culture
Cultural symbols that derive from food and eating pervade high caste Hindu society in Nepal. A very similar preoccupation with food has been noted for other Hindu areas as well. In accent, it have been noted that there is psychologically and linguistically, considerable accent on 'the eating'. Food can be seen to be related to purity, pollution and caste ranking. There is seen to be an...
Gupha Basne (literally 'sitting in a cave') is a rite of passage among Brahmans and Chhetris of Nepal that marks the transition of a girl at menarche from a presexual to a sexual being. The author's study of these rites in the small Brahman-Chhetri settlement of Narikot revealed a feature of gupha basne rituals that appears curious at first sight: in these rites there is a...
This paper is a preliminary report on the marriage patterns among the Kham-speaking Magars of western Nepal. Unlike women in many Hindu groups in Nepal, Magar women exercise a fairly high degree of control over their own marriages. They marry later than women of most other Nepalese groups, often choose their own husbands, can divorce and remarry one or several times if discontent, and are not...
The Himalayas have long provided a contact zone for Hindus and diverse tribal groups. The experience of such contact in Nepal exhibits certain unique features that are rarely seen in other regions of Hindu south Asia. Interaction between these groups in Nepali had been a much more intimate affair than probably anywhere in the Indian subcontinent. Further, this information had occurred over a...
Dative Subject Constructions (DSC) being an areal trait, there have several attempts in the past to characterise them. Many authors have tried to present a systematic analysis of DSC in Hindi, Kansada, Nepali, Malayam and Telgu respectively. In the present study, the authors make an attempt to present systematic description of DSC in Hindi, Nepali and Marathi.
What are some of the spatial characteristics of sacred sites? This question can be answered by considering aspects of geography, the perpetual aspects of sacred space, and the geographic characteristics of certain cosmologies. This article examines some rather specific information about the spacial arrangements of selected sacred sites in the Kathmandu Valley and about perceptions of those...
This article describes and analyses the household among the Thakalis. It examines firstly the economics of the household and the inheritance system. Next the frequency of different household types is analysed in relation to residence pattern and the developmental cycle of the household.
The ideal norm among Hindus is the joint family household. One of the aims of this article is to show...
For the Newars of Nepal, the gwaye da tayegu is a ritual announcement of a later, larger ceremony. This article discusses the rituals carried out in the gwaye da tayegu ceremony which took place on Magh 1, 2035 (January 15, 1979). The rituals served to announce the Samyaka ceremony, which was observed on Magh 1, 2036 (January 15, 1980). The present discussion of the...
The Satars live in Morang and Jhapa districts in the eastern-most part of Nepal's Terai. They migrated to Nepal from Santhal Pargana and Choot-Nagpur of Bihar in India. Satas and Santals are of known common origin. In India they are called Santals while in Nepal they are known as Satars.
Two festivals, Sohari and Patamela, are highlights of Satar traditions. The reasons for celebrating...
Previous studies of vowel duration in various languages, including English, have shown that some factors affecting vowel duration are: i) the degree of opening of the vowel; ii) certain properties (voice, place, and manner or articulation, and "force" of articulation) of the following consonant; iii) linguistic structure, i.e. the nature of the phonemic contrasts employed by a given language;...
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