"Four Months Spent Living with the Dukha Reindeer Herders Made Me a Better Anthropologist – and Person” + Assignment

This is not a quiz! It is just an assignment in which I'm using the quiz function in Canvas. For this assignment, you will learn a bit about the Dukha and then submit your answers to some questions about the material. Do not open the "quiz" to submit your answers until you have fully completed steps 1-3 on this page. This assignment will be graded based on participation and completion, not on whether or not your answers are "correct."

STEP 1: Introduce yourself to the Dukha

The Dukha (also called Tsaatan) are a nomadic group who herd reindeer in the taiga of northern Mongolia. They are among a small number of self-subsistent communities living in the world until around 20-30 years ago. Nowadays approximately 200 Dukha (35-40 families) continue to herd reindeer in the taiga. While these families use supplies such as canvas for their ortz, clothes made in factories, rice and flour, they choose to continue many of their traditional lifeways. The Dukha are nomads, so they do not establish any permanent camps, but move throughout the year bringing their reindeer to different grazing pastures. This movement is also important because they hunt and gather food available at different locations as well. Families live in an ortz, which is a dwelling shaped much like a tipi containing a heat source in the center. In the past they were covered in birch bark and reindeer skins, but now they are covered in canvas. 

Life for the Dukha is centered on reindeer. Reindeer are rarely used for their meat. Instead their milk is a staple of their diets and they are used to carry people and living supplies from location to location. Adult reindeer can carry heavy loads and are excellent transportation in the swampy and icy terrain of the taiga. (All terrain vehicles struggle here. Tourists and other visitors typically travel by horse for several days to reach the Dukha.) Reindeer are trained to carry people from a young age, with babies and small children being their first riders. Beyond the functional aspect of reindeer, the Dukha consider themselves interconnected with the reindeer. Reindeer are at the core of their identity. I have repeatedly heard Dukha quoted as saying that without reindeer, they would die. It is culturally taboo to mistreat reindeer, and they are shown care, gratitude, and reverence.  

Here is additional information about the Dukha using the descriptors I introduced last week:

• Population Size: the Dukha migrate in small, kin-based groups of families
  • some migrate following the old ways - groups of 2-3 families moving 10 times per year
  • others migrate 4-6 times per year in larger groups of 11-19 families
• Subsistence Strategies: the Dukha rely on hunting game and gathering berries and nuts; they herd reindeer for their milk, which is the main staple of their diet
• Social Stratification: after ample searches, I have not found much information about the Dukha's social structure except that women are respected because they both care for children and do other work for the camp
• System of Exchange: families consider particular reindeer to be their property/responsibility 
• Political System: The Dukha practice non-centralized authority

Watch this brief introduction to the Dukha (also called Tsaatan) people:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB618nnrK0Y

STEP 2: Read the Article

Follow the link to read, "Four Months Spent Living with the Dukha Reindeer Herders Made Me a Better Anthropologist – and Person," by anthropologist Nicolas Rasiulis. It is long, but it is the most accessible anthropological article about the Dukha I could find. (Here is a PDF copy of the same article if you prefer.)

STEP 3: Write your Answers

Write answers for each of the following questions. Write them in sentence/paragraph form of approximately 3-5 sentences per question. 

1. How have the Dukha been affected by changes in the surrounding political structures of the former USSR and Mongolia? (2 points)
2. Rasiulis argues that the Dukhas are living authors of their lives. What do you think he means? (2 points)
3. How did Rasiulis move from being seen as ‘gataad’ (outsider) to ‘manai gataad’ (our outsider) in his time with the Dukha? (2 points)
4. What did you think of Rasiulis' assertion that Dukha life has a freestyle quality? (2 points)
5. How have the Dukha been impacted by the Mongolian government's efforts at "Environmental Protection"? (2 points)
6. How is Dukha spirituality tied to their ideas about conservation? (2 points)
7. Please share something else you thought was interesting about this article. (3 points)

STEP 4: Submit your Answers

Submit your answers by clicking the blue, "Take The Quiz" button below and copying each of your answers into the corresponding box in the "quiz." Although I am using the quiz feature for this, it is not a quiz. This is just an assignment. Do your best, but I'm not grading you on getting the right answer; you will be graded based on your sincere attempt to answer the questions and showing that you have read the article, even if you didn't understand all of it.

Please get in touch if you have any issues submitting your answers. 

STEP 5: Check Answers

After you submit your answers, click on Attempt 1 in the Attempt History. You should be able to see information from me for each question. This information is meant to help you affirm that you were on the right track in understanding what the article was saying and the anthropological perspective or, if not, fill gaps in your understanding. You will only be able to see the answers once, so take any notes that you want to.