THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

However, despite the influence of caste, amongst many Yakha and non-
Yakha there did seem to be a willingness to integrate with others in
certain spheres, and something of a communal ideology was expressed to
us. "A1 1 Tamaphok is one", said a Chetri woman accompanying us on our
way to the market at Basantapur one day. "Everyone gets on here; a1 1
types mix", said a Yakha woman. "Brahmins and Chetris are poor li~e
us", said a Yakha man to us during a survey interview; "poor people must
work together".
We made our way in stealth back to the Kami family on severai
occasions after the altercation with our family, and once or twice a
Yakha neighbour of the Kami who came to sit in their porch (see Chapter
Five) noticed our presence, backs turned, in the kitchen. We were
dreading that news of our visits might get back to our family, but we
were never aware that they did. It seemed that it had not been our
visiting the Kamis which had given Kamala and our mother such misgivings
as the flagrant way we did it. In Chapter Eight we shail see how some
of the caste rules were deliberately challenged during the time of the
political changes which occurred during the time of our fieldwork.
Another way in which the normal rules of caste couid be transgressed
to a certain extent was through the mit/mitini (nibak/nimak, ritual
brotherhood/sisterhood) system. This was an example of fictive kinship
which has been observed in many other parts of Nepal (e. g. Prindle 1975;
Okada 1957), the specifics of which appear to vary from place to place.
For example, Okada considered that a primary role of mit relations was
to establish partners who could offer support in times of need. This
seemed to be less the case amongst Yakha mft in Tamaphok (although
small loans were sometimes passed back and forth),