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Me, December 2007. |
Welcome to 'Anthropology, Mongolia and more....' as the website is more or less known. I haven't given it a formal name, but that seems to be the working title. And as a working title, it gives a pretty good idea of what the site is about. Here you can learn about my research, publications, see pictures of Mongolia, and so forth. While there are more than a few pages on Mongolia on the web - and some are even good! - I hope in time to make this an additional resource. So while, yes, there are pictures of Mongolia here, you will also find correct descriptions of what they are about, which are unfortunately rather less common than photos themselves. There is also information on selected topics of Mongolia, such as contemporary politics and recommended readings.
What you'll find in the Mongolia-related portions of the site are based on my experience with and in Mongolia since about 1990. Since 1991, I've spent over four years in Mongolia conducting research, teaching, and giving seminars, lectures and workshops. In other words, I'm drawing upon extensive first-hand experience, not to mention tons and tons of reading and discussion with colleagues. But I also draw on my training and career as an anthropologist. (Check out the 'Academics' section for more on what it is we anthropologists actually do...)
So, you may be wondering, who am I writing this site for? Who is my target audience, in other words? I actually don't have one single group of people in mind. Different parts of this site are geared towards different interests and groups of people. One group is people interested in my research. The research section is expanding, and you will hopefully be able to get a good idea of what I am interested in terms of actual research. You can also read most of my publications here, as well as some of my conference papers. Along the way, the curious non-academic or college student can pick up some more information on anthropology, and what it is that anthropologists actually do.
The site should also be of interest to people interested in Mongolia, and with varying degrees of knowledge of the place. It's easy enough to find general information on Mongolia, such as where it is located, size, population, and so forth. That will eventually show up here, but it isn't a priority. Instead, I am trying to provide up-to-date information that won't be readily available elsewhere. You can already find information on the government that was appointed at the end of September, 2004, for example. You can, of course, also find pictures of Mongolia, with a short explanation accompanying most of them.
Another part of the site is intended as a resource for researchers on Mongolia. I've put up the official transcription system adopted by the Mongolian government. I will also be slowly making available historical documents and books, most of which are probably not available elsewhere outside of Mongolia, and aren't common there, either. At this point, the documents are all in Mongol bichig, but I will eventually add others in Cyrillic as well. Non-specialists are welcome to browse the section as well to see what sort of material is available. I've provided glosses of the titles / subjects for the various documents in English.
In keeping with my goal of making the site accessible and useful to as many people as possible, I have tried to explain my research and other academic ideas and concepts in fairly straightforward language. I haven't, however, dumbed down the ideas I'm talking about, so the information should be of use to anthropologists and others interested in a particular area as well.
This site is also very much a work-in-progress. I think everyone says that about their web sites, but in this case, it has additional force because I'm using the site as an excuse to teach myself HTML and CSS. No FrontPage or DreamWeaver here. (Well, for various reasons, I've had to switch to Dreamweaver as my HTML editor, but it's all hand-coded. And allow me to clarify: I have nothing against people who use DreamWeaver or FrontPage. I simply mean that this site is all hand-coded.) Purists, I'm sure, will have a heart attack, as I've written what I can figure out relatively easily using CSS, and the rest is a hodge-podge of ugly HTML. I hope to get it all into CSS one of these days.
Please note: This site - like any internet site - is copyrighted. That includes both text and photos and files. Please do not simply take my text or photos to use on your site without permission. If you want to use text or photos, please ask. So far, I have not said no to anyone. And when I thought it was a worthwhile site, I've included a link on my link pages. Thank you.
The menu on the left will take you to the various subsections of the site. Feel free to contact me with suggestions, feedback, etc. Have fun exploring!