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Jiger Janabel is a post-doc affiliated with Harvard Inner Asia and Altaic Studies, who specializes in the history of Kazakstan and also aware of the present eco-problems in Kazakstan.


Abstract of paper given at Indigenous Traditions and Ecology conference:
The Popular Belief Versus Ecology in Medieval Kazakstan

The Kazaks, along with the Turkic nomads in the steppe, were committed to a long-uninterrupted process of carefully maintaining the balance between their pastoral nomadic undertaking and the eco-environment they inhabited. From a popular belief that harming wild animals would bring them a curse from God to periodically renewing their pasture lands under the guidance of the Kazaks' traditional knowledge, one sees the intensive interaction between humans and nature. The result was that the nomads knew how to utilize their environment to the fullest capacity without endangering it.


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Indigenous Traditions and Ecology conference participants