Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas: An Ethnography of Himalayan Encounters

by Vincanne Adams

Book Overview

Sherpas are portrayed by Westerners as heroic mountain guides, or "tigers of the snow," as Buddhist adepts, and as a people in touch with intimate ways of life that seem no longer available in the Western world. In this book, Vincanne Adams explores how attempts to characterize an "authentic" Sherpa are complicated by Western fascination with Sherpas and by the Sherpas' desires to live up to Western portrayals of them. Noting that diplomatic aides...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691001111
• ISBN13: 9780691001111
• Release Date: October 1995
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

hitting a nerve

"What is authenticity except anthropology in its most profitable guise?" (229) In Tigers of the Snow and Other Virtual Sherpas, Vincanne Adams (1996) provocatively takes on not only long-cherished images of Sherpas, but also an underlying paradigm of much of the anthropological enterprise. That she hits a nerve is perhaps indicated by the two other readers' reviews, which would in fact deserve to be cited in a new edition (and not just for their entertainment value): rather than dismiss them for obviously not getting the point, the American reader's demand to "stop scrutinizing those lovely folk", and the Sherpa's for both a more favorable and a more "substantial" (i.e. essentialist) portrayal of his people, can both be read more profitably as a defense of each group's interests in face of what to them seems like an attack on the Sherpas, but what is in fact one on misconceived notions of authenticity and reality. Still, the concerns voiced here hint at a problem this book is self-consciously trying to overcome: how can analytical rigor be reconciled with the interests of the people one studies? How, in other words, can we avoid disempowering those we speak of, and at the same time avoid simply reproducing the very discourse that we are trying to study - even if, as in this case, it seems to be working to the satisfaction of both sides involved? The solution offered here is especially interesting as it uses the parallels between postmodern theory (esp. Baudrillard, Taussig, Ricoeur) and Buddhist philosophy to displace the perspective from a Western to a Sherpa standpoint, however scripturalized and elitist it may be. Mimesis thus happens here not only in the analysis, but also to the analysis. Before going further into the mimetic uses of Buddhist philosophy in anthropological discourse, however, a brief look at the key terms and arguments in this book is in order. What are "virtual Sherpas"? Adams starts with an old meaning of virtual - "possessed of certain physical qualities" (20) - and points out that this certainly fits the case of the Sherpas. Since their first encounters with Western mountaineering expeditions, they have been ascribed admirable physical qualities such as endurance and climbing skills, which continue to define Sherpa identity even today. However, the argument does not stop at Middle English: since, as she points out, virtual Sherpas have no original to mimic, they actually emerge as the product of a meeting of Western desires to find a better self in an Other, and Sherpa desires to be better Sherpas by fulfilling the Westerners' desires. Thus, in contrast to Homi Bhabha's "almost-but-not-quite reality" of colonial mimesis, a hyper-reality is created - that is, Sherpas who are more real than the actual reality. Virtual Sherpas are produced through mimesis; and this statement already indicates the definition of the term. Following Paul Ricoeur, Adams argues that mimesis, normally defined as the imitation of nature in art, is