The Maoist insurgency in Nepal lasted from 1996 to 2006, and at
the pinnacle of their armed success the Maoists controlled much of
the countryside. Maoists at the Hearth, which is based on
ethnographic research that commenced more than a decade before the
escalation of the civil war in 2001, explores the daily life in a
hill village in central Nepal, during the "People's War." From the
everyday routines before the arrival of the Maoists in the late
1990s through the insurgency and its aftermath, this book examines
the changing social relationships among fellow villagers and
parties to the conflict.
War is not an interruption that suspends social processes. Life in
the village focused as usual on social challenges, interpersonal
relationships, and essential duties such as managing agricultural
work, running households, and organizing development projects. But
as Judith Pettigrew shows, social life, cultural practices, and
routine activities are reshaped in uncertain and dangerous
circumstances. The book considers how these activities were
conducted under dramatically transformed conditions and discusses
the challenges (and, sometimes, opportunities) that the villagers
confronted.
By considering local spatial arrangements and their adaptation,
Pettigrew explores people's reactions when they lost control of the
personal, public, and sacred spaces of the village. A central
consideration of Maoists at the Hearth is an exploration
of how local social tensions were realized and renegotiated as
people supported (and sometimes betrayed) each other and of how
villager-Maoist relationships (and to a lesser extent villager-army
relationships), which drew on a range of culturally patterned
preexisting relationships, were reforged, transformed, or
renegotiated in the context of the conflict and its aftermath.
eISBN: 978-0-8122-0789-7
Subjects: Anthropology
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