Ambiguous Relations

This paper examines the relationship between women in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar who visit and become shamans and the violence they experience. It shows that in many cases, women’s engagement with shamanism arises in the context of physical violence from their husband or male kin. Yet this paper also resists functionalist explanations that render violence as the sole cause of shamanic practice. Such an account both risks dated theoretical reductionism and would speak in direct contradiction to the very claims and political tactics of women who become shamans. This paper shows that shamanic ritual is indeed a moral arena within which attributions of responsibility for violence are made. However, rather that providing a functional palliation of trauma, the ambiguity of the ritual articulates with the contradictions of intimate relations. Critically, women’s capacity to challenge violence is possible through maintaining and harnessing this shroud of ambiguity rather than removing it. This paper therefore attempts to write with this ambiguity instead of resolve it. The final argument is that a refusal of theoretical resolution can be a vehicle to a more successful conceptualization of social and gendered political empowerment rather than a failure.