Björn Reichhardt

I am a Social Anthropologist interested in landscapes, borders, infrastructure, multispecies ethnography, and more-than-human relationships.

After obtaining my bachelor’s degree in Human Geography at the Free University of Berlin, I completed a master’s program in Central Asian Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2016, where I studied the Mongolian cultural region and the Mongolian language.

In my dissertation, I focus on how material and immaterial boundaries have an impact on the perception of environments and security in the context of post-socialist uncertainty in Mongolia. I investigate the historical, social and material conditions from which particular spatial practices emerge as well as the socio-spatial agency exercised by boundaries, roads, and the liminal spaces they create.

As a researcher at the National University of Mongolia (2016-2017) and at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH, 2017-2021), I have conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mongolia. During that time, I began exploring how artisanal dairying is impacted by the interconnectedness between herders, animals, local ecologies and growing infrastructural development. Here, I focus on microbial starter cultures as vital heirlooms of social and economic value for Inner Asian dairy producers.

List of publications

Journal articles

2022

Reichhardt, B. and Abrahms-Kavunenko, S.: “Plastics, Purity and Sacred Dairy: Microbes, Life and Purification in Mongolian Dairying” Copenhagen Journal for Asian Studies (under review)

2021

Reichhardt, B., Enkh-Amgalan, Z., Rest, M., Warinner, C.: “Enduring Cycles: Documenting Dairying in Mongolia and the Alps” Current Anthropology. Special Issue: “Cultures of Fermentation” edited by Matthäus Rest, Jessica Hendy, Mark Aldenderfer and Christina Warinner. https://doi.org/10.1086/716065

Reichhardt, B.: “From anatomic analogies to arrhythmic timescapes: Roads and development in northern Mongolia” Central Asian Survey. Special Issue: “Technology, temporality and the study of Central Asia” edited by Julia Obertreis and Jonas van der Straeten. https://doi.org/10.1080/02634937.2021.1957777

Reichhardt, B.: “Pastoral Dairying in Rural Mongolia: Microbes as Heritage” Archaeology of Food and Foodways (1). https://doi.org/10.1558/aff.15577

2019

Taylor, W., Clark, J.K., Reichhardt, B., Hodgins, G.W.L., Bayarsaikhan, J., et al.: “Investigating reindeer pastoralism and exploitation of high mountain zones in northern Mongolia through ice patch archaeology” PLOS ONE 14(11): e0224741. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224741

2018

Klausmann, K., Coppenrath, F., Petrova, M., Mamadshoeva, D., Reichhardt, B.: “To transfer, but not to serve? Central Asian Studies Inside Out – a workshop report” ASIEN 148. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde. Pp. 78-90. https://doi.org/10.11588/asien.2018.148.14397

 

Book Reviews

2021

Reichhardt, B.: “Review of Embracing Landscape: Living with Reindeer and Hunting among Spirits in South Siberia by Selcen Küçüküstel” Inner Asia (forthcoming)

2019

Reichhardt, B.: “Review of Pastoralist Livelihoods in Asian Drylands: Environment, Governance and Risk edited by Ariell Ahearn, Troy Sternberg with Allison Hahn” Nomadic Peoples 23(1). Pp. 143-147 https://doi.org/10.3197/np.2019.230107

 

Websites and Online Databases

2020

Reichhardt, B., Rest, M., Warinner, C., Enkh-Amgalan, Z.: Dairy Cultures Ethnographic Database https://dairycultures.org/ethnographic_data/

Reichhardt, B., Rest, M., Warinner, C., Enkh-Amgalan, Z.: Dairy Cultures https://dairycultures.org/