{"product_id":"order-in-paradox-myth-and-ritual-among-nepals-tamang-paperback-softback-9780801480553","title":"Order in Paradox; Myth and Ritual Among Nepal's Tamang (Paperback \/ softback) 9780801480553","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eOrder in Paradox\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eMyth and Ritual Among Nepal's Tamang\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eDavid Holmberg (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780801480553\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 14 July 1992\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e288 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.454 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eA major contribution to the ethnography of the Tamangs of Nepal. On this basis alone it would be an important work for Himalayan specialists. But it is also an interpretive work, and a work of culture theory. Holmberg's rich ethnographic description of Tamang ritual life is the basis for insightful interpretation, showing that the ritual practices, mythic visions, and fundamental structures of Tamang social existence are deeply interconnected. As an interpretive work, it is of interest to anyone interested in ritual and culture. Holmberg has done a superb job.\u003c\/p\u003e (Journal of Ritual Studies) \u003cp\u003eGraceful, clear, and cogent. A meticulous, insightful, and sensitive ethnography that is also a valuable theoretical contribution.\u003c\/p\u003e (American Ethnologist) \u003cp\u003eThis lively account of ritual, religion, and exchange in the Tamang society of Nepal is sophisticated and well written. Holmberg draws on his informative descriptions of Tamang Buddhism for comparativist insights into marriage exchange, caste, sacrifice, and the coherence of religious fields.... The study illuminates the diversity of types of sacrifice, the interplay of spoken and written ritual languages, and the paradox of exchange that differentiates while promising to unify. Holmberg eloquently testifies to the diverse, irreducible perspectives through which Tamang men and women attempt to unify a religious field defined by shamans, Buddhist lamas, and sacrificers.\u003c\/p\u003e (Choice)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eDavid H. Holmberg here examines the social forms, ritual practices, and history of a western Tamang community of Himalayan Nepal. Exploring the central question of ritual complexity, \u003ci\u003eOrder in Paradox\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates how a religious system that contains Buddhist, shamanic, and sacrificial practices may be understood as a whole.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHolmberg begins by recounting the history of the Tamang and reexamining the meaning of caste, tribe, and ethnicity in greater Nepal. Holmberg reveals how cultural patterns thought to be uniquely Tamang reflect this people's development of an \"involuted\" \"tribal\" form of Buddhist religious expression—an evolution he interprets as a result in part of the unification of the Nepalese state. Holmberg then offers descriptions of the culture, mythic imagination, and ritual field of the Tamang. Exploring both structural and historical dimensions of Tamang rituals, Holmberg shows how they form a system linked to a cultural logic of exchange upon which Tamang society is built. He also sheds light on the relationship between gender and ritual, considering in detail the close association between femaleness and the shamanic in Tamang culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. Introduction: Elementary Structures in Ritual Life\u003cbr\u003e 2. Tamang Comparatively Reconstructed\u003cbr\u003e 3. A Culture of Exchange and Its Paradoxes\u003cbr\u003e 4. Panoramas of Cosmic and Temporal Orders\u003cbr\u003e 5. Sacrificial Ordination\u003cbr\u003e 6. Shamanic Soundings\u003cbr\u003e 7. An Amonastic Buddhism\u003cbr\u003e 8. Ritual Polarities, Mythic Imagination, and History\u003ci\u003eGlossary\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52716778914072,"sku":"9780801480553","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/order-in-paradox-myth-and-ritual-among-nepals-tamang-paperback-softback-9780801480553","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}