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

sammetlir) were only really used for dealing with a cyBrj (spirit) which
would know the original divisions they represented and, it was said,
would be unfamiliar with current clan divisions and subdivisions,
The Yakha themselves often translated sammetlirj for us by the Nepali
word potre. However, comparison with the rules surrounding gotra
amongst caste Hindus (Bennett 1983) reveal significant differences
between the two. For example, amongst caste Hindus men and women share
the same potra, the woman's changing on marriage: this was the case for
the Kami family we interviewed. In the caste Hindu potra severe
proscriptions are said to exist on endogamous marriage. The question of
whether or not people from the same sammetlirj could marry was irre!evant
in the Yakha case, due to their sexual division.''.
4.3 Reli~ious Practitioners
The muntum was regarded as the domain of the ritual specialists,.'
and while some people knew smatterings of the myths and stories
contained in the muntum, very often these versions did not tie up with
or were contradicted by what we subsequently heard from a specialist.
The specialists were of various types but none, it seemed, derived their
knowledge or practice from a tradition uniquely Yakha.", MBr)arj ba,
chBmba, bi.iuwa, jh8-kri and dh8mi were recognized, as were the Limbu
words phedarj ba and YE~A. Much effort has been spent by anthropologists
in establishing typologies of ritual specialists (e. g, Jones 1976). It
may be possible to draw a structural division between 'tribal priest'
and 'shaman', as Sagant (1973) attempts to do for the Limbu 'phedarjma'
and 'bijuwa'. However, while claiming that his explanation of the
differences between them "uses the Limbu cultural classifications",