Hunting the Wolf, Revealing the Past and Influencing the Future among the Nomadic Herders of Mongolia
In Mongolia, in wintertime, the nomadic herders of sheep, goats, cows and horses often have to face the repeated attacks of wolves on their herds. At dawn, the wolves come down from the surrounding hills to attack the herds, and when the herders wake up, they discover in astonishment that a calf has disappeared or that many deadly injured sheep and goats are lying on the ground. When the number of attacks increases, the herders must hunt the wolves. This article examines the divinatory and propitiatory actions carried out by the herders to predict and to generate the catch of the game, and more particularly the grey wolf (canis lupus chanco). Through an analysis of the use of an astrological calendar and of rituals of divination and devotion, the author argues that the herders actualize three coexisting regimes of causality (mechanical, non-relational and relational) in order to reduce the random characteristics proper to hunting. Each regime of causality involves a peculiar subjectivity of the hunter.