The Anthropology of Tacit Knowledge in the Domestic Mandala

A Case Study of Chhetris in the Kathmandu Valley

Bibliographic Data

ID6095574
AuthorsJohn Gray (0000-0003-3373-9453, corresponding author)
Year1970
Volume11
Pages255-278
Publication date1970-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueOccasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2091-0312
PublisherNepal Journals Online (JOL) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3040
OpenAlexW2094212348
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited16

For our house is our corner of the world ... it is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word.' Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 'We know more than we can tell.' Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension The epigraphs encapsulate the two major themes of this paper. As Bachelard's quotation suggests, Chhetri houses are not simply functional places for everyday living. Instead, the house and its surrounding compound are also an encompassing cosmos in which Chhetris of the Kathmandu Valley dwell and come to understand its fundamental principles.1 In their everyday activities of preparing, cooking and eating rice, Chhetri Householders spatially configure their domestic compounds into mandalas-sacred diagrams that are simultaneously maps of the cosmos and machines for revealing the truth of cosmos as a fundamental unity. At the same time, such everyday dwelling in a domestic mandalas is productive of knowledge of the cosmos they represent. DOI: 10.3126/opsa.v11i0.3040 Occasional Papers in Sociology and Anthropology Vol.11 2009 255-278

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Epistemology · Everyday life · Linguistics · Literature · Mandala · Poetics · Sociology · Tacit knowledge · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies

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