In the Circle of the Dance: Notes of an Outsider in Nepal (Paperback)

by Katharine Bjork Guneratne (Author) "Tapainko bihe bhayo?" Our Nepali teacher paused in front of my desk..." (more)
Key Phrases: Ram Bahadur, Tulsi Prasad, Indra Prasad (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Feeling initially aimless and out of place in rural Nepal where she accompanied her anthropologist husband for a year of fieldwork, Katharine Bjork Guneratne turned to writing to make sense of her sojourn in the shadow of the Himalaya. The resulting book is both an acute portrait of a village and an intimate account of her struggles to adapt to a different way of life. Like the best cultural travel narratives, In the Circle of the Dance draws on the author's experiences to illuminate both exterior and interior worlds. Bjork's book is in many ways a primer on the realities of fieldwork, from setting up house to participating in the work of the village women to finding ways to communicate across cultural divides. It describes how this outsider achieved a gradual and provisional inclusion in the community, an inclusion represented by her participation in a traditional women's circle dance. The book also depicts the effects of modernization and tourism on a society that remained closed to the West well into this century, while offering comparative insights about wider South Asian cultures. The author's lyrical, frequently moving descriptions of everyday life guide her readers through the stages of her cultural apprenticeship. In the end, as Bjork joins the circle dance, she is a stranger to the community still, but a familiar and welcome one.

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801485924
• ISBN-13: 978-0801485923
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,042,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars very thoughtful and insightful, April 1, 2007

By	Joe Niemczura "nursing faculty" (Honolulu Hawaii) - See all my reviews

Before I travel I always look for a book to describe the country. I don't like the usual travelogue that might just describe the monuments or temples.

I look for one which describes the every day lives of the people there. And so I ordered this book.... wow. It is a description of rural life in a village in the terai of Nepal, the lowlands near the border with India. The author spent time with the local women while her spouse did his field work for an anthropology PhD. The writing goes between descriptions of rural life and includes some passages detailing what was going through her mind at the time in terms of how her own cultural background influenced her realtionships in the host culture. The perspective which she brought was amazing to me - a very mature and thoughful outlook indeed!

After my own trip to Nepal I will know more about whether to recommend this I suppose - but in the meantime, I enjoyed reading it, it was wonderfully done, and it stands by itself very well as an example of wonderful travel writing esp if you are interested in the daily life of people from a very differetn culture than our own...

Joe Niemczura
Honolulu Hawaii

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entering the Circle, June 3, 2000

By	rockcr (Texas) - See all my reviews

This book depicts the adventures of a young American woman staying in a Tharu village in Nepal. While her husband was there as an Anthropologist, she was there as a visitor. The author tries to adapt to everyday life in the village, and in doing so gives us a unique insight into what it is like to be a young Tharu woman--as the author, herself, goes through a period of discovery about what it means to be a woman.