2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
hitting a nerve, March 23, 2006
"What is authenticity except anthropology in its most profitable guise?" (229)
In Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas, Vincanne Adams (1996) provocatively takes on not only long-cherished images of Sherpas, but also an underlying paradigm of much of the anthropological enterprise. That she hits a nerve is perhaps indicated by the two other readers' reviews, which would in fact deserve to be cited in a new edition (and not just for their entertainment value): rather than dismiss them for obviously not getting the point, the American reader's demand to "stop scrutinizing those lovely folk", and the Sherpa's for both a more favorable and a more "substantial" (i.e. essentialist) portrayal of his people, can both be read more profitably as a defense of each group's interests in face of what to them seems like an attack on the Sherpas, but what is in fact one on misconceived notions of authenticity and reality.
Still, the concerns voiced here hint at a problem this book is self-consciously trying to overcome: how can analytical rigor be reconciled with the interests of the people one studies? How, in other words, can we avoid disempowering those we speak of, and at the same time avoid simply reproducing the very discourse that we are trying to study - even if, as in this case, it seems to be working to the satisfaction of both sides involved? The solution offered here is especially interesting as it uses the parallels between postmodern theory (esp. Baudrillard, Taussig, Ricoeur) and Buddhist philosophy to displace the perspective from a Western to a Sherpa standpoint, however scripturalized and elitist it may be. Mimesis thus happens here not only in the analysis, but also to the analysis. Before going further into the mimetic uses of Buddhist philosophy in anthropological discourse, however, a brief look at the key terms and arguments in this book is in order.
What are "virtual Sherpas"? Adams starts with an old meaning of virtual - "possessed of certain physical qualities" (20) - and points out that this certainly fits the case of the Sherpas. Since their first encounters with Western mountaineering expeditions, they have been ascribed admirable physical qualities such as endurance and climbing skills, which continue to define Sherpa identity even today. However, the argument does not stop at Middle English: since, as she points out, virtual Sherpas have no original to mimic, they actually emerge as the product of a meeting of Western desires to find a better self in an Other, and Sherpa desires to be better Sherpas by fulfilling the Westerners' desires. Thus, in contrast to Homi Bhabha's "almost-but-not-quite reality" of colonial mimesis, a hyper-reality is created - that is, Sherpas who are more real than the actual reality.
Virtual Sherpas are produced through mimesis; and this statement already indicates the definition of the term. Following Paul Ricoeur, Adams argues that mimesis, normally defined as the imitation of nature in art, is not to be seen as copy, but creation and construction (18). In the particular context of the Sherpas, mimesis is "a process of identity construction - the imitation of what is taken to be one's "natural" self by way of the Other, through whom one's constructed identity is made visible to oneself." (17) And this is what Tigers of the Snow is about: how the images by which Sherpas have been portrayed (discussed in chapter one) are internalized by them through specific apparatuses for producing Sherpa "authenticity". The apparatuses discussed here are biomedicine (chapter 2), Buddhism (chp. 3), shamanism (chp. 4), and an economy in which social relations and culture are worth more than money (chp. 5). After all, virtual Sherpas are produced not only along the lines of physical feats of strength and endurance: they are also ascribed the desirable character traits that Westerners perceive themselves to be lacking. In a way, then, Sherpas are the "better Westerners", but at the same time they need to remain different and exotic enough to function as acceptable denizens of Shangri-la, as the unwitting spiritual role models for those Westerners wishing to undergo mimesis themselves. To make up for this reciprocal inequity, furthermore, the Sherpas must also be seen as in need, and worthy, of aid which the West can provide, like schools, hospitals, and, more fundamentally, money. Here we see that the seemingly unidirectional mimesis of the Sherpas adapting to Western imaginations works in both directions: Westerners engage in mimesis as much as the Sherpas, not only in their quest to emulate their imagined spiritual qualities but also when they feel compelled to live up to the social expectations of their Sherpa friends.
What emerges here is reminiscent of a virtual mirror cabinet, where images are reflected and refracted endlessly, and any question of authenticity becomes moot. However, the move beyond authenticity is also one beyond its opposite: just because Sherpa identity is revealed to be the product of a mimesis between the desires of Sherpas and Western tourists, development workers, and anthropologists, does not mean that it is all just fake - a clever performance in the interest of business. In the contrary, Adams argues that there is no "backstage", no place where the Sherpas live their "real" lives, no locus of such an authenticity. The fact that Sherpas obviously engage in image management does not mean that this image is inauthentic. Nor does the fact that in anthropological analysis both authenticity and culture have ceased to be useful analytic tools mean that the same terms aren't at the same time highly important discursive symbols for Sherpas and others. As especially chapter 5 argues, Sherpa authenticity and culture are eminently marketable products, and also strategic "gifts" (in the form of granting Westerners access to what they consider the "backstage" of Sherpa life) in order to "seduce" them into mutually beneficial relationships.
Considering that Sherpa identity in this mirror cabinet emerges as essenceless, ephemeral, and unfixed (see the two irritated critics below), Mahayana Buddhist doctrine about emptiness and impermanence becomes a useful conceptual framework. Considering, furthermore, the Buddha's statement - when asked how suffering and ignorance began - that he did not see any beginning or origin, this is all the more useful to counter the somewhat nagging question about the "original" subject in this mimesis, the one that was blown up from normal reality into hyper-reality. Most importantly, apart from being a successful - despite many dangers and complexities - experiment in using a non-Western conceptual framework in a serious way, this analytic move achieves two ends: it calls attention, once again, to the fact that the lack of essence and permanence doesn't undermine "authenticity" (it does so only when authenticity is wrongly defined as permanent and essential, and this is the important critique this book makes), and in doing so, it addresses the concerns of the Sherpas, who rely on their intact "culture" and "authenticity" for their (economic) survival. The term "virtual Sherpa", to return to the book's title, sums up the argument perfectly.
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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The anthropology of ambivalence, May 26, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas (Paperback)
The "Tiger of the Snows" medal was awarded by the Himalayan Club in the Pre-Everest (1953) days to Sherpas who proved themselves especially able mountaineers and even worthier companions; in all given to less than 20 stalwarts. Ang Tsering (still alive today), for example, went on to gather the German Red Cross award in Nazi Germany for his role in the Nanga Parbat epics, possibly the only non-"aryan" who was so willingly decorated by a government whose ideology was infamously race-driven. To Vincanne Adams however, the tweed suits behind the desks of the Himalayan Club and other such admirers of these mountain folk would all be conforming to her curiously self conceptualised, pseudoanthropological theory of projection and counter projection of the entities of "virtual sherpa" and western sahib. A somewhat bizarre, supposed pantomime of masochistic role-play that everyone but everyone in the Adams' world of barf-driven academia apparently indulges in. To the memory of the mostly dead Tigers of the Snow, she does a special injustice as she does to the Sherpas in the other valleys of Nepal, and the desendants of the original pioneers in Darjeeling, India, whose numbers together far exceed the 3000 Khumbu Sherpas she so desparately attempts to bracket into the "seductive native" category. As a sherpa whose education and advancement has been singularly detatched from the "jindak"(sponsor)- "needy native" equation, I was able to read this book in mostly cold fascination - the strongest conclusion I could draw from her narrative being this thought that dinner-time at the Adams' household must be a somewhat macabre experience, where Papa Adams conforms to some role or other dealt him by Mama Adams, who watching science-eyed, patronises the chairs and tables for their lack of original thought. In highlighting her marvellous discovery of the clay feet in the otherwise golden climber- entreprenuer-siren type chimera sherpa, she fails to deliver anything substantial that distinguishes the common sherpa from the common westerner or the common aborigine or the common native american when the delimiters of education and culture are wuthdrawn. There isn't meant to be any, is what Buddhist luminaries have been trying to say for a long time I think. In terms of content, I once saw a documentary of the chimpanzees of Gombe that said more to me in the first 10 minutes than this book did in its entirety.
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