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In the Circle of the Dance: Notes of an Outsider in Nepal - Paperback | Diverse Reads

In the Circle of the Dance: Notes of an Outsider in Nepal

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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.

ISBN-13: 9780801485923

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Publication Date: 04-09-1999

Pages: 240

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Age Range: 18 Years

Katharine Bjork Guneratne lives in St. Paul. She has taught history at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College.

What People are Saying About This

Don Brenneis

An insightful and compelling book. The thoughtfulness of the author's engagements, the reflective perspective characteristic of her story, and her recurrent consideration of the theme of 'familiar foreignness' rather than exoticism have shaped a singular account. She treats often unconsidered issues such as tourism and its local implications, identity and quotidian discrimination, gender, and the complexities of relative wealth.