西ネパールの採集狩猟民ラウテの生活・社会とその変容

Abstract

In the western part of Nepal there is a people called the Raute, who practice a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering in the forest. The men hunt monkeys, and the women collect wild plants. They also make vessels and other wooden items from trees cut in the forest, and exchange them with farmers for rice and other crops. The authors did fieldwork among the Raute from November 2007 until December 2010, visiting their camps in the forest a number of times. In this article we first introduce their traditional life and society, based on some studies realized in the late 1990's and published in Nepal, then describe the rapid changes of their lives in recent years that are evident from our fieldwork and analyze the social background of those changes. Individual Raute people now receive money through government aid, and as a result the market economy is entering into Raute society. This has led to a decline in the authority of the Mukiya or Raute leader. In 1996 a Maoist group began fighting against the government, declaring the equality of minorities such as indigenous peoples, lower castes, and women. After 10 years of battle, they reached a peace agreement and the Maoist party joined the government. Through the influence of these developments "extremely small ethnic groups" such as the Raute came to form a single political group, and the Raute became famous as "the last hunters of Nepal". These are the reasons why the Raute now receive aid from the government. The Raute call themselves "kings of the forest", and want to live freely in the forest. The king of Nepal gave them the right to live freely and use the resources of the forest. But the king was expelled in 2008. Moreover, a "community forest" system, whereby the residents of each region have the right to manage and use the resources of forests in their region, was established in 1992, leading to increasing conflict between Raute and local residents. This system is making it difficult for the Raute to live freely in the forest. All these interrelated political, social, and economic factors are forcing the Raute to change and adapt, and are creating disturbances in their life and society.