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Hwan-Young Park
Inner Asia 5(2003): 143-162
This paper focuses upon changes that have occurred in the use of metaphors and ideologies of kinship in post-socialist Mongolia. Three major kinship metaphors and symbols (bone, blood and flesh), which were used historically and are now in the process of being transformed, are examined. It also looks at various types of non-kin relations that imitate kinship. Then I outline the ways in which the new metaphors of 'blood' are involved in the discourse of ethnicity among the Halh Mongols. The metaphors of blood and 'link' (hamaatan) are applied to new types of bilateral relations today, showing that kinship has been extended in new directions. By the same token kinship elements are metaphorically extended to other types of human relations. The extension of kinship metaphors to other human relationships suggests that the trust and reliability associated with kinship relations are highly valued among people in the transitional period of post-socialist Mongolia.
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