Academic Year 2012-2013
Fall 2012
Himalaya Through Film and Text
South Asian Studies (SAST) 372 & Anthropology (ANTH) 338
& Film Studies (FILM) 329
Spring 2013
Himalayan Languages and Cultures
South Asian Studies (SAST) 369/569 & Anthropology (ANTH) 353/553
Academic Year 2011-2012
Himalayan Languages and Cultures
South Asian Studies (SAST) 369/569 & Anthropology (ANTH) 353/553
Spring semester 2012, Tuesdays 3.30-5.20pm
Hall of Graduate Studies (GHS) 301
Brief Outline of Class
In this seminar, we explore the Himalayan belt as a unique case study in the human condition and the distinctive adaptive strategies of smaller communities. Straddling the Indosphere and the Sinosphere, the Himalayan region is of profound geopolitical importance and home to enormous biological, cultural and linguistic diversity. Through reading relevant ethnographies, and by our careful study of the lives and livelihoods of some of the communities settled in and across Himalayan mountain states, we will ask probing questions about territory, identity, belonging and ideology.
Class Aim and Objectives
Envisioned as a mental journey or ‘trek’ through this rugged region, the core intellectual work of the class has been designed to support students who wish to develop sophisticated analytical tools for understanding complex cultural, linguistic and political identities. While focused on the Himalayas, this seminar offers participants insights into issues of classification and categorization that affect us all.
Who defines the scope of a region such as the Himalayas, and how are the people within its boundaries categorized and ordered? Are language, caste and ethnicity primary and personal labels of attachment and belonging, or are these rather identities imposed by the State? What is a ‘mother tongue’, and do you have to speak it to claim it as your own? What happens when nations disagree about the extent of their borders or the scope of their territories? For example, why does Mount Everest have so many different names and which countries claim it as their own? Who first climbed the mountain, and why? And was the historical Buddha born in India or Nepal, neither or both?
Yale students click here to access a detailed syllabus.