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

I did have the opportunity to undertake some legitimate applied work
from another source before going overseas, for the London-based company
Environmental Resources Limited (ERL). I had contacted the company
early on at Sean Conlin's suggestion, since they had been commissioned
by the ODA and the World Bank to write a report on the environmental
situation in Nepal. A phone call from the ERL director four months
before we went to Nepal revealed that they had completed the first phase
of this project, but the report produced had been severely criticised by
the World Bank for appearing to ignore the substantial amount of
anthropological literature pertaining to the environment in Nepal.
Since I had been researching this very topic for nearly a year, I was
ideally qualified to rectify this omission in the final interim report.
My piece appeared as a chapter 'Cultural Factors in Resource Use and
Management' (ERL 1989). I was able to use it as the basis for a chapter
entitled 'Culture and Environment in Nepal' in the 'substantial piece of
work' submitted in December 1988 to fulfil the requirements for transfer
from M.Litt to D.Phi1 status at the University of Oxford.
The three other chapters in the substantial piece were on
anthropology and the environment, development anthropology and the
history of my research to date. Much of the 'Anthropology in
Development' chapter was based on arguments I had formulated before
commencing my research which were well supported by the literature (e.g.
Grillo 1985; Partridge and Eddy 1987). I perceived a disaffection on
the part of many social anthropologists for active involvement in
planned social change. I put the blame for this fairly and squarely on
what I saw as ethically unjustified social and cultural constraints
acting against applied anthropology in academic eyes. I also argued for