Contents: Preface. Contributors. Introduction: Hiroshi Ishii, David N. Gellner and Katsuo Nawa. I. Urbanization, ethnicity and occupation: 1. Urbanization and change in Pokhara, Nepal/Jagannath Adhikari. 2. Occupational change among the Gaines of Pokhara City/Biswo Kallyan Parajuli. 3. Changing environments, society, and culture: case studies of some Dalits and Kumals in Pokhara Valley/Ram B. Chhetri. 4. The Sukumbasi Transformation from communitas to community: the birth and death of 'Proto-Charisma' among Squatters in Pokhara, Nepal/Yuji Yamamoto. II. Marriage, kinship and transformation of intimacy: 5. Abduction, elopement and incest in Khas Society/Hayami Yasuno. 6. 'I Don't Mind Being Born a Woman': the status and agency of women in Yolmo, Nepal/Seika Sato. 7. Parental wisdom vs. youthful romance: getting married in two Nepalis Communities/Sarah LeVine. 8. Laments for unfortunate marriages: domestic violence in the Nepali context/Makiko Habazaki. 9. Drug users of Dharan: aspects of Marginalization/Khusiyali Subba. 10. Learning to be silent: change, childhood, and mental health in the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal/Judith Pettigrew. III. Transnational links inside and outside Nepal: 11. The development of local entrepreneurship: a case study of a tourist area, Thamel in Kathmandu/Izumi Morimoto. 12. Re-examining transnational from below and transnationalism from above: British Gurkhas' life strategies and the Brigade of Gurkhas' Employment Policies/Taeko Uesugi. 13. 'Bowling Together' : social networks and social capital of a Nepali Migrant Community in Japan/Keiko Yamanaka. 14. From Tika to Kata?: Ethnic Movements among the Magars in an age of globalization/Makito Minami. IV. Nepal as viewed from the Indian Himalayas: 15. Issues, activism, and responses to research in the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas: a comparison/Gerald D. Berreman. Abbreviations. Glossary. Personal name index. Subject index.

"Situated in Northern South Asia at the interface between different linguistic and cultural areas, Nepal contains huge ethnic, cultural, and socio-political diversity. At the same time, it has had to confront far-reaching social change in an extremely compressed timescale. This volume attempts to encompass these transformations and the resultant complexity through a series of in-depth case studies.

Part 1 focuses on Pokhara, an important urban hub in West Nepal, and deals with urbanization, evolving ethnic relations, and occupational shifts. Part 2, 'Marriage, kinship, and transformation of intimacy', covers questions of gender, social relations, marriage, drug use, and coping with the Maoist Insurgency, in various parts of the country. In part 3, 'Transnational Links' different chapters cover Gurkha Soldiers, tourist developments, migrant workers, and Ethnic Movements. Part 4 consists of one substantial chapter, 'Nepal as viewed from the Indian Himalayas', in which Gerald Berreman makes a series of direct comparisons between the Indian and Nepalese Himalayas.

This is first of the two volumes entitled Social Dynamics in Northern South Asia. The volumes bring together scholars from Japan, Nepal, India, Europe and America in order to deepen our understanding of social change in the region, on the basis of fresh fieldwork reports and new analyses." (jacket)