Extraordinary Estonians, disappearing Duha

Tourism imaginaries and imperial identity economies of Northern Mongolia

Bibliographic Data

ID11450367
AuthorsMari Valdur (0000-0003-3300-5599, University of Tartu, corresponding author)
Year2026
Pages1-22
Publication date2026-03-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCentral Asian Survey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-4937 • E-ISSN: 1465-3354
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02634937.2026.2623161
OpenAlexW7138848776
LanguageEN
References cited23

Similarly to other ‘disappearing’ exoticized groups, ‘the Duha’ in Northern Mongolia are subject to touristic fascination. Covering the background to tourism in the area, this ethnographic article shows how tour operators and regional geographies of imagination enforce imaginaries of ‘the Duha’ as reindeer-herding non-moderns. The accounts of tourists of various backgrounds, including the case of the ‘Estonians’, indicate the centrality of the professed extraordinary qualities of the tourists as groups and as individual selves. This forms an identity economy where lived realities of ‘the Duha’ are often imaginatively constructed, and secondary to the Western identity work and the harvesting of symbolic capital. The sourcing of an imagined touristic other towards manifold gains is a manifestation of present-day imperialism, where its continued (re)production involves areas that have previously been deemed peripheral to empires. The technologies of the imagination facilitating this include media production, celebrity culture and (imaginary) intimacies established through multi-directional healing.

China · Identity (music · Tourism · Tourism geography · Tourist industry · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Soviet and Russian History

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