Sherpas through their rituals / Sherry B. Ortner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ortner, Sherry B., 1941-

Series:

Cambridge studies in cultural systems ; 2.

Cambridge studies in cultural systems ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sherpa (Nepalese people)--Religion.

Sherpa (Nepalese people).

Buddhism--Himalaya Mountains Region--Doctrines.

Buddhism.

Himalaya Mountains Region.

Physical Description:

xii, 195 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, [1978]

Summary:

The Sherpas of the Himalayas practice Tibetan Buddhism, a variety of Mahayana Buddhism that has never before been studied in its social setting by an anthropologist. This book is at once a general interpretation of Sherpa culture, an examination of the relationship between the Sherpas' Buddhism and other aspects of their society, and a theoretical contribution to the study of ritual and religious symbolism. In analyzing the symbols of Sherpa rituals, Professor Ortner leads us toward the discovery of conflict, contradiction, and stress in the wider social and cultural world. Following a general ethnographic sketch, each chapter opens with a brief description of a ritual. The ritual is then dissected, and its symbolic elements are used as guides in the exploration of problematic structures, relationships, and ideas of the culture. The author uses these rituals to illuminate the interconnections between religious ideology on the one hand, and social structure and experience on the other. A key factor is the dimension of Buddhism that emphasizes the ideal of individual autonomy and social withdrawal. This is reinforced by the Sherpa society's tendency toward individualism, an inclination rooted partly in the private property structure. Professor Ortner's analysis of the rituals reveals both the Buddhist pull toward exaggerating the isolation of individuals, and the secular pull that attempts to overcome isolation and to reproduce the conditions for social community.

Contents:

1 Introduction: some notes on ritual 1

2 The surface contours of the Sherpa world 10

Economy 14

Social organization 18

Religion 30

3 Nyungne: problems of marriage, family, and asceticism 33

The ritual 34

The problems of the ritual 36

Merit making and social atomism 36

Gods, parents, and social sentiments 41

Ascetic ideology and the crisis of the children's marriages 43

The solutions of the ritual 48

The fostering of altruism 48

Nyungne as passage to postparenthood 52

Ascetic ideology and family structure 55

4 Hospitality: problems of exchange, status, and authority 61

The party 61

The problems of hospitality 65

The problem of giving and receiving 65

The power of food 68

Problems of status, power, and authority 74

The solutions of hospitality 78

The "empty mouth" principle and the etiquette of giving and receiving 78

Seating and joking: the party as politics 82

"Civilized" coercion and the reproduction of hosts 85

5 Exorcisms: problems of wealth, pollution, and reincarnation 91

The rituals 92

The do dzongup 93

The gyepshi 95

The problems of the rituals 98

Demons, greed, and social predation 98

Pollution, disintegration of self, and subversion of the social order 103

Reincarnation theory and the social order 110

The solutions of the rituals 113

Exorcisms as purifications: reconstituting the psychic hierarchy 114

Rich and poor: resynthesizing the social hierarchy 120

Self and social order: dilemma 125

6 Offering rituals: problems of religion, anger, and social cooperation 128

The ritual calendar and the rite of offerings 129

The problems of the ritual 132

Torma and the body problem 132

Gods, demons, and the problem of moods 137

Hospitality, anger, and body 141

The solutions of the ritual 144

Bodying the gods 147

The molding of anger 149

Hospitality: mediating religion and the social order 152

7 Conclusions: Buddhism and society 157

The ritual mechanism 163.

Notes:

Bibliography: pages 187-189.

ISBN:

0521215366

OCLC:

2681061