Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture (Contemporary Ethnography) [Paperback]

Ernestine McHugh (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812217594 | ISBN-13: 978-0812217599 | Publication Date: January 22, 2001

American anthropologist Ernestine McHugh arrived in the foothills of the Annapurna mountains in Nepal, and, surrounded by terraced fields, rushing streams, and rocky paths, she began one of several sojourns among the Gurung people whose ramro hawa-pani (good wind and water) not only describes the enduring bounty of their land but also reflects the climate of goodwill they seek to sustain in their community. It was in their steep Himalayan villages that McHugh came to know another culture, witnessing and learning the Buddhist appreciation for equanimity in moments of precious joy and inevitable sorrow.

Love and Honor in the Himalayas is McHugh's gripping ethnographic memoir based on research among the Gurungs conducted over a span of fourteen years. As she chronicles the events of her fieldwork, she also tells a story that admits feeling and involvement, writing of the people who housed her in the terms in which they cast their relationship with her, that of family. Welcomed to call her host Ama and become a daughter in the household, McHugh engaged in a strong network of kin and friendship. She intimately describes, with a sure sense of comedy and pathos, the family's diverse experiences of life and loss, self and personhood, hope, knowledge, and affection. In mundane as well as dramatic rituals, the Gurungs ever emphasize the importance of love and honor in everyday life, regardless of circumstances, in all human relationships. Such was the lesson learned by McHugh, who arrived a young woman facing her own hardships and came to understand—and experience—the power of their ways of being.

While it attends to a particular place and its inhabitants, Love and Honor in the Himalayas is, above all, about human possibility, about what people make of their lives. Through the compelling force of her narrative, McHugh lets her emotionally open fieldwork reveal insight into the privilege of joining a community and a culture. It is an invitation to sustain grace and kindness in the face of adversity, cultivate harmony and mutual support, and cherish life fully.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A stunning, emotionally charged, intellectually stimulating, and aesthetically crafted fieldwork memoir. This is a book I will teach often, recommend to colleagues, and share with family and friends for its multifaceted delights."—Kirin Narayan, University of Wisconsin, Madison

About the Author

Ernestine McHugh is Associate Professor in the Humanities Department at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (January 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812217594
• ISBN-13: 978-0812217599
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #91,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Coming to Know Another Culture, May 26, 2001

By 

Alexandra Schultheis (Merrill, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

'Love and Honor in the Himalayas' will appeal to anyone who has ever desired to travel to distant lands and lose (or find) him- or herself in the invigorating freshness of new experiences, cultures, and friendships. Living as the daughter of a Gurung family in a remote Himalayan village in Nepal, McHugh experiences the incredible richness and immediacy of everyday high mountain life. Hers is a perspective unimagined by the casual tourist, and through her wonderfully rendered observations, we are challenged to look beyond our own comfortable Western lives at a culture that deserves our respect and admiration.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Book, March 15, 2003

By 

A Lover of Good Books (Gill, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

It's a shame this book was published by a university press that gave it such a dull academic-sounding title. The story you'll find within its pages is a wonderful eye-opening memoir that takes you deep into daily life in a tiny village in Nepal back in the 1970s--when the traditional way of life had not yet succumbed to the forces of globalization.

The author does what the best authors of memoirs do--she allows herself to become almost a transparent vehicle for you, the reader. You experience at a strange and exotic world peering through her eyes and reading her vivid descriptions. She keeps her analysis to a minimum but shows you enough that you can draw your own conclusions.

When I was done reading this book, the people she had described seemed so real to me it was hard to believe I hadn't met them myself.

Honest, authentic, and completely without the pretentious literary tone that ruins so many current memoirs. A great book!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, May 29, 2001

By 

John Comings (Auburndale, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture (Contemporary Ethnography) (Paperback)

If you have been to Nepal, were a Peace Corps Volunteer, or lived in another culture, you will love this book. The people in this Nepali village came alive for me, and the writer was honest about the pleasure and the pain of living in another culture.