Sandrine Ruhlmann describes contemporary Mongolian funerary practices in this week's post. Mongolian funerary practices, based in shamanism but mixed with other traditions as well, provide material intermediaries for the care of the disembodied soul.
Rane Willerslev discusses the world and worldview of Yukaghir hunters in this excerpt from a longer paper of the same title. Notions of what animals are and what people are--and can do in relation to other animals--differ significantly in this tradition compared to Western, Euro-American metaphysics.
