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worldtravelstephanie OP t1_j3oln3z wrote

Reply to comment by DolceFulmine in I am Stephanie, and I spent time amongst arctic/Siberian nomads. AMA! by worldtravelstephanie

Daily life: almost forgot to answer that one! So, it’s very very seasonal for both peoples I was with.

In Siberia it was more gender segregated with very specific roles and taboos. I wake up very early and gather wood and brush for fires, I then usually cooked, put the bedding away, watching kids is communal so I was always had someone’s child in tow, then helped sew clothes and gather food. The key was to always have a fire, and always have tea on! Evenings was more cooking, cleaning, and making beds. Plus seasonal activities regarding reindeer breeding and health. Other duties were moving camp every few weeks, tanning hides, preserving meat, etc.

In Mongolia in was less gender segregated and my daily schedule varied substantially more. Always when I woke up, I kindled the fire and milked the animals. Then made cheese, milk, or something else. In winter you don’t move camp, so you are settled down and have more consistent duties. Animal care, fire making, cooking, cleaning, mending, etc. Lots of entertaining other nomads who come to visit. In summer you move a lot, so it’s animal care, putting up and taking down camp, herding, cooking, collecting animal poop for kindling as there aren’t many trees, and hunting. I was with eagle hunters (using eagles for hunting) and so I was given a juvenile eagle to train, that takes up a lot of the day!

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Dogsaregoodfolks t1_j3pkf8p wrote

Can you talk more about the cheese making process? What type of cheese was made?

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worldtravelstephanie OP t1_j3pp6u6 wrote

For sure, I don’t think cheese is the best translation, it is more curd like and either fresh or dried (rock hard) and saved throughout the year and eaten by dipping in tea or other liquids to soften. It is called ‘aaruul’ in Mongolian. When you milk the goats you lightly heat the fresh milk and a film on top is created, you strain the liquid from that thick film(not sure the real English term?) and then place the film (usually a few inches thick) on a flat piece of tin or wood and place it on the roof of the yurt (ger/tent) and let it dry. Depending on when you want to use it that varies the drying time. It is so dry there (landlocked country with almost no humidity) it basically dehydrates. When we moved about in early summer near melt rivers we could not make it dry enough for long term storage due to humidity. It is a pretty simple process and sometimes the dried pieces grow a thin layer of mold and those pieces are considered extra tasty.

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archlea t1_j3qdtny wrote

How did you find the food? Was there anything you didn’t like initially, or anything that you didn’t grow to like? Did you partake of everything, and was this hard or easy?

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worldtravelstephanie OP t1_j3s8vp8 wrote

Both peoples have very different food than I was accustomed to, for sure. Not a lot of vegetables. In Siberia they eat a lot of raw meat, in Tavan Bogd they drink so much of this lard+milk+tea drink (it’s very thick and rich). I did partake of everything, as both groups are very pushy about eating. Sometimes it was hard, especially at first as my stomach took a while to adjust and my bathroom breaks were not fun. To this day there are certain foods that just the thought of makes me have a sour taste in my mouth (preserved/pickled duck) and my stomach never grew to like par boiled animal intestines. Both groups like them. But, I loved the dried bread of the Kazakh nomads, and they have certain animal meat that I ended up really loving and sometimes still crave.

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