"mongolian" mace

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by Battara

Fascinating that they still use these.

yeah, well the chinese government removed their firearms and theres little cultural echange between the inner mongolian and outer mongolian ethnic groups in the last 150 years or so.. so many of these things stayed current.

in outer mongolia even during communism guns very very common.. both old antique locally made flitlock muskets and russian and soviet made rifles.. protection and hunting was done with modern arms,
because of this bow hunting totally died knife making became rare.. axe making dissapeared totally.. .. in inner mongolia the when the area was transferred to the chinese post ww2 there was mass confiscations of firearms (and eliminations of said owners many times) the russian, german and japanese modern guns were all seized as were most matchlocks (different from outer mongolias flint guns) only afew loyal minions were permitted by the chinese to aquire .22 toz rifles inexchange for marmot pelts being designated commercial hunts.. (theres also another lil rodent they shoot for fur... cant remember its name.. like a small marmot) this was in the 50s so i think since then exceptionally few have had access to newer guns. this meant that traditional archery survived as a practical thing not just a game like their brothers over the boarder.. all these aspects along with persecution from the chinese authorities, mass settlement on their land and mass killings organised by the government in the 40s, 50s and 60s caused the populations, which are already fragmented by ethnicity to stick more closely to old customs and to remain largely outside of the chinese state, which is/was viewed as a hostile alien occupier .. .. so old and very archaic things survived.. just like in tibet, many people still wear swords or long knives in rural isolated areas or hunt with slings and crossbows because their muskets are taken or the punishment is to high if caught..

theres probably better ways to kill a wolf but killing it with a throwing flail, a mace or a throwing axe is the way they always did it and so such things survive. ive shown mongolians the inner mongolian boomerangs and for them its as alien as a boomerang is to an englishman.. so theres a big cultural devide between the two collections of groups..