The text Life and Death on Mt. Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering by Sherry Ortner dove into a topic which I had been looking forward to all semester.  This was the topic of Sherpas and their relationships with mountaineers and the sport of mountaineering.  Throughout the entirety of her text she does not make sweeping claims as much and she is accurate, as far as I can tell, and up front in how she presents her arguments which is different from a few of the authors we have read thus far in this course.  Throughout the text she discusses many different arguments and themes when it comes to mountaineering from the sahibs and sherpas to the interactions between sherpas and mountaineers, however, I found the idea of how money and adventure played a role in shaping the jobs of sherpas.

Ortner makes it quiet obvious in her text that many if not all sherpas were in the business for the money. Indeed, the only example that Ortner points to that is not solely participating in mountaineering due to a cash incentive is Tenzing Norgay who seems to be, in many ways other than this, the outlier of the argument.  However, for the majority of sherpas it appears to Ortner that they are in it to make a living a meager one at time perhaps, but a living none the less.  I find it ironic that although these people are quite literally at times carrying people up the mountain they are paid much less than one would expect.  In addition to this it is interesting that in the modern era one could use any number of guides and helpers up the mountain, however, the vast majority of mountaineers continue to use sherpas to this day. With this in mind it seems like the sherpas would be paid more and given more incentive and reward for their continued efforts, however, it appears as if some of the colonial mentality that dominated mountaineering not to long ago still continues to exist to this day.

I also found it very interesting in the same line of thought how many mountaineers considered going up into the mountains to climb as a way to escape from everyday commercial society and a way to get back in touch with nature and with oneself.  Whereas the sherpas are the complete opposite using the sport of mountaineering as a way to get in touch with modern society and to participate in globalization as a whole.  Indeed, it seems for many sherpas were it not for mountaineering and those that participate in the sport they would be largely cut off from the world because they would not produce a good or service that was crucial or benefited the world as a whole.

The last point that I thought about in regards to this text was the idea that there are guides and people that help others climb mountains all over the world.  So why is that sherpas are treated with so much less respect in relation to these other groups of people and why is that they are viewed as lesser.  What I came up from this text was the idea of colonialism and its residual effects and a lack of understanding of sherpa culture from so many westerns.