Origins and Migrations: Kinship, Mythology and Ethnic Identity among the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal
Author: Martin Gaenszle
Category: Nepal   
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The Book

This is the first published anthropological monograph on a Kiranti mythology in its social and historical context. Based on in-depth fieldwork in the Arun Valley (in the Makalu-Barun area) the study examines the narrative tradition of the Mewahang Rai and its intrinsical links to the idiom and practice of kinship. This approach elucidates the traditional notions constitutive of a self-image (e.g. concepts of personhood, territory and landscape). It is shown in ethnographic detail that Úethnic identityÛ here is multi-layered and contextual rather than monolithic. For the Mewahang Rai the present is rooted in a history of ancestral origins and migrations.

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About the author

Martin Gaenszle teaches at the Department of Ethnology at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. He was resident representative at the South Asia Institute in Kathmandu from 1987-1993. Since 1984 he has been engaged in research on the Mewahang Rai of East Nepal. He obtainded his doctoral degree from Heidelberg University in 1989 and received the venia legendi (eligibility for professorship) in 1998 after completing a study on Mewahang Rai oral ritual texts and their social contexts (which is presently prepared for publication). He is co-editor of ÚVierte Heidelberger Südasiengespräche: Nepal und die Himalaya-Region. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. 1995Û (with Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt), and ÚHimalayan Space: Cultural Horizons and Practices. Zürich: Völkerkundemuseum. 1999Û (with Balthasar Bickel).