Anthropological Study on the Development of Transport Infrastructure and the Moving Bodies in Eastern Himalaya

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K20848
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H05643 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0104:Geography, cultural anthropology, folklore, and related fields
• Research Institution: National Museum of Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: FURUKAWA Fukachi 国立民族学博物館, 学術資源研究開発センター, 機関研究員 (00822644)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: インフラストラクチャー / ヒマラヤ / ネパール / 車道 / 山岳観光

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims to investigate the effect of transportation infrastructure having on societies and people’s practices in the mountainous regions of the Himalayas. Based on the fieldwork, this study compares Solukhumbu District in eastern Nepal, where roadway construction is underway, and Darjeeling in West Bengal, India, where advanced infrastructure such as roadways and mountain railways was developed during the British era. Tracing the history of infrastructural development in eastern Himalaya, this study shows some aspect of the relationships between mountainous terrain and transportation infrastructures, such that a roadway is an ambiguous object as a source of hope for development and fear for change both, that driving in the mountains is seen as a similar practice with walking in mountains, and so on.

Free Research Field

文化人類学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

グローバル化の進む現在、人々の移動はますます重要な現象となった。マクロな側面から捉えられることの多い移動を十分に理解するために、本研究ではいかなる物理的な構造が移動を可能とするのか、人々はそうした構造の上でどのように振舞うのかを考察した。また車道建設など輸送インフラの発展は、地域の開発に不可欠であると位置づけられている。山間部で進行中の車道建設が社会に及ぼす変化を観察する本研究は、単なるインフラありきの開発を超え、地域に根差した発展のあり方を模索するための一事例も提供する。