I-IV I General Editor's Preface V Foreword IX Introduction 1 Section 1 General Issues Fourfold Classifications of Society in the Himalayas 7 Kinship and Culture in the Himalayan Region 27 Cultural Implications of Tibetan History 37 Homo hierarchicus Nepalensis: A Cultural Subspecies 43 Hierarchy or Stratification? Two Case Studies from Nepal and East Africa 53 Himalayan Research: What, Whither, and Whether 67 Section Two the South Asian Perspective Actual and Ideal Himalayas: Hindu Views of the Mountains 77 Stratification and Religion in a Himalayan Society 83 Changing Patterns of Multiethnic Interaction in the Western Himalayas 103 An Additional Perspective on the Nepali Caste System 111 Maiti-Ghar: The Dual Role of High Caste Women in Nepal 121 Dhikurs: Rotating Credit Associations in Nepal 141 The Role of the Priest in Sunuwar Society 167 A New Rural Elite in Central Nepal 179 Nepalis in Tibet 187 Modernizing a Traditional Administrative System: Sikkim 1890-1973 205 Bureaucracy and Bureaucrats: A Few Themes Drawn from the Nepal Experience 227 Section Three the Central Asian Perspective The Retention of Pastoralism among the Kirghiz of the Afghan Pamirs 233 Correlation of Contradictions: A Tibetan Semantic Device 251 The White-Black Ones: The Sherpa View of Human Nature 263 Tibetan Oracles 287 Some Aspects of Pön 299 Tibetan Bon Rites in China: A Case of Cultural Diffusion 309 The Saintly Madman in Tibet 327 Trans-Himalayan Traders in Transition 339 Tibetan Communities of the High Valleys of Nepal: Life in an Exceptional Environment and Economy 359 Tibetan Culture and Personality: Refugee Responses to a Culture-Bound TAT 365 Εthnogenesis and Resource Competition among Tibetan Refugees in South India: A New Face to the Indo-Tibetan Interface 395 The "Abominable Snowman": Himalayan Religion and Folklore from the Lepchas of Sikkim 421 Section Four Perspectives Merged: The Newars Notes on the Origins of the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal 433 Symbolic Fields in Nepalese Religious Iconography: A Preliminary Investigation 447 Intercaste Relations in a Newar Community 461 The Role of the Priest in Newar Society 483 Structure and Change of a Newari Festival Organization 505 A Descriptive Analysis of the Content of Nepalese Buddhist Pūjās as a Medical-Cultural System with References to Tibetan Parallels 529 Biographical Notes 539 Index of Names 547 Index of Subjects 553
