Mesocosm: Hinduism and the Organization of a Traditional Newar City in Nepal

Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1999. First Indian Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/very good. Light shelf wear to the book; the jacket has a 2 inch closed tear to the front panel with light edge wear. First printing, no others noted. "Robert I. Levy (1924 – 29 August 2003, Asolo, Italy) was an American psychiatrist and anthropologist known for his fieldwork in Tahiti and Nepal and on the cross-cultural study of emotions. Though he did not receive a formal degree in anthropology, he spent most of his adult life conducting anthropological fieldwork or teaching in departments of anthropology."--from Wikipedia. "We will be concerned in this volume with the social and symbolic organization of the 99 percent of the city's (Bhaktapur) population who are called by others and by themselves Newars, and, for the most part, with the 92 percent of the city's population who call themselves not only Newars but also Hindus. The term "Newar" is used by those people whom other groups in Nepal refer to as Newars in a complex way. It is used in a general way by the "Newars" themselves to differentiate themselves from various kinds of outsiders, usually lumped as "Khae (n)," the western Indo-Nepalese "invaders" on the one hand and the "Sae(n) ," or Mongoloid hill peoples of northern origin, the Sherpas, Tibetans, Tamang, and so on, on the other. In Bhaktapur in reference to people living in the city, the maximal use of "Newar" distinguishes those groups who "follow Newar customs," from others living in the city, whom we will introduce later in this chapter as "non-Newars." "--Robert I. Levy, Part One. Every effort is made to ship all books and other items within 24 hours. Clean recycled packing material will be used when possible. The Book Shed has a been a member of the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller's Association since 1997. An online bookseller with a bookshop sensibility!