Fluid Boundaries - Hardcover

Fisher, William F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231110863 ISBN 13: 9780231110860

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2001

Synopsis

More than an ethnography, this book clarifies one of the most important current debates in anthropology: How should anthropologists regard culture, history, and the power process?

Since the 1980s, the Thakali of Nepal have searched for an identity and a clarification of their "true" culture and history in the wake of their rise to political power and achievement of economic success. Although united in this search, the Thakali are divided as to the answers that have been proposed: the "Hinduization" of religious practices, the promotion of Tibetan Buddhism, the revival of practices associated with the Thakali shamans, and secularization.

Ironically, the attempts by the Thakali to define their identity reveal that to return to tradition they must first re-create it -- but this process of re-creation establishes it in a way in which it has never existed. To return to "tradition" -- to become Thakali again -- is, in a way, to become Thakali for the very first time.

About this title

Book Description:

Examining the relationship between societal practice, historical processes, and culture in a Nepali society, this book tells the story of the Thakali's search for identity and their efforts to clarify and represent their culture and history.

About the Author:

William F. Fisher is associate professor of anthropology at Harvard University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0231110863
• ISBN 13: 9780231110860
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256