Wearing a wolf’s ankle bone on the belt and showing one’s virility. Analysis of a Buddhist concept of « life force » (hiimor’) among Mongolian hunters.

In Mongolia, among the nomadic herders of sheep, goats and horses, the wolf is the main enemy of the herds and a prestigious prey. It is feared because it can hurt many herd animals without eating them and it is also admired for its intelligence. The wolf is the dog of the spirit master of the land, which owns and protects the wild animals living in it. Killing a wolf is never random, it isn’t killed but “given” by its supernatural master. According to a fragmentary Gelukpa Buddhist ideology, only a virtuous hunter can be granted such a prey and incorporate its vital potential (hiimor’). After the kill, the successful hunter attaches one of the wolf’s ankle bones (taken from a back leg) to his belt. The hunter’s wife cannot wear a wolf’s ankle bone because it would affect negatively the vital force of her husband. Only elder men can wear a coat made of wolf’s furs and drink its raw blood. The furs and the blood are too “hot” and too “strong” for women and children. The fur can be attached to the northern wall of the yurt – the most respected one – or fixed on a jeep’s boot. The question I want to address is why a dead wolf’s parts have to be seen. What point of view do they create in the eye of the viewer? What is their “agency” (Gell 1998)? What do they reveal about men, women, elders and shamans’ bodies?