Natasha Erika Fijn

Preliminary abstract: ‘Multispecies Medicine in Mongolia’ is a filmic inquiry into the medicinal practices Mongolian herders use to treat their families and the herd animals they live amongst. This multispecies-based analysis will add to a greater understanding of pastoral knowledge practices, more-than-human sociality and perceptions towards other beings. Herding families in the Khangai Mountains live in harsh environmental conditions and are crucially reliant on herd animals as a means of survival. The circumstances surrounding illness involves dealing with the vulnerabilities of life and death amongst family members, including herd animals, on a daily basis. Focusing on the treatment of animals when they are ill is a good means of drawing out ritual practices and attitudes toward Significant Others: a fascinating window into Mongolian herder cosmology and worldview toward other beings. The video-based findings inform the interdiscliplinary fields of human-animal studies and the environmental humanities, engaging with the current literature on different ontologies within anthropology, while contributing to academic discussions surrounding zoonoses, multispecies ethnography, nature-cultures and processes of domestication.