| Publication |
2014.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
Michael Allen is a pioneering figure in the study of the Newars, the indigenous people of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Allen carried out his main fieldwork in Nepal between the mid 1960s and late 1970s and enjoyed a successful academic career, twice acting as head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney between 1985 and 1991. While Allen is also well known for his studies of cults in settings as disparate as Vanuatu and Ireland-and after retirement was honoured by colleagues for his 'commitment to the comparative method' with a festschrift published in 2001 -his work on the Newars remains especially vital and worth re-visiting. The population, environment and government of Nepal have all changed greatly in recent decades; at the same time, the significance of Newar religion is beginning to be more widely appreciated. In this special section of South Asia we re-examine some of the rituals, institutions and traditions treated by Allen in four new papers, contributed by scholars around the world.
|