Sherpa settlement and subsistence: Cultural ecology and history in highland Nepal.

摘要

This is a geographical study of a century of change in land use and environment in Khumbu, the high-altitude valleys inhabited by the Sherpas of the Mount Everest region of Nepal. Agriculture, pastoralism, forest use, and local resource management institutions are analyzed from a cultural ecological perspective on the basis of field observation, interviews about current practices, and oral history analysis. All four Khumbu valleys and eight main villages are considered. Land use is discussed in the context of settlement history, local environmental and agronomic knowledge, cultural values and beliefs, and past and present linkages with the trade and tourism sectors of Khumbu economy. The environmental impacts of resource use are treated from the perspective of historical landscape change.; This study challenges a number of earlier assumptions about Sherpa land use. Nineteenth and twentieth century agriculture and pastoralism were more historically dynamic than previously realized. Farming and herding practices were continuously modified as a result of the introduction of new crop varieties, re-evaluation of agronomic knowledge and belief, declining use of Tibetan winter pastures, and change in regional trade conditions. Local forest and pastoral management systems were more diverse and complex than previously depicted, but were also less effective than has been assumed in regulating the environmental impacts of subsistence practices. Recent changes in agriculture, pastoralism, and forest use reflect not only the effects of increasing Sherpa involvement in tourism but also institutional change and new trade and market patterns.; Khumbu Sherpa land use patterns reflect efforts to adapt to the limitations and opportunities of a difficult high-altitude environment. But other factors have also been of fundamental importance, and land use practices have often reflected decisions based on socio-cultural values and concern with satisfying short-term subsistence resource requirements rather than concerns about long-term environmental sustainability. These findings suggest that common assumptions about the role of environmental adaptation in highland societies require more careful consideration, with closer attention to local practice in both historical context and local perspective.