“オトル”ノート

モンゴルの移動牧畜をめぐって

抄録

The Mongolian word otor means a herding camp separated from a home base camp. The movement of animals to the herding camp is also called otor, and is directed by the herdsmen only while other family members remain at the home base camp. So, we can translate the core meaning of otor as referring to transhumance.
While sedentarization is necessary for pastoral nomads to obtain social and cultural services, they are forced to move more often than they previously did in order to intensify the use of pastures. It is transhumance or otor that enables them simultaneously to achive a sedentary life while changing pastures frequently to increase production. In recent years, sedentarization is changing the form of otor journeys from extra movement added to seasonal ones between summer and winter camps into more purely seasonal ones around temporary settlements.
Untill recently otor of horses has been the most popular. In winter, except for a few kept for riding, horses are not necessarily kept near the home base camp. And they are ideally taken far from the home base camp to reserve pastures for other animals. In winter when the conditions of pastures deteriorate, it is more desirable to remove the horses away than in any other season. From descriptions about Inner Asian pastoral nomads, we can cite many examples of otor, which refer to the herding of horses to distant pastures separated from winter camps. Winter otor of horses usually exploits the pastures not suitable for summer use, for example those which are swampy or sandy.
Natural hazards, known as zod (blizzard) or gan (drought), often cause otor journeys to distant pastures.
In addition to these otor journeys, another type of otor is becoming prominent. This is frequent movement of sheep herds at short intervals and short distances in summer, in order to intensify the use of pastures. Manuals about pastoralism and sedentarization cite many instances of this type of otor.
A form of otor known as örgön alisalt is projected as a model in these manuals. About 5 households, each head of which controls the same kind of animals, come together to the base camp. Herdsmen take animals to pastures leaving family members at the base camp, which is now a settlement though not permanent. Wives and elders take care of sick or weak animals which have been left behind.
The manual about overcoming problems of zod records 11 cases of otor, most of which are summer herding of sheep. They emphasize that frequent movement in summer resulted in overcoming severe winter weather without a loss of animals, due to their improved health.
One case of this is otor of ewe herds after lambing. They are separated from the base camp even in summer. This case suggests that milking of ewes is diminishing and that sheep raising is being specialized for mutton and wool, while cattle husbandry is mainly dairy farming. This type of otor is the symbol of change from pastoral nomadism into stock farming which still retains nomadic characteristics.
Otor is a key word in understanding the present realities of Mongolian pastoralism.