ABSTRACT
The concept of ‘fortune’ (xishig) permeates many aspects of Mongolian social life. It motivates practices that involve separating (avax, salgax) a piece from a person, animal or thing at moments of departure or transition, and then containing (xadgalax) it in a different form. In this chapter, I use the concept of fortune to think about things that are either displayed on top of or concealed inside the chest kept in every Mongolian household. Thinking about the Mongolian concept of fortune through these things will allow us to question what kinship is, or looks like, in Mongolia. It reveals that the containment of a part, when separated from a whole, is essential for the maintenance of different kin relations. Furthermore, the invitation to ‘see’ kin relations through these things elicits the realisation of different relations at a single moment in time. When viewed together, they can be said to reveal a person made from each of the parts. Examining the means by which a thing is contained and the access people have to it, as well as its intended audience, will show how kinship is constituted through the separation of people and attention to things. In conclusion, I suggest that in the absence of people, the doing involved in making things visible or invisible makes relations. In this sense, ‘vision’ becomes the tool by which relations are created.
