Join our Email List Berghahn Books Logo

berghahn New York · Oxford
Browse
A Magpie’s Tale: Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on the Kazakh of Western Mongolia

View Table of Contents


Series
Volume 1

Lifeworlds: Knowledges, Politics, Histories



See Related
Anthropology Journals

Email Newsletters

Sign up for our email newsletters to get customized updates on new Berghahn publications.

Click here to select your preferences

A Magpie’s Tale

Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on the Kazakh of Western Mongolia

Anna Odland Portisch

282 pages, 20 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-80073-796-9 $135.00/£104.00 / Hb / Published (January 2023)

eISBN 978-1-80073-781-5 eBook

https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800737969


View CartYour country: - edit Request a Review or Examination Copy (in Digital Format)Recommend to your LibraryAvailable in GOBI®

Reviews

“What starts as an account of cultural encounters unfolds as a highly informative, entertaining, self-reflexive narrative told with a great measure of empathy and humanism that demonstrates the ultimate unity of humanity.” • Ildikó Bellér-Hann, University of Copenhagen

“I very much enjoyed reading this book. It is both insightful and touching to follow the story of one extended family over the years, and well into the past. In my view, this adds a significant piece of knowledge and reflection on a very little-known part of the world, to which the author had a unique access.” • Peter Finke, University of Zurich

Description

Telling the story of the author's time living with a Kazakh family in a small village in western Mongolia, this book contextualizes the family’s personal stories within the broader history of the region. It looks at the position of the  Kazakh over time in relation to Tsarist Russian, Soviet, Chinese and Mongolian rule and influence. These are stories of migration across generations, bride kidnappings and marriage, domestic violence and alcoholism, adoption and family, and how people have coped in the face of political and economic crisis, poverty and loss, and, perhaps most enduringly, how love and family persist through all of this.

Anna Odland Portisch has taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies and Brunel University.

BLOG: Anna Odland Portisch on A Magpie's Tale part one
BLOG: Anna Odland Portisch on A Magpie's Tale part two

Subject: Anthropology (General)SociologyRefugee and Migration Studies
Area: Asia


Contents

Download ToC (PDF)

Back to Top



Library Recommendation Form

Dear Librarian,

I would like to recommend A Magpie’s Tale Ethnographic and Historical Perspectives on the Kazakh of Western Mongolia for the library. Please include it in your next purchasing review with my strong recommendation. The RRP is: $135.00

I recommend this title for the following reasons:

BENEFIT FOR THE LIBRARY: This book will be a valuable addition to the library's collection.

REFERENCE: I will refer to this book for my research/teaching work.

STUDENT REFERRAL: I will regularly refer my students to the book to assist their studies.

OWN AFFILIATION: I am an editor/contributor to this book or another book in the Series (where applicable) and/or on the Editorial Board of the Series, of which this volume is part.