GORKHALI AND KIRANTI: POLITICAL ECONOMY IN THE EASTERN HILLS OF NEPAL.

摘要

This study examines the origins of contemporary plural society in Nepal's eastern hills and the convergence of historical, political and socio-economic forces which have, in the last two centuries, served to integrate the ethnically diverse inhabitants of the region into an interdependent peasantry. Of central concern are the processes by which the indigenous Tibeto-Burman language speaking populations of the eastern hills, known collectively as the Kiranti, have been incorporated into a centralized Hindu (Gorkhali) polity ruled from Kathmandu, and the consequent transformation of their own patterns of production, social organization and ethnic identity.;Historical and economic developments peripheral to the eastern hills region are also examined inasmuch as they have had considerable impact on social and economic relations at the local-level. These include: the opening of the ranks of the British army in India to recruits from eastern Nepal; the growth of a tea plantation economy in Darjeeling which was largely dependent on migrant labor from the eastern hills; and, more recently, the development of commercial agriculture in Nepal's Tarai region.;This regional approach to the study of eastern Nepal's society and economy provides a broad understanding of the historical processes of acculturation, class formation and political development which have shaped the agrarian social formation of the Nepal Himalaya.;Data derived from field research conducted among one Kiranti group, the Bantawa Rai, is correlated with anthropological studies of related groups and with both oral and documentary historical accounts pertaining to the settlement of eastern Nepal in general. These data provide the background for an examination of the village-level relations of production and exchange which link Kiranti populations with the predominantly Hindu cultivators and artisans who have settled among them since the time of Gorkhali conquest. The village economy is considered within the context of a regional market system which links a variety of merchants, artisans and peasants occupying a diversity of production environments with a wider national and international economy.