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Temporal Disjunction and Collectivity in Mustang, Nepal

2002; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 43; Issue: S4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/341106

1537-5382

Charles Ramble,

Political theory and Gramsci

This article examines the uses of timereckoning, temporality, and historical record in the creation of individual and collective identity. The focus is the community of Te, a closed, endogamous settlement in Lo (Mustang), an old Tibetan kingdom in the high Himalayas of Nepal. The inhabitants of Te apply a range of temporal devices to represent their community as a reified entity distinct from the individuals who compose it. The collectivity is set apart from both the world of Buddhist ideology and the local political environment by a unique calendrical system and the concept of qualityfree cracks in the continuum of time. The transcendent character of the collectivity is established by using temporal distortions to represent counterintuitive properties of institutions. Stability is further ensured by a written constitution that freezes the parameters of social action within a 12year legal cycle.