Des histoires de famille. Sociabilité, rituels et vie quotidienne des Bouriates de Mongolie

par Véronique Gruca

Projet de thèse en Anthropologie

Sous la direction de Anne de Sales et de Grégory Delaplace.

Thèses en préparation à Paris 10 , dans le cadre de École doctorale Espaces, Temps, Cultures (Université Paris Nanterre) , en partenariat avec Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative (1967-... ; Nanterre) (laboratoire) depuis le 11-09-2018 .

mots clés

• Rituel
• Chamanisme
• Mort
• Sociabilité
• Bouriates
• Mongolie

Résumé

Ma recherche porte sur la sociabilité, les rituels chamaniques et funéraires ainsi que le quotidien des affaires de famille des éleveurs bouriates en Mongolie. Je m'intéresse à la texture particulière des relations sociales caractéristiques du mode de vie pastoral, et au maintien des liens de solidarité entre les populations, les esprits et les morts en Mongolie contemporaine. Cette recherche englobe l'étude de plusieurs aspects: les rituels chamaniques, les rites funéraires, le pastoralisme nomade et la relation des éleveurs bouriates à leur « terre d'origine » (nutag). Mon étude se fera à l'échelle de plusieurs foyers (ail) qui font tous plus ou moins partie d'un même réseau : celui d'une grande famille étendue (hamaatan) dispersée à travers le territoire et dont certains membres sont partis vivre en ville.

mots clés

• Ritual
• Shamanism
• Death
• Sociability
• Buriat
• Mongolia

Titre traduit

Family Stories. Sociability, Rituals and Everyday Life among the Mongolian Buriat Herders

Résumé

My research focuses on Mongolian Buryat herders' sociability, shamanic and funeral rituals and daily family affairs. I explore the particular texture of social relations specific to the pastoral way of life, as well as the perpetuation of solidarity bonds between people, the spirits and the dead in contemporary Mongolia. This research is based on 20 months of extended fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2020 among Buryat herding families of north-eastern Mongolia. It encompasses the study of several aspects of social life: shamanic rituals, funeral rites, nomadic pastoralism and the way people relate to their “homeland” (nutag). The ethnographic data has been collected from several households (ail) that are all related to each other as they belong to one large extended family (hamaatan) whose members are dispersed throughout the territory. One of the salient features of this research is the analysis of the reconfiguration of relations between the living, the spirits and the deceased, and is studied through the description of rituals and through an analysis of herders' daily life and “family stories”. Whether between relatives, neighbours, with the dead or the spirits of the territory, sustained efforts and permanent care work are directed towards maintaining harmony. Some contexts however show a severe shift in this relational balance. My research aims to examine this particular type of sociability which seems to oscillate between uncertainty and stability, by considering both the way in which solidarity is expressed on a daily basis, as well as the situations generating disputes and disagreements, where harmony is compromised. I also show how dispersal, gathering and nostalgia seem to be at the heart of the relationship between the Mongol Buryats and their “homeland” (nutag). Through a detailed description of shamanic rituals and funeral rites, my doctoral dissertation describes this relationship in its complexity and examines the specificity of a deterritorialized “state of being” and way of relating to the world.