Spring 2000 I1·T7q

18 Spring 2000 jN·JGI IJ! . '1!'·::;,li!!J II~.~:a i1·t7Q EUROPEAN BULLETIN OF HIMALAYAN RESEARCH The ElJropeall BIJIJeIItr of Hlmaloyan RuetlrCfI is tbe product of collaboration betweell aeademics 8IId researchers with III interest inlbe Himalayau. regiOIl ill several European EBHR 18 SPRING 2000 COWltri". It was founded by the late Professor Richard Burgbart in 1991 ami has ap peared twice yearly ever since. It is edited 011 a rotatlll8 basis betWecJl Germany, France Below the Surface of Private Property: Individual rights, common property. and aodthe UK. the Nepalese kipar system in historical perspective. The British editmship coasista of: Micbael Hun (Managing Editor), David Gellllef, William Wemer M. Egli 5 Douglas, Ben CampbcU (Reviews Editor), Christi811 McDoaaugh. J08JIIIe Moller, Maria PbylacloU, AIIdrew Russell ami Swya Subecli. Muslim Mobilization and Ihe Slate in Nepal, 1951-95. Mollic. D.stider 20 Email: [email protected] Ethnic Categories and Their Usages in Byans. Far Western Nepal Col!IributiDg editors are: Katsuo N.w. 36 FrIaI:e: Marie Lecomte-Tilouine. Pucale Dol\fus. AIIIIC de Sales On the Complexity of Oral Thldition: A reply to CI.us Peter Zoller's review essay CeIItre Natiooale de la Recherche Scientlftque. UPR 299 'Oral Epic Poetry in the Central Himalayas: 7. rue Guy Moquet F-94801 ViIlejuifceclex Jolm Leavin 58 cmaU: [email protected]./i' Oermany: RepnI1s Martin Oaenazlc. And'" HOfer Sakyadhita Conference in Lumbini 79 Sildasien Instltut Universilil Heidelbcrg Britain-Nepal Academic Council 80 Im Neueohcimer Fold 330 D-69l20 Heidelberg email: [email protected] Reviews SWilzedapd· Nepalese Shamall Oral Texts by Gregory G. Mask.rinec. J08JIJI8 Pfalf-Czamecka Reviewed by Andras HOfer 82 Et/mologiscbcs SemiIIar der Universilit Zurich Freienstoinstrasse S CH-8032 Zurich Celebre/·le POltvoir. Dasai, ulle fite royale au Nepal edited by Gisele Krauskopff and cmail: jooMa·[email protected] Marie Lecomte-Tilouine. Reviewed by Andr.s HOfer 88 For subscription infonnation, please consult the EBHR website at hIIp:lldakini.orienl.ox.ac.lJlrlebhr On Ihe Edge of the Auspicious: Gender and Caste ill Nepal by Mary Ca meroQ. or comaet the publisher. Reviewed by Ben Caropbell 95 Publications Office School of Oriental and African Studies The Thakali; A Himalayall ethnography by Michael Vinding. Thornhaugh Street Reviewed by Mark Turin 97 Russell Square LOlldon WC I H OXO emaiI: [email protected] Kalhmandtt Valley Painting- rhe Jllcker Collection by Hugo E. Kreijger. Reviewed by lulia A.B. Hegewald 100 ca,.,,,. Door . ShY . Door: Pailllillgs of Mllstallg by RobeI1 Powell with an ElHIl Illtroduction by Roberto Vitali. SOAS Centre Nallooale de la Recherche Scientiflque Siidasien Reviewed by Clare Harris 102 I nndcm Paris ISSN 0943 8254 Egli 5 John Leavitt teaches in the Department of Anthropology at the Universite de Montrea l, Ca nada, specializing in linguistic anthropology, symbolic anthropology, and poeti cs. He has done fi eld research in the Central Himalayas and among South Asian immigrants in Canada, and research in comparative Indo-European mythology and poetics. Hi s publica tions include papers on conceptualizi ng South Asian civi li zati on (Comribllliolls to Indian Sociology, 1992), on possession and shamanism in the Himalayas (TransclIltllrul Psychi Below the Surface of Private Property: Individual rights, common atric Research Review, 1994), on the anthropology of emotions (American Ethnologist, 1996), and on bovine mythology in India and Ireland (Cosmos, 2000), as well as the edited property, and the Nepalese kipa? system in historical perspective volume Poel1Y and Prophecy: The anthropology 0/ inspirafion (Uni versity of Michigan Press, 1997). Werner M. Egli Werner Egli is Senior Lecturer (Privatdozent) in the Department of Social Anthropology This arti cle I will investigate the following questions: (a) how was it possible for some (Ethnologisches Seminar) at Zurich University. His publications include Bierfiir die AllIlel!. Kiranti villages in east Nepal- maybe onl y a tiny minority'-to largely maintai n their Erbrecht, Tallsell ,md Ritual be; den Smlllwor Ostnepals (, Beer for the Ancestors: the Iraditiona l rights in landed property over the course of the last 200 years? (b) what were laws of inheritance, exchange and ritual among the Sunuwar of East Nepal'), Frankfurt the Illae ro·sociological conditions which enabled this development? (c) which special char a.M.: Vcrlag fUr Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 1999. He is currently researching the acteristics of the groups concerned favoured the survival of traditional rights? inheritance systems of tribal and peasant societies from a cross-cultural perspective. I do not adopt the mainstream perspective on the investigation of the Nepalese kipa! sys Katsuo Nawa is Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Institute of Oriental tem oflalld tenure which was initiated by Caplan ( 1970), adopted by Sagant ( 1978), Muller Culture, University ofTokyo. He received his MA and PhD from the University ofTokyo. ( 1984), and olhers, and continued by Forbes (1999). This focuses on lhe di scontinuity in He has published several articles on ethnic categories and rituals in Byalts, Far Western the historical change from collective rights in land to private property, from tribal to state Nepal, including 'The Worship of Deities in Byans, Far-Western Nepal' (Jollmalo/the law, frolll a clan-based economy to a market economy, or as U a broad shift in local-na Japanese Association/or South Asiall Swdies 10 (1998; in Japanese», and 'Ethnic Cat tional political relations, a shift shaped by Nepal 's transfonnation from a kingdom on the egories and International Borders: The Case ofB y aDs, Far-Western Nepal' (Jollmal o/the edge oflhe British empire to a nation-state on the edge ofan international market economy" IlIdiall AllIhropological Society, 33-1(1998) . In addition to revising his PhD dissertation, (Forbes 1999: 11 6). Instead, I try to show that the often neglected individual rights be· he is currently preparing an article on language use in Byans. longing to the kipa! system had a continuity, beneath the surface ofprivat. property. In so far as this article is a contribution to recent trends in the discussion of common property resource management systems, it shares tbe criticism contained in Hardin 's neo-classical MoWca Dastider received her PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 1999, theory, the ' Tragedy of the Commons' (1968), which shows that "pri vatisation and gov for her thesis 'M in oriti es in Nepal: A study orthe Muslim community '. She is at present ernment control are not the only mechani sms to affect the use of natural resources. There working in Germany, with the support of a post-doctoral fell owship granted by the Friedrich is a middle way: rules developed at the community level" (Acheson 1989: 358). Its con Ebert Stiftung, on a project entitled ' Minority Identity and Managing I nter~Group Con sequences coincide with Neefs conclusion in his recent study of the Djerma and Fulbe in fJi cts in Plural Societies I. which makes special reference to anti-Christian violence in In Niger and the Fon and Ayizo in Benin, that a government should not introduce private dia and anti -foreigner violence in Gennany. Her publications include Religious Minori property rights, or insist on their effective applica tion in instances where they have been ties ill The Hindu Kingdom o/Nepal (New Delhi: Nirala Publi ca tions, 1995), 'Muslims introduced already, if special circumstances exist, such as "high social cohesion of the of Nepal 's Terai' lEcollomic alld Political Weekly o/India, March 4·1 0, 2000), ' Looking Beyond Kargil: eed for peoples' in iti ative (Maillstream 37:32, 1999), 'Nepal 's Fledg I This article is based on a tal k given at the Blockseminar der Schwe ize rischen Ethnologischen ling Democracy (MaillStream 35:52, 1997), and ' SAARC Decade Action Pl an for the Girl GcselIschaft in 1998, WIder the title 'Kollektive und lndividuelle Eigenrumsrechte bei uibalen Gruppel1 Child' (Maillstream 31: 17, 1993). Nepal s im Laufe der neueren Gesehichte'. Por critical remarks on a draft of that talk I am indebted to Or Joalma Pfaff-Czamecka. Zurich University. 2 E,'en though I think the investigated case is not unique, the proverbial heterogeneity of the Kirantis from illage to village (Vansina rt 1980: 66f.) must be taken into consideration, 6 EBHR 18 Egli 7 local population, low ethnic and socio-culrural diversity, low conflict potential and insti Sun.uwar ~ial organization is characterized by a segmemary lineage system with rules of tutional pluralism" (Neef 1999: 263). fiSSIon whtch are exemplarily described by Evans-Pritchard for the Nuer (Gaenszle 1991: 213). Each exogamous patrician. most of which are named and localized. is subdivided The Sunuwar: a brief outline of tbe main ethnographic references IItto maxlmall~neages. These are subdi vided into minimal lineages. Each segment has its The Sunuwarl or Koinch, as they call themselves, live at the fOOl of the Everest massif. own ances.tor rtlual. The minimal lineage is not only a ritual communi ty but also the main They number approximately 30,000, and they are the original inhabilants of the area into unit of IO stHutton a ll ~ed e~change and pennanent cooperation. Cross-cousin marriage, which which the well-known Sherpa migrated during the 16" eentury (Oppitz 1968). Their lan ,~as probably practised In former times (Gaenszle 199 1: 183f.), is nowadays strictly for guage belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family and together with the Rai , Limbu, Hayu. and bIdden. U IS not the homontal principle implicated in marriage alliance, but the vertical the Surel, a Sunuwar subgroup, they form the kiriillli. who are often considered to be Ihe prlnctple ln~phc8led In the descent rules which shapes social organiza tion and the sphere hi storical descendants of the legendary kiriira mentioned in the Vedas (Singh 1990).

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