In the Circle of the Dance: Notes of an Outsider in Nepal
"Katherine Guneratne has created in her delightful and insightful book Inside the Circle of the Dance. . . . a thoughtful and sensitive portrait of the Tharus she got to know in a village in Chitwan in the Tarai. A compelling feature of the book is that she then also shows how her encounters with her Tharu friends inevitably shed light on her own self and her own society. It is the way she shows how this self-knowledge grew in sometimes comical fits and starts out of casual ethnographic knowledge that many readers will find especially appealing."—James Fisher, Carlton College. Himalayan Research Bulletin, Vol. XIX, No. 2, 1999."Guneratne shares unforgettable images from her experience in the field as the wife of anthropologust Upali Arjun Guneratne. . . Her sensitivity and her humility are disarming and the result is a story as much about the landscape of human relationships as it is about the culture of Nepal."—Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, March/April 2001"Engaging. . . Guneratne provides insight into life in contemporary Nepal and shows how life in the field influences the inner person and continues to do so after one departs."—American Ethnologist"The book is enjoyable to read. The writing is skillful, often amusing and full of insight. It will appeal to a very wide readership, and I shall be recommending it to my anthropology students. It would be good if anthropologists and ethnographers could manage to write as well as this."—Christian McDonaugh. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, November 2001"An insightful and compelling book. The thoughtfulness of the author's engagements, the reflective perspective characteristic of her story, and her recurrent consideration of the theme of 'familiar foreignness' rather than exoticism have shaped a singular account. She treats often unconsidered issues such as tourism and its local implications, identity and quotidian discrimination, gender, and the complexities of relative wealth."—Don Brenneis, University of California, Santa Cruz