‘Fast’ and ‘Slow’: Abstract Thinking and ‘Real Experience’ in Two Mongolian Non-Pastoral Modes of Travel

Abstract

This paper discusses two non-nomadic modes of transport in 1930s–60s Mongolia: the horse relay system and the goods caravan. It suggests that each of these should be seen as a ‘mobility constellation’ involving entanglements of mobility, narrative and practice, and implying different social relations and experience of the environment. It is argued that the relay system in particular involved abstract distance–speed calculation and that this enabled the conception of extensive cross-border geographies. The paper also explains why herders who took part in (fast) relay and (slow) caravan duties greatly preferred the latter.