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merely economic (or food production) activity but also generates, enhances, and

maintains the cultural knowledge of local people that practices shifting cultivation.

Dhakal writes, “...shifting cultivation is not only [agro-farming] activity or

utilizations pattern of resources like forest and land, rather it is also closely integrated

with the wider socio-cultural system...”(2000:103).

Hence, shifting cultivation is bound to cultural practices and beliefs. Therefore,

research work is necessary to widen our understanding on the socio-cultural aspect of

Khoriya Kheti which also helps to understand the cultural practices of indigenous

people.

In Nepal, shifting cultivation is predominantly practiced by ethic people: Chepang,

Magar, Gurung, Tamang, Sherpa, Rai, Limbu (not in the order of importance). It is

remains a key livelihood component of these indigenous communities and forms an

integral part of social fabric and cultural identity (Kerchoff and Sharma, 2006). A

few Hindu caste groups also practice it in the country though not recognized officially

in Nepal. The shifting farmers have no official registration certificate of their

traditional Khoriya land.

The ILO convention No. 169 provides the right to shifting cultivation, acknowledging

it as part of the culture that identifies the indigenous peoples who practice it and that

they have to practice it and that they have the right to maintain and celebrate the

culture (Aryal and Kerchoff, 2008).

Shifting cultivation is also a cultural identity, a means of sociability, and way of life

of indigenous communities. It has existing for generations and still remains the

dominant agricultural practice in various parts of more than twenty out of seventy five

districts in the hills of Nepal (Aryal, Regmi, Subedi, and Tamang, 2005). Although

there is a long history of it, very little has been explored from anthropological

contexts (Dhakal, 2000). Conklin (1961) suggests, within the domain of

anthropological interests there are many topics including socio-cultural practices,

farming population studies, economic group studies, and agricultural labor relations as

well as marriage and birth.

Geertz (1974 as quoted in Dhakal 2000: 102) has pointed out “...two types of

agricultural systems-- shifting and permanent--are essentially different forms of

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