Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas

Toni Huber Ph.D. (1993), is Professor of Tibetan Studies at the Humboldt University, Berlin. His extensive publications on the anthropology and cultural history of Tibetan societies include The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain (Oxford, 1999) and The Holy Land Reborn (Chicago, 2007).
Stuart Blackburn is Senior Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. His most recent publications include Himalayan Tribal Tales: Oral Tradition and Culture in the Apatani Valley (Brill, 2008) and The Sun Rises: A Shaman's Chant, Ritual Exchange and Fertility in the Apatani Valley (Brill, 2010).

All those interested in Asian Studies, the anthropology, history, folklore and linguistics of Tibeto-Burman-speaking hill peoples of upland South and Southeast Asia, as well as Himalayan Studies.

'The main interest of this book lies in the richness of the research data it offers. Exploring various Tibeto-Burman
language groups of the Himalayan foothills, it includes areas only recently opened up to Western researchers. The
book not only presents detailed examinations of the issues surrounding origin and migration in various societies
– on their present and past forms, and on their roles and meanings for local societies and for researchers – it also
makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the political and social roles of origin and migration narratives
in the Himalayas. Finally, the generalisation and theorisation of the concept of “migration as process and not event” (p. 4) in the Himalayan region in several of the articles is another important contribution to the understanding of northsouth migrations and settlement in the southern Himalayan foothills.'
Mélanie Vandenhelsken, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Himalaya XXXII (2012)

List of Illustrations

Introduction - Toni Huber and Stuart Blackburn
Trans-Himalayan Migrations as Processes, Not Events: Towards a Theoretical Framework - Geoff Childs Where the Waters Dry Up – The Place of Origin in Rai Myth and Ritual - Martin Gaenszle
Where did the Question ‘Where did My Tribe Come From?’ Come From?- Robbins Burling
Coevolving with the Landscape? Migration Narratives and the Environmental History of the Nyishi Tribe in Upland Arunachal Pradesh - Alexander Aisher
Micro-Migrations of Hill Peoples in Northern Arunachal Pradesh: Rethinking Methodologies and Claims of Origins in Tibet - Toni Huber
Apatani Ideas and Idioms of Origins - Stuart Blackburn
Migration Narratives, Official Classifications, and Local Identities: The Memba of the Hidden Land of Pachakshiri - Kerstin Grothmann
The Language, Culture, Environment and Origins of Proto-Tani Speakers: What is Knowable, and What is Not (Yet) - Mark W. Post
Glimpses of the Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of Northeastern India - George van Driem
Origin and Migration Myths in the Rhetoric of Naga Independence and Collective Identity - Marion Wettstein Oral Histories and the ‘Origins’ of Current Peoples: Dynamic Ethnogenesis, with Remarks upon the Limitations of Language-Family Subgrouping - F. K. L. Chit Hlaing
Cords and Connections: Ritual and Spatial Integration in the Jinghpaw Cultural Zone -Mandy Sadan
Origin and Return: Genesis and the Souls of the Dead in Naxi Myth and Ritual - Charles F. McKhann
Migrating Brothers and Party-State Discourses on Ethnic - Origin in Southwest China - Koen Wellens

Contributors
Index