MIASU Research Seminar: Christian Sorace

Christian Sorace (University of Cambridge)

Chinggis Khan’s Mother, Placenta, and a Critique of Sovereignty  

In this seminar, we will read the laments of Ho'elün addressed to her son Temüjin, who would later become Chinggis Khan. The passages will be circulated in advance. I will argue that these texts — inexplicably overlooked in scholarship on The Secret History of the Mongols — contain a critique of her son’s consolidation of sovereignty. The seminar asks: how should we treat these passages? And how might Chinggisid sovereignty be reevaluated from the perspective of Temüjin’s mother? I will be drawing on a chapter from my forthcoming book Steppe Immunity: Reimagining Political Futures from Mongolia (Stanford University Press, 2027): https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/steppe-immunity