Book review: tragic spirits: shamanism, memory, and genderin contemporary Mongolia by Manduhai Buyandelger

The collapse of socialism at the end of the twentieth century brought devastating changes to Mongolia. Economic shock therapy – an immediate liberalization of trade and privatization of publicly owned assets – quickly led to impoverishment, especially in rural parts of the country, where Tragic Spirits takes place. Following the travels of the nomadic Buryats, Manduhai Buyandelger tells a story not only of economic devastation but also a remarkable Buryat response to it – the revival of shamanic practices after decades of socialist suppression. Attributing their current misfortunes to returning ancestral spirits who are vengeful over being abandoned under socialism, the Buryats are now at once trying to appease their ancestors and recover the history of their people through shamanic practice. Buyandelger has created an emotive, accessible and well-researched ethnography sure to arouse sympathy and interest in readers, writes Michael Warren.