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

settlement and labour, In the men's case, no-one was likely to migrate
in to take their place. The only recent in-migrants from outside
Tamaphok were those associated with the various developments which had
taken place in the panc6vat in the past thirty years. Their story will
be taken up in the next chapter,
I shall look first at the main forms of migration, and then go on to
look at the social and cultural factors which underpinned the experience
of other environments,
Harri age
For most Yakha women, while some might accompany their husbands or
families to distant parts, the main form of migration most had to deal
with was the more localized migration to the 'other' world of inter-
village and inter-ethnic marriages (Kohn, in press), Not all unions
involved a major upheaval, of course. According to our survey work and
discussions with women in Tamaphok, about one third of all marriages
were to men in the same community. Another third were to men from other
communities but of the same ethnic affiliation. The final third were to
people of different ethnic and linguistic affiliation, the majority of
these between Yakha and Limbu, followed by Yakha and Rai.'lC', Those
ethnographies of Nepal that mention inter-ethnic marriage (e.g, Jones
and Jones (1976:65); Bennett (1983:lO); Dahal (1985:89) and Fisher
(1990:128,167)) generally do so in passing and do not comment on its
significance. Only Caplan (1974; 1975: 138-146) has dealt with the
subject in any detail. He suggests that in the case of Belaspur, a
bazaar town in far west Nepal, a major reason for 'inter-caste' marriage
was the dearth of eligible partners of the same caste in rural villages