POST3 Sherpa Culture

 The culture I chose for this assignment is the Sherpa culture of Central Asia. The Sherpa culture is found in the northeastern Nepal and a few places in India. Sherpa villages are placed at relatively high elevation and some even sit at the base of Mount Everest. The Sherpa people speak Nepali and their dialect comes form Tibetan. The Sherpa rely on their field agriculture of potatoes, barely, and wheat. The Sherpa people are Buddhist so they do not consume meat or kill animals. Trading and labor work are done by men while women do most of the agricultural work. Marriages are usually monogamist and arranged by the families. Men will travel a lot on journeys to trade and expeditions so they will not often be present in their children's lives. A good portion of their population are people who pledge their lives as nuns and monks. Many people of this culture take up Buddhist ecclesiastical arts, which is painting or iconography.

As a reminder, my topic is about food consumption particularly eating habits, gratification, and control of hunger.  There are many documents describing eating habits of the Sherpa including what roles are played in food production and consumption. Families usually eat in an open hearth with a low table. The head of the table sat by the fireplace and the table was filled with only men as women squatted on the floor. During warmer months the families tend to eat and sleep on the highest floor of the house while shops or storage is on the ground floor. They cook almost all of their food over fire which is often placed in the middle of the room for warmth. 

Food often depends on the location of the settlement and religious pattern for the Sherpa culture. They believe in only eating non-living things which they consider plants. They eat for the sole purpose of satisfying their hunger and keeping up their energy. Since the Sherpa do hard labor most of the time they rely on "heavy" foods instead of "light" foods like rice. They boil flour making it into corn flour which helps with prolonging their energy and keeping them warm in their climate. They mainly eat potatoes and wheat which is their staple food from their own fields. It is seen as a sinful act in their culture to take in warm food. 

They can make many types of meals out of their staple foods. Potato bread, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, and noodles are prepared for special occasions and guests. What the Sherpa eat on a regular basis depends on the weather and the availability of resources. They consider meat and beer "dirty foods" because they are prepared in an unsanitary manner. Food is held to a high standard in their culture. For instance at a large event like weddings or funerals the host will feed the guests which gives the host the power. There is a saying "I am offering you the things which you eat; now you must do whatever I demand"(quoted in von Fürer-Haimendorf, 1964: 193).  Often when someone from this culture brings you food or beer they will ask for a small favor in return. 

The Sherpa people use WEPS, wild edible plants for almost the whole year. They were able to survive a food shortage by using these plants. They took them from the wild and implemented them into their own fields which allowed them to grow them in large groups. These plants provided them with carbs, nutrients, and healthcare supplements. These plants helped keep the Sherpa culture alive through drastic times of famine due to their weather and climate. Below is a picture of Arisaema Utile which is a WEPS that the Sherpa lived off of at one time. This plant helps with many minor healthcare issues like a cough. 

Paul, Robert A. 2004. “Culture Summary: Sherpa.” New Haven, Conn.: HRAF. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=ak06-000. 

Ortner, Sherry B. 1973. “Sherpa Purity.” American Anthropologist Vol. 75: 49–63. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=ak06-010. 

Ortner, Sherry B. 1978. “Sherpas through Their Rituals.” In Cambridge Studies in Cultural Systems, 12, 195. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://ehrafworldcultures-yale-edu.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/document?id=ak06-008. 

Ding, XY., Zhang, Y., Wang, L. et al. Collection calendar: the diversity and local knowledge of wild edible plants used by Chenthang Sherpa people to treat seasonal food shortages in Tibet, China. J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine 17, 40 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-021-00464-x