Order in Paradox

David H. Holmberg is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Cornell University.

A 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.(Journal of Ritual Studies) Graceful, clear, and cogent. A meticulous, insightful, and sensitive ethnography that is also a valuable theoretical contribution.(American Ethnologist) This 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.(Choice)

• 1. Introduction: Elementary Structures in Ritual Life2. Tamang Comparatively Reconstructed3. A Culture of Exchange and Its Paradoxes4. Panoramas of Cosmic and Temporal Orders5. Sacrificial Ordination6. Shamanic Soundings7. An Amonastic Buddhism8. Ritual Polarities, Mythic Imagination, and HistoryGlossaryBibliographyIndex