Open Collections

Amburgey, Emily; Binks, James; Gurung, Chulthim; Tso, Bendi

This review article engages with recent ethnographic research on ‘borders’ and ‘borderlands’ in the Himalayan region. We examine how recent scholarship published primarily between 2012-2018 engages with borderland theory as it intersects with issues of state building, ethnicity, language, religion, and tourism. As the scholarly canon moves away from disparate areas studies approaches, this paper investigates how Himalayan scholarship views borders as comprising a multivariate geographical, cultural, and political network of history and relationships undergoing continual transformation. As emerging scholars from both within and outside the Himalaya, we separate the article into four sub-sections that each connect to our respective interests. Our intention is not to propose an alternative conceptual framework or set of terminologies to borderland studies, but to bring together various inter-disciplinary approaches that view borders as sites of continuity and discontinuity, with the power to transform livelihoods for the better and at times perpetuate forms of violence and inequality.

Himalaya Mountains

Text

University of British Columbia. ANTH 545A

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0392539

Arts, Faculty of; Anthropology, Department of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/