ann
(Ann)
#1
herder-livestock resource competition: milk
Milk was one such contentious resource. Qing policies in Mongolia were
generally conditioned by the existing environmental relations between
people and animals that long predated Qing domination. Milk and dairy
products derived from it were important material expressions of these
relations because this animal protein was the primary staple for both
Mongols and young livestock.
One such conflict between livestock, state, and local human priorities
emerged in 1736. Central authorities found that colts of two tofive years
among state herds in Shengjing and Inner Mongolia were so small and
physically debilitated that many would be useless for any of their official
transportation or breeding tasks. Mares’milk was the critical resource in
question because it was a source of both equine and human nutrition.
Mongols’“illicit milk consumption”(Ma:hūlhame sun be jetere) had
increased“to the extent that the colts cannot get enough to eat.”State
investigators’proposal was direct, if impractical for steppe conditions:
Simply order local state pastures to ban their Mongol herders’consump-
tion of mares’milk.^74
The superintendant in charge of the Shangdu/Dabsun Nuur pastures,
Ušish, explained the human-animal relationship that precluded the pro-
posed ban. He stated that in thefirst ten or so days after foaling, young
horses were permitted to run about to nurse freely. After this period,
however, they were tied up to prevent them from nursing. This quickly
taught them to rely on grass and water to pass the winter safely when
mares’milk was exhausted. They were freed again at night to resume
nursing, but in the interval when they were under restraint, Mongol
herders would milk the mares for human consumption. This would help
people securely pass the winter themselves by preserving some of the milk
in the form of sour fermented cakes (Ma:kūru).^75
Milk’s seasonal availability in summer and fall regulated living pat-
terns in the pastures and so became a factor in official deliberations over
these patterns. During a 1752 exchange on how to deal with more than
three hundred poor Mongols in the companies of the Chakhar Plain
Yellow Banner, the banner’s superintendant, Ušiba, argued that it would
be too difficult to integrate these poor people. More economically estab-
lished banner families would have trouble taking in refugees because they
would be unable to handle the increased consumption demands in winter
and spring when livestock gave no milk. The unavoidable result would be
internal strife.^76 Indeed, the winter-spring dearth was one of the main
140 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
