Fernanda Pirie

Segmentation within the state: the reconfiguration of Tibetan tribes in China's reform period

Despite the upheavals of collectivisation and reform, the nomadic pastoralists of Amdo, in the north eastern part of the Tibetan plateau, maintain that they substantially retain historic forms of tribal organisation. The governmental structures of the modern Chinese state have replaced the hereditary rulers, kings and monastic leaders, who formerly exercised leadership over the nomads’ tribes. However, ideologies of revenge and practices of feuding still characterise relations between tribal groups. Moreover, the nomads continue to turn to senior Buddhist lamas as mediators, despite the criminal sanctions imposed by the police. It is suggested that these elements represent a continuity in tribal forms within the framework of control now exercised by the modern state. An uneasy relationship between tribes and state has long characterised this region and continues to do so in the modern world. Keywo rds: Tibet, China, tribes, nomads, Buddhism, government

The Limits of the State: Coercion and Consent in Chinese Tibet

Although Chinas Tibetans profoundly mistrust the ideologies of the party-state, associating them with illegitimate practices of domination, protest and revolt are rare and effectively suppressed. This might be seen as quasi-colonial domination, the state securing subjection through the performance of paramount power, demonstrated by its suppression of the 2008 protests, or it could be attributed to a form of indirect rule, by which local officials engage with local leaders to generate hegemonic consent. While both dynamics are present on the Tibetan plateau, ethnographic fieldwork among the Tibetan populations of Qinghai and Gansu Provinces reveals that consent is primarily generated by local officials who negotiate a form of local order with religious and tribal leaders. Ignoring the ideological demands of their superiors, they engage constructively with the expectations of the Tibetans about how order should be maintained and, in doing so, subvert the states ideal of uniform and unitary sovereignty.

Introduction: exploring the comparative in socio-legal studies

Among the diverse approaches to comparison in socio-legal studies those that employ qualitative research, richness of detail, and attention to context are the focus of this special issue. The Introduction draws on comparative law and social science literature to argue that comparison amongst studies of laws in contexts can follow different trajectories: the comparison may start from an assumption of similarity—in form, purposes, or context—in order to identify significant differences; or it may identify significant similarity across social and cultural divides. What unites many of the projects of comparison undertaken by qualitative empirical researchers is that the points of relevant comparison are identified within the complexity of the empirical studies at hand; and they are allowed to emerge, or change, as the researcher comes to understand the facts and issues more deeply.

Pupillage: The Shaping of a Professional Elite

The UK professions have come under pressure, both commercial and governmental, in the last decades of the twentieth century. Commercial forces have had an impact on their structures and labor processes, while what has been termed a new culture of “managerialism” is evident in increased bureaucratization and regulation, both internal and external. There is disagreement among analysts, as we outline later in this chapter, over the extent and effects of such pressures—some writers allege that they have resulted in deprofessionalization and loss of identity, whereas others emphasize the professions’ resilience and continuity in identity and professional commitment. In anthropological terms, this raises the question of whether professions can still be considered as elite groups, in the sense outlined by Cohen (1981). In this chapter we take an anthropological approach to these issues, in the case of the Bar of England and Wales (the Bar), one of the longest established of the UK’s professions. We ask whether the new managerial ethos has undermined barristers’ identity and status, and whether commercial pressures have undermined their position as legal professionals. We do this by examining recruitment and the vocational training undertaken by new entrants, given that barriers to entry have often be regarded as one of the most notable characteristics of an elite or status group (Abel 2003).

Law and Religion in Historic Tibet

Buddhism provided legitimating ideas for political authority in Tibet from at least the eleventh century.1 The Ganden Potrang government of the Dalai Lamas, which administered central Tibet from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, explicitly promoted a concept of harmony between the religious and the political. However, what place did law occupy within this ideological scheme, and what were the practical links between religious and legal practices? In a book on The Legal Cosmology of Buddhist Tibet, French (1995, pp. 345–46) suggests that “religion permeated the secular legal system in the form of Buddhist standards, logic, factoring, jurisprudential concepts, and reality shifts that moved argument into otherworldly reasoning”. Religion, in her account, dominated Tibetan attitudes to conflict, which they related to incorrect vision caused by one of the six root afflictions in Buddhist philosophy (1995, p. 73), leading them to interpret legal cases in terms of inner morality, afflicted mental views, and the true nature of reality (1995, p. 288).

LEGAL COMPLEXITY ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU

Abstract The dominating nature of the legal and judicial control exercised by the Chinese government over the Tibetan pastoralists of Amdo masks a host of complex relations by which they maintain order. Rather than analysing the relations between them in terms of domination and resistance, it is suggested that there is both adaptation and resistance among the pastoralists to the new normative landscape and both acceptance and avoidance by them of new structures of authority. The two do not coincide and the issues of norms and authority must be kept separate in order to explain why the pastoralists rely on government officers to determine boundaries and prevent conflict, on the one hand, while regarding them as without authority to resolve their feuds, on the other. Moreover, in adjusting to the government of the Chinese state the pastoralists do not always pursue their political interests, rather allowing their responses to be shaped by fundamental ideas about the nature of order and the sources from which it can and should be sought.

Dancing In The Face Of Death: Losar Celebrations In Photoksar

It is generally agreed that the central themes of the Ladakhi New Year, Losar (lo gsar) celebrations are the chasing away of the old year, with its bad or inauspicious elements, and the welcoming in of the new. Photoksar, a village of 200 people in the Lingshed area, is a long day?s walk from the nearest road and separated by high passes from the neighbouring villages in either direction. The Galden Ngamchod commemorates the death of Tsongkapa , the founder of the Gelukpa sect of Buddhism. On all the following days of Losar the Babar and Api-Meme are at the centre of the celebrations, the Babar acting as masters of ceremonies and the Api-Meme as their assistants, always accompanied by the Mon . The culmination of the events of Losar lies in the creation and destruction of the storma . Keywords: Api-Meme ; Babar ; Ladakhi New Year; Losar ; Losar ; Photoksar

Book Review: Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India

In this elegant and well-informed study of politics and performance in Ladakh we have an anthropological account which places the region firmly in its recent historical and political context. The literature on Ladakh has been dominated by finegrained ethnographies, which tend to emphasize both the isolation of the region and its religious and cultural connections with Tibet, to the east. Aggarwal turns, instead, to the south and west, to consider the Ladakhi experience of the colonial encounter, the politics of the Indian state, the conflict over the line of control in Kashmir and the region’s internal political turmoils and communal tensions. The often divisive effects of such events are analysed by means of an ethnographic focus on a number of political and cultural rituals in the capital of the region, Leh, and in a village close to the disputed line of control. The choice of village is pertinent, due to its mixed population of Buddhists and Muslims, between whom tense relations were exacerbated by politically-driven communal conflict in the 1980s. This village is also close to Kargil District, an area neglected in Ladakhi anthropology, which Aggarwal draws firmly into her discussions. This material allows her to analyse inherent tensions, divisions and hierarchies in Ladakhi society, as well as those that have been engendered by recent political events. State and regional politics structure the discussions of the opening sections. Aggarwal describes the staging of Independence Day ceremonies, contrasting official models of citizenship with the aspirations of those involved in contemporary communal struggles, and she continues with an analysis of the Ladakhi Buddhist Association and its attempts to institute social change in Ladakh. Later chapters assess the position of women in Ladakhi society, the status of the lower castes and relations between the Buddhist and Muslim populations. Aggarwal interweaves these discussions with material from historical accounts, colonial writings, the images constructed in feature films, village rituals and new cultural festivals. In doing so she skilfully unites many of her wider themes concerning the construction and experience of borders, the performance of identity and cultural plurality. The focus on all these topics is, for the most part, innovatory in the context of Ladakhi anthropology and is much to be welcomed. Aggarwal is particularly strong when discussing the political history of the region, of which she has a commendably deep knowledge. Given this multiplicity of themes it is, perhaps, not surprising that the village ethnography, around which her discussions of women and lower castes in particular revolves, is, at times, less than convincing. The reader gets little feel for the routine concerns, the agricultural, social and religious practices with which Ladakhi 493