Discussions of religious ignorance have arisen contemporaneously with postsocialist frustrations and uncertainties in Ulaanbaatar. My interlocutors responded to discourses of Buddhist ignorance in a number of apparently contradictory ways. Mistrust, religious reverence, ambivalence or fear often coexisted with excitement, exploration and creation. Through frequently describing their own or others' ignorance about Buddhism lay Buddhists indicated that Buddhism, and the renewed possibilities of knowledge or ignorance about Buddhism, was a site of considerable importance. Also indicated was a change in Buddhist epistemologies from the pre-socialist era. This article discusses how talk about religious ignorance in Ulaanbaatar presented itself in a variety of complementary and conflicting ways: as a reflection of anxiety over lost traditions, a source of power and deference, and as a blossoming space for hope and religious enthusiasm.

The blossoming of ignorance: uncertainty, power and syncretism amongst Mongolian Buddhists

The ritual vases or bumba that are involved in a secretive Buddhist ceremony in Mongolia highlight the theoretical potential of centralizing material objects which instantiate doubt in anthropologi...

Tenuous blessings: The materiality of doubt in a Mongolian buddhist wealth calling ceremony:

THE IDEA OF COMPILING a biographical bibliography of Scandinavian anthropologists sprang from discussions among Grant McCall, lorn Pi0 of the Danish Folklore Archives, and me on Hultkrantz' article \"The Aims of Anthropology: A Scandinavian Point of View\" and the discussion following it (CA 9:289-310). We agreed that the article was misleadingly titled (see McCall's comment, CA 11:80) and that it did not attempt to give a broad view of Scandinavian anthropology. Indeed, when the article had first appeared in English in Folk, it was under the title \"Anthropology as a Goal of Research: Some Reflections.\" Somewhat disappointed not to find a broader perspective, Thomas Weaver, in his comment published with Hultkrantz' article, suggested that a survey be made of Scandinavian anthropology today.

Bertil Söderberg

Papers

Antelope horn whistles with sculptures from the lower Congo

Jingle rattles of puffin beaks

An ethno‐historic survey of family planning*

Musical Instruments used by the Babembe

Pre‐Christian hospitals*