ABSTRACT
Anew cultural politics of environmentalism has emergedin debates over the relative claims to ecologically benignrelationships between the various ethnic groups of Nepal. This in turn has consequences for claims to territorial autonomy. Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (in this volume) identifies the ethnic fault lines that are created by such claims, and notes in particular how a Hindu, non-interventionist, abstinent regard to the natural world finds a correspondence with the international ideology of environmental conservation, implemented through protected areas. The Janajati ‘indigenous’ groups’ spokespersons argue for a greater natural connectedness of non-Hindu peoples and their religious practices, and for the legitimate recognition of relations to nature and supernature that celebrate reciprocal engagement with the non-human world, including the spiritual dimensions of hunting and sacrificial offerings to territorial beings. This raises several key issues about how to characterize ‘animism’ in Nepal, and how the idea of the environment as a singularized entity under threat from human activity, which lies behind projects to protect Himalayan biodiversity, can be problematized anthropologically, in order to understand Himalayan villagers’ resistance to regimes of nature protection.
