Parallel Excavations: Digging into Enchanted Landscapes

Authors

Maria-Katharina Lang nstitute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4998-7374
Baatarnaran Tsetsentsolmon Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, and Demography, National University of Mongolia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6265-4980

Digging, artefacts, mineral-resource extraction, archaeological excavation, ethnography, spirits

Drawing on three ethnographic examples from different research projects and based on collaborative

fieldwork, the authors develop an anthropology of digging by highlighting the effects, human and more-than-human

reactions, or resistance to the displacement of artefacts, the extraction of mineral resources and archaeological

excavations. How is the intrusion into Mongolian soil, which is widely considered as taboo, perceived from

different perspectives, for example by mobile herders, Buddhists, Shamans, drivers, archaeologists, and social

anthropologists? They argue that any form of digging the ground is seen as an intrusion that might provoke the

anger of local spirits and is deeply interwoven with the sacred landscape. Nonetheless the field work examples

also show that the interactions between humans and non-humans are flexible and adapt to the circumstances.

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