Xot ail

The xot ail (also commonly transliterated khot ail) is a group of two or more households, typically related by kin, gathered as an organizational unit for pastoral activities. It may vary in size by region, but normally ranges from 6-7 households (i.e., individual yurts) in the forested steppe (xangai) region or 2-3 households in the Gobi (Bold 1996:74). The number of "active" workers in a xot ail is thus in the range of 10-12 in mountainous areas or 5-6 in the GOBI , bearing in mind that children and elderly members of the domestic unit will also generally contribute to day-to-day pastoral activities and household maintenance when possible. The term xot ail is a composite of xot, which refers either to a livestock enclosure or to a human settlement or city, and ail, which refers to "family" in the sense of both nuclear household (o'rx) and kin (to'ro'l sadan). Historical laws such as the 17th-century MONGOL-OIRADYN IX CAAZ and 18th-century XALX ZHURAM contain measures defining responsibilities of the xotyn ax or "senior of the xot" (e.g., Xalx Zhuram, Art. 21), leading some scholars to believe that the xot ail, represented by its most senior kin member, may have been the primary unit of administration of the historic pastoral economy (Cerenxand 1987b). Nonetheless, it is also important to note the significant diversity of administrative and governance forms in pre-revolutionary Mongolia. Other pastoral units existing prior to 1921 included groups known as shavinar, otog, xar'yaat or angi, herders who were considered direct subjects of the king, a monastery, or a prince, and who were charged with supplying meat, dairy products, and felt (see Natsagdorj 1967).

The xot ail was mainly replaced, following the collectivization of herders in the 1950s, by specialized herding units called suur' functioning within hierarchically-coordinated NEGDEL groups (state-run herding cooperatives) (Humphrey 1978); the xot ail has subsequently been revived, following decollectivization in 1992, as the primary unit of social and economic organization in the Mongolian pastoral economy (Bold 1996; Bazagur 2002). A fair level of public and academic discussion surrounded the nature and role of the re-emergent xot ail in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some Mongolian commentators have described the xot ail as a fundamental unit of economic organization that must be preserved within larger-scale, more formal structures, such as incorporated companies, partnerships, cooperatives, ranches, associations, or shareholding companies (To'mo'rzhav and Erdenecogt 1999:263).

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