post has described their sound: “Imagine a subsonic growl, a bullfrog’s croak, some electric barber’s clippers and a high-frequency whistle – all reverberating out of a single larynx at once.” The members of Alash...
During the period of Mongol suzerainty of Koryô (1270-1368), Korean literati found themselves caught between a commitment to a universal order symbolized by the Yuan empire and a sense of belonging to a particular socio-political and cultural collectivity represented by the Koryô kingdom. How such literati as Yi Chehyôn and Yi Kok endeavored to reconcile these divided loyalties reflected their particular historical circumstances but also showed interesting parallels with how Korean intellectuals of the 20th century grappled with similar problems under Japanese colonialism.
SPELLBINDING MUSIC FROM CENTRAL ASIA Alash ensemble will perform and conduct a throat-singing workshop on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 8:00 PM at the Joseph Slifka Center (2nd floor) at 80 Wall Street. This event is free and open to the public. The tiny republic of Tuva is a giant when it comes to mastery of the human voice. The ancient tradition of throat singing (xoomei in Tuvan) developed among the nomadic herdsmen of Central Asia. Passed down through the generations, but largely unheard by the outside world, xoomei is now the subject of international fascination and has become Tuva...
Ann M. Altman will discuss her experiences in UlaanBaatar in the summer of 2007, when she lectured to members of the Mongolian Democratic Party on local government, elections, and town planning. At private meetings, she talked about these issues with ex-Prime Minister Ts. Elbegdorj, the leader of the Party, who hopes to regain a majority in parliament after the general election next year, and with a member of parliament, who is working on the possibility of moving the seat of government from UlaanBaatar to Karakorum. Ann M. Altman is an elected member of the Legislative Council (the...
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia is land-locked country of 1.5 million square kilometers. Mongolia has a complex geography with four major zones: the famous Gobi Desert located in the South, the Steppe in the East, mountainous regions in the west and north central parts of the country and the taiga zone in the northwest of the country, with an average altitude of 1.500 meters above sea level. The population size of Mongolia is 2.6 million. More than 20 ethnic groups speaking Mongolian and Turkic languages of the Altaic linguistic family inhabit contemporary Mongolia....
