society. According to this approach, the communities practicing shifting cultivation
have primitive and elementary forms of technology and simple forms of social
organization. On the other hand, the communities with the permanent cultivation have
advanced forms of technology and a complex form of society”. But Dhakal’s (1999)
study suggests that these two different types of agriculture have been carried out by
the same community at the same time. Labor institution (parma system) conducts the
agricultural task for both the permanent and shifting cultivation.
Labor arrangement system is one of the issues of shifting cultivation among others in
which research is not conducted in social science, especially in anthropology. Studies
on Khoriya Kheti through cultural perspective are not adequate in the context of
Nepal. Labor arrangement aspect, which carries anthropological significance of
shifting cultivation, is a very new issue in research field.
It is frequently impossible for a single family to provide agricultural labor needs.
Even in cases where the labor power exists, matters of convenience or the desire for
company brings people from separate households together for work (Fricke, 1993).
The practice of shifting cultivation in Nepal is characterized by a highly labor
intensive and land extensive form of cultivation (Shrestha, 1989). Parma (reciprocal
exchange of labor), guhar (voluntary help), Jhyala nimek (paid labor), attached labor
(haliya/kamaiya system, resident farm servants, non –residence farm servants, yearly
contract tenant labor), patron client arrangement (jajamani, bista, bali system) are
different types of such labor arrangement practices prevailing in Nepali society
(Dhakal, 2007).
Sharecropping (adhiya or kut), labor parties or group labor (baure, nogar), gift labor
(sahayog or madat), governmental conscripted or obligatory labor (sramadhan,
beggar, hanseri) and slavery or a period of indentured servitude (kamara, kam
garaune) labor arrangement systems also prevail in Nepalese society (Fortier, 1993).
These distinct, yet overlapping, indigenous labor relations contribute to understanding
Nepalese social status. Labor exchange practices including simple labor exchange,
group labor, and patron-client (jajamani) are practiced in rural regions of this country
and they are integrated to agricultural production. Moreover, indigenous knowledge,
skills, social cohesion are embedded to the labor arrangement system (Ibid).
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