AWA: Academic Writing at Auckland

The personal ethnography Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture published in 2001 by Ernestine McHugh exemplifies how it is unobtainable for an anthropologist to be “a human instrument studying other human beings” (Powdermaker, 1966:19). McHugh instead adopts a reflexivity approach (Nelson, 2017:223), including her thoughts, emotions and contextual experience into her ethnographic experience of the Gurung culture in the Annapurna Ranges. McHugh’s culturally learned understanding of herself as a person and the social roles she is accustomed to enacting in her society affected how she came to interpret and understand the culture of the Gurung people. This is shown in the beginning of her experience as she moves from an ethnocentric view to following the concept of cultural relativism that is apparent throughout the novel, demonstrating an absorption into the Gurung culture. Not conforming to a completely objective ethnographic study, McHugh (2001:xvii) “[Believes that] knowing others is a process that unfolds within relationship”. This process is evident in the deep relationships she forms with the Gurung community, bringing forth issues of cultural difference and illustrating how the Gurungs’ understanding of the concept of the self impacts ideas of personhood and society.

Culture is a universal phenomenon molded into individuals from and prior to birth (Delaney & Kapsin, 2017:11). Entering into a foreign culture encapsulates in sharp relief the difference between the cultures. McHugh acknowledges this, stating “In a place where people and power are clearly mapped, I was peculiar” (2001:117).

Culture shock is the state an individual enters when the immediately apparent differences between comparative cultures is experienced (Busse, 2020: Lecture 4). McHugh used culture shock to her benefit, articulating the strangeness of the Gurung world she had entered into and the associated emotions that arose when encountering the three stages of rites de passage (Arnold Van Gennep, quoted in Delaney, 2017:7). She experienced frustration and homesickness in the liminal or transitional stage (Delaney, 2017:7) of the rites de passage when people teased her, when she conducted customs incorrectly, being accidentally seen as ill-mannered and is unable to speak the Gurung language competently (2001:25, 35). McHugh expresses an ethnocentric viewpoint of her own culture: struggling to surrender the idea that her culture is normal and correct (Nelson, 2017:185) and negatively comparing Gurung culture to her own. This ethnocentric perspective repositions as she begins to learn and absorb new concepts and cultural approaches, completing the absorption stage of the rites de passage into the Gurung community and assuming a viewpoint of cultural relativism, seeking to understand the behaviours and perspectives of the Gurungs from their own perspective and be immersed in their world (Nelson, 2017:182; McHugh, 2001:2).

Even through adopting a viewpoint of cultural relativism, McHugh experienced numerous points of cultural difference throughout her stay in Tebas. Encountering moments in which certain mundane practices of the Gurung people appeared foreign and unfair in comparison to her cultural perspective (Busse, 2020: Lecture 3). This triggered an emotional response that demonstrated the challenge of conducting an ethnographic study. Honor is important to the families in Gurung society. It is passed physically, through blood and bone, yet maintaining family honor is a practice that consists of multiple acts including maintaining social status, wealth acquisition, and generous hospitality towards others (McHugh, 2001:39). On one occasion McHugh is asked by Apa (Gurung for Father) to carry a large pack of venison ‘just a little way’ on a trip back from a neighbouring village. Progressively she is coaxed to carry the pack for the entirety of the trip, becoming emotional and not understanding why it is required of her, as it would not usually be required in her own culture. Upon return, McHugh leaves the village in anger and is incredibly upset. When she returns to her adopted home, Ama (Gurung for Mother), who has understood McHugh’s emotional response, explains to McHugh that Apa was treating her as if she were his own, explaining it looks good for a daughter to work hard and help the parents, adhering to a practice that would uphold the families honor (McHugh, 2001:114). McHugh’s experiences of culturally difficult moments shaped the research process through having conversations explaining Gurung practice (McHugh, 2001:37) and being able to experience and therefore gain a deeper understanding of how the society functions. The moments of cultural difference experienced are shown in both sides of the relationship between McHugh and Ama, with Ama gaining an understanding of McHugh’s culture through teaching and exposing McHugh to Gurung culture. Ama shows that she has compared the two cultures and has recognised the emotional difference that is associated with the practices expected to be undertaken by the role individuals play in society. She recognises and empathises with McHugh’s emotional reactions stem from culturally learned practices, giving McHugh leniency and understanding, saying “She did not understand because her country is different” (McHugh, 2001:115).

The concept of the person can be thought of individually and placed within a cultural and social category. The Western social ideology of the self is to think of the self as a separate, bounded entity with an emphasis on individualism (Busse, 2020: Lecture 11). In Tebas, the Gurungs have a belief that the self is held together through connection and interaction with others (McHugh, 2001:44). McHugh was adopted into the headmaster’s family in Tebas village as a ‘dharma daughter’ a daughter offered up by fate (McHugh, 2001:29). Gurungs have a variety of precise kin terms used to refer to a large array of people they will encounter in village life. These encompass an ethos of solidarity within the community that recognises the individual as separate and having personal requirements but place emphasis on imagining a community as connected to a whole (McHugh, 1989:78). When McHugh was adopted into this family to conduct her ethnographic study she was immersed into the larger cultural ideologies of personhood. The emphasis Gurungs place on community meant that in order to be a successful participant observer McHugh needed to understand and partake in the ways that personhood is understood in Gurung society. Through the deep relationships formed with the community McHugh’s research was shaped around the ritual and belief of the concept of the person. McHugh was able to experience funeral rituals (McHugh, 2001:48), healing rituals and blessings which linked to wider ideas of personhood being expressed in the culture.

Adopting a reflexivity approach to her ethnographic endeavor rather than attempting to learn a culture through the lens of being a solely objective ‘human instrument’ allowed McHugh to delve deep into the Gurung culture. This allowed for an exploration of personhood ideologies, contrast between cultures to be explained and understood and emphasised the benefits of a viewpoint of cultural relativism when conducting ethnographic research.

Reference List: APA 6^th edition

 Nelson, K. 2017. Doing Fieldwork: Methods in Cultural Anthropology. in Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology (2nd ed.). edited by Brown, N., Tubelle de González, L., & McIlwraith, T. Arlington, VA: The American Anthropological Association.

Busse, M. 2020. Lecture 3-Encountering Cultural Difference. In Anthro 100: Human Cultures-Introduction to Social Anthropology. University of Auckland, NZ.

Busse, M. 2020. Lecture 4-Concept of Culture. In Anthro 100: Human Cultures-Introduction to Social Anthropology. University of Auckland, NZ.

Busse, M. 2020. Lecture 11-Kinship and Personhood. In Anthro 100: Human Cultures-Introduction to Social Anthropology. University of Auckland, NZ.

Delaney, C., & Kapsin, Deborah D. 2017. Investigating culture: An experiential introduction to anthropology (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ, USA: WILEY Blackwell.

McHugh, E. 2001. Love and Honor in the Himalayas: Coming To Know Another Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

McHugh, E. 1989. Concepts of the Person among the Gurungs of Nepal. American Ethnologist, 16(1), 75-86. Doi: 10.1525/ae.1989.16.1.02a00050

Powdermaker, H. 1966. Stranger and friend; the way of an anthropologist. (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton.