Nature, Culture and Religion at the Crossroads of Asia explores how ethnic groups living in the Himalayan regions understand nature and culture. The first part addresses the opposition between nature and culture in Asia’s major religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Shamanism. The second part brings together specialists of different representative groups living in the heterogeneous Himalayan region. They examine how these indigenous groups perceive their world. This includes understanding their mythic past, in particular, the place of animals and spirits in the world of humans as they see it and the role of ritual in the everyday lives of these people. The book takes into account how these various perceptions of the Himalayan peoples are shaped by a globalized world. The volume thus provides new ways of viewing the relationship between humans and their environment.
Marie Lecomte-Tilouine is Senior Researcher in Social Anthropology at CNRS, France, and teaches at the Institut National des Langues Orientales, Paris. She has recently published Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal (Collected Essays), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009.
Introduction - Marie Lecomte-Tilouine
PART I – Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Shamanism
At the Articulation of Nature and Artifice - Charles Malamoud Nature and Culture in Tibetan Philosophy - Stéphane Arguillère Allah, Saints and Men in Islam - Marc Gaborieau Variations in Shamanist Siberia - Roberte N. Hamayon
PART II – Himalayan Case Studies
To be more Natural than Others - Marie Lecomte-Tilouine Subjectivity and Governance in the Himalayan Environment - Ben Campbell Political Aspects of the Territorial Cult among the Mewahang Rai - Martin Gaenszle ‘Wilderness of the Civilization’ - Subhadra Mitra Channa Love and Vengeance in Indus Kohistan - Claus Peter Zoller Conceptions on Tibetan Relics - Rachel Guidoni Plant Growth Processes and Animal Health in Northwest Yunnan - Andreas Wilkes Terrace Cultivation and Mental Landscapes in Southern Yunnan - Pascal Bouchery The Sacred Confluence, between Nature and Culture - Chiara Letizia