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The sad effect of globalization…
or the positive effect? These kids are getting an education instead of being forced to work at a young age…and while that might be a “western” value- I don’t think that earlier life in rural Mongolia should be sentimentalized as a bucolic experience.
Hang on, there’s a satellite dish in one of those “past” photos.
if you don’t know anything else then the life you live, the life you live is fine….
And what’s education mainly for anyway? So the government has more workers to make them more money…
So yes, sad effect of globalization….
Uhh… Education is the only reason you’re typing that comment right now. Without education we wouldn’t be able to learn and progress our society to the level it’s at right now.
Things change over time
There is, in fact, a radar dish in one of the “old” photos. And the kid in another of the “old” photos is sitting on a motorbike. Mongolia’s an amazing place: the nomads (about half the population) are making use of education, technology, and, yes, globalization, to improve their ability to do more efficiently what they’ve always done: move herds from summer to winter pastures, and back, and back again. They live in gers because they’re easily transported; they wear deels because they’re practical. And they wear tee shirts under them. I agree with Emily that the rural life was never bucolic, and I think we run the risk of patronizing the Mongolians to think life on the steppe isn’t better now than it once was. But I also don’t think we need to worry too much about their culture being globalized out of existence. It’s a feature of Mongolian culture that it’s always been eager, not to adapt to new technologies and products, but to adapt new technologies and products to itself, and then keep going.
Nomads will send their children to the city to get an education since public education in nomadic areas died off with the onset of the independent CAPITALIST government. The kids in the city for school are separated from their families, living with relatives. There are also a lot of children living ALONE and HOMELESS in the cities (living in the sewer systems orphaned or with remaining family) because their nomadic families could no longer subsist without governmental support of the programs that helped them before independence. The other unspoken truths in this photo is that some of the differences in dress are simply the difference between winter and summer. Traditional dress makes more sense in a Mongolian winter. Interesting photos, but they are just moments out of context.