Summer 2018 - Cultural Anthropology
Life and Death in Mt. Everest Sherry Ortner / Professor: Dr. Carlos M. Bazua Morales
Notes
Epic of
... [Show More] Everest
-Buddhism is exclusively for the tibetans
- man v. nature
- part of the 3rd British expedition
- There was no voice or perspective that was from the Sherpas
Notes
The Man Who Skied
Everest
-First man to ski down in 1970 —Youchiro Miura
- Several members of his team died during the expedition as they
attempted to reach the summit
- Very symbolic event for Japan
- He decided to not only be the first man from Japan to reach the
summit but he wanted to make a statement by skiing down
- he climbed Everest another time but he did not ski down
Notes
Everest: Imax
• -The narrative begins with the voice of a Sherpa
• - Jamaling— from India
• Sherpa people are buddhist
• Ed — from US (has climbed Everest before)
• Araceli — from Spain
• —> the first Spanish women to climb Everest
• —> who are the other women that have climbed Everest?
• They need to take a helicopter to get closer to the base of camp
• Every year the mountain grows 1/4 of a mile
• Chortens—a way to honor those who have died on Everest
• —> 150 people have died on Everest; 1/3 are due to avalanches
• during this expedition 12 other team were climbing Everest
• May 8th: a storm hit the upper part of the mountain
• —> the storm caused 8 people to be stranded on the mountain
• Rob— from New Zealand
• —> an expert climber that ends up stranded and dies on the mountain
• Beck— is stranded and ends up in critical conditions due to frost bite but
survives
• Puja ceremony to clean their spirits before they try to climb the mountain
after someone dies
• May 22: they attempted to reach the summit
• the final 3,000 ft are known as the dead zone
• Ed decides to attempt to react the summit without oxygen
• in total took 9 weeks to climb Everest
• Jamling set a prayer flag at the top of the mountain
• David directs the film
• Sherpas were the ones carrying the cameras and equipment
• before climbing the mountain they asked for permission and blessing at the
monastery
Ch 1.
Beginning
● Ortner opens the novel with the climb of 1996 where there were 6 fatalities, it was
not the most Everest has seen but the most recent. (when she wrote this)
● She also brings Mallory and Irvine into the first part by explaining that fatalities
happened prior as well.
● She also puts that no Sherpas died in this trip which is very suspicious.
● She started studying Sherpas in the mid 1960s, and wanted to write a book with her
studies due to the only ones who write about these “conquests” are the other party
(Sahibs) and not the Sherpas. (Sherpa point of view)
● She gains most of her knowledge and ability to write this book from the Sherpa
villages of the region of Solukhumbu.
● Mountaineering helped the Sherpas with competitiveness and conflict within their
own society, it has helped transform and remake their own society.
● She gives the mortality statistics of climbing, after that she brings another note that is
often not spoken about, it is fair to say that there is no Sherpa who does not know
personally a fellow Sherpa who has died from mountaineering.
● Khumbu (higher valley) the singl [Show Less]