Inviting happiness : : food sharing in Mongolia / / by Sandrine Ruhlmann.

• Superior document: Inner Asia Book Series; volume11
• VerfasserIn: Ruhlmann, Sandrine, 1977-
• TeilnehmendeR: Scott, Nora,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden Boston : : BRILL,, 2019.
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Inner Asia Book Series; volume11.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (316 pages).

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 analyzes 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.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Figures -- Transcription of Mongolian Terms -- Prologue -- Ordinary Food Practices: Restricted Sharing -- The Space -- The Fundamental Pattern of the Meal -- From Animal to Meat Product -- Basic Culinary Techniques -- Cooking Modes -- Distribution and Consumption of Meals -- Food Sharing and Hospitality -- Extra-Ordinary Food Practices: Extended Sharing -- Extended Food Sharing -- The Human Soul -- Feast Food Practices—Birth -- Reverse of Feast Food Practices—Death -- Extended or Generalized Food Sharing and Maintenance of Social Order -- Renewal: Closing and Opening Foods, Bodies and Social Relations -- Epilogue -- Back Matter -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Glossary -- Index.