Nation and Ethnicity in Mongolia

Abstract

The article examines the issues of ethnicity and nation in the context of Mongolia from the moment it gained independence until the present day. It analyzes the Panmongolian, socialist and post-socialist ethnic/national discourses, paying special attention to the practices of inclusion and exclusion of border groups (such as Buryats, Barguts, Tuvinians, and Mongol-speaking groups residing in Russia and China) in/from the category of the “nation”. The author considers the influence of the ethnographic discourse on the current ethnic policy in Mongolia, and discusses the trials of national identity construction leading to the ambivalent perception of Mongolians the outsiders as both “us” and “strangers”.