ABSTRACT
The book closes with concluding thoughts on the future of Mongolia’s identity. It posits that Mongolian pastoralism provides the stage upon which “nomadism” can be imagined and performed for the foreseeable future – allowing the myth of the nomad to persist as long as pastoralism continues to exists in some form or the other in Mongolia. Nomadism is a powerful and unifying national myth for Mongolians and a convenient other for the west, reifying its superiority over the backward – though exotic – nomad.
