Among the Sunuwar, a tribal group of East Nepal, bamboo is omnipresent both as wild
and cultivated plant as well as in material culture. The article tries to show that
many aspects of human and social life, including gender, are potentially inscribed
in the bamboo plant and are realised in bamboo objects. Culturally vitalised bamboo
objects are the ideal medium for intercourse with ancestors, a practice essential
for Sunuwar people to stabilise, restore and improve identity and conformity,
prestige and authority as well as physical well-being. An important premise for the
interpretation of bamboo objects as living is that the Sunuwar economy is mainly a
gift economy. To understand how gender can be attributed to bamboo objects, the
author assumes the existence of a third gender often ascribed to shamans and saints.
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