Between space and place in mountaineering: navigating risk, death, and power

Abstract

The liminal status of mountains makes them attractive destinations for adventure, and related tourism and recreation activities. Stemming from critiques of Nepal’s growing adventure tourism industry, and recognising the centrality of Sherpas’ roles within it, of interest are the ways Climbing Sherpas experience liminality in mountaineering. Liminality, an anthropological concept introduced by Arnold van Gennep (1960), becomes transformative as Sherpas use encounters with death and periods of uncertainty to take stock of the purpose of their lives. Moreover, analysis of narrative findings reveal that Sherpas assert individual freedom and collective agency in response to the dangers and demands of Nepal’s commercial mountaineering industry, thereby shifting power relations on the mountainside. These findings challenge assumptions of immobile host populations that underlie some of the current understandings within tourism scholarship. Additionally, exploring the liminal landscapes of the mountainside draws attention to critical concerns regarding tourism (and its associated industries) as a mechanism for economic development.

摘要

登山的极限状态使山峰成为探险和相关旅游娱乐活动的有吸引力的目的地。源于对尼泊尔不断增长的探险旅游产业的评论, 并认识到夏尔巴人在登山中所扮演的核心角色, 有趣的是, 登山的夏尔巴人在登山过程中体验阈限的方式。阈限是阿诺德·范·根内普(Arnold van Gennep, 1960)提出的一个人类学概念, 随着夏尔巴人利用死亡的遭遇和不确定时期来评估他们生活的目的, 阈限变得具有变革性。此外, 对叙事结果的分析表明, 夏尔巴人坚持个人自由和集体代理, 以应对尼泊尔商业登山行业的危险和需求, 从而改变了山峰上的权力关系。这些发现挑战了固有的接待国人口的假设, 这些假设构成了旅游学术界目前一些认识的基础。此外, 探索山峰的极限景观也引起了人们对旅游业(及其相关产业)作为经济发展机制的批判性的关切。

Keywords:

• Liminal landscapes
• adventure tourism
• mountaineering
• death
• Sherpas
• Nepal

关键词:

• 阈限景观；探险旅游；登山；死亡；夏尔巴人；尼泊尔

Note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Sahib is a Hindi term meaning “boss” or “master” or (in address) “sir.” Sherpas used this term to both refer to and address the international climbers, namely Western climbers, up until the 1970s. Thus, Ortner used this word throughout her work to identify the international climbers. She believed it signalled the lingering colonial influence, and the continuing inequality in the Sherpa-Climber relationship (Ortner, 1997, 1999).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maggie C. Miller

Maggie Miller has a PhD in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Much of her work focuses on the sociocultural dimensions of tourism and sustainable development. In particular, she takes up research to understand and enhance social justice and equity in international tourism contexts.

Heather Mair

Heather Mair is a Professor in the Recreation and Leisure Studies Department at the University of Waterloo. Her work concentrates on critical explorations of the role of leisure, tourism and sport in the development of communities.