As the story goes,
the tuvans/mongolians mimicked the sound of a specific mountain.
There's a mountain on the border between Tuva and Mongolia,
that under optimal wind conditions sounds like throat singing.
There aren't mountains like that everywhere,
but there has to be a culture of mimicking as well.
They sing "baah bahah" like sheep,
and they have a horn that sounds just like moose,
and ofcourse the horsehead fiddle can be made to sound like a gneigh of a horse.
This mimicking comes from their shamanic/animalistic heritage,
singing like the river is like communicating with it's spirit,
singing like a bird makes some of it's powers rub off on you.
So there's more then one thing going on,
ecology, culture, religion, probably even economy,
working together to create a social environment suitable for throat singing.
This socio-cultural history of throat singing in the region is also interesting for it's health aspects.
If I were to boldly compare throat singing to drugs;
Some drugs are sanctioned, legal, whilst others are not.
In Sweden we drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes,
killing ourselves every year, every day.
In Jamaica they smoke marijuana,
it's not legal, but it's mostly sanctioned behaviour anyway.
Taking alcohol in Sweden,
there's a bunch of social rules associated with it,
outside of the legal system.
We learn when to drink,
when to toast, when we've drunk enough,
when we should take care of our friend for drinking too much, etc.
(I have to say though, Swedes have a historical problem with overdoing vodka)
In cultures where alcohol is not sanctioned,
in arabic cultures for instance,
they don't have this social net of rules and security.
An alcoholic in an arabic country is more or less on his own,
because noone knows how to deal with it,
except total exclusion.
So it's easier to become an alcoholic in an arabic country,
given that you have access to alcohol and start drinking in the first place,
and when you are an alcoholic you don't get any help or sympathy
to help you stop.
Putting this example on throat singing (yeah, I know, it's a rather far-fetched analogy),
the siberians have a culture of throat singing.
They know when not to sing, (too cold outside, too early in the morning, too hungover, etc)
they know when they are doing something wrong, (too harsh voice, too loud a volume, too much pressure, etc)
and they know not to do stuff that would anger the spirits.
These unwritten rules, this common sense of throat singing,
which connected to the their social life,
help throat singers prevent getting sick from throat singing.
For them it's safe to throat sing.
For someone on the other side of the planet,
with no culture of throat singing,
it's easier to do something wrong,
and to keep on doing it.
I don't know exactly what would be that dangerous though.
There have been reports of people croaking,
but they had other health problems as well.
As long as you don't overdo it, you should be fine.
Still, it's not as Tuvans and such don't have a headstart in this.
