It is truly difficult to know exactly to begin when discussing Life and Death on Mt.Everest. Sherry Ortner is definitely an anthropological monarch and this work is far more than Sherpas tragically dying on Everest (which I had pictured it out to be). Particularly what is striking is the vastly different lens that this is being viewed through. Every book and article in this class has one way or another been filtered through mountaineering, even Seven Years in Tibet (though different in themes and focus) was still told by a mountaineer. Mountaineering in Life and Death is almost a sidenote; the main focus is the lives of Sherpas and their culture.

Ortner does not leave out much in her anthropological observations especially that of economical workings. Money has always been something that has been implied and lightly touched on in seminar but it has never took center stage as a theme. One of the central themes of this work is in fact the big money question. Putting commercialization aside, this is very new. The fact remains that Sherpas, as Ortner argues and I am inclined to agree with, are climbing and dying because of money. This is the part of the class and book that really gets into the complicated morality and ideological aspects of mountaineering. The fact is that being a climbing Sherpa (for lack of a better word) pays far better than many of the alternative careers and lifestyles available to Sherpas. It has helped alleviate some of the poverty and provides a financial independence and a way out of debt.

But at what cost? Dying? Then there is also the loss of Sherpa culture. Globalization and western culture influence are “taking away” the traditional Sherpa culture. The Sherpas do not seem to mind this however and if they do not mind should we? The entire complexity of the moral matter is the proverbial double edge sword. Education, healthcare, and better economy are all extremely positive things but the same question presents itself – at what cost?

Another big surprise that presented itself was that of religion. Again I had a very distinct image of Sherpa religion in my head; we have acquired bits and pieces of its practice and importance from other readings but nowhere near on this scale. I had assumed that Sherpa Buddhism had been the same for hundreds if not thousands of years. The monastic revolutions in the twentieth century came as a complete surprise to me – actually the fact that there really were not any monasteries shocked me completely, again I had just assumed that they had always been there in Nepal, but you know what is said when you assume . . .

Masculinity is also explored and has been an enduring theme throughout the class although I think that we have been a little too touchy to breech on it full scale in discussion. Masculinity really does effect so much in climbing and it really was not until reading the projected effeminacy of Sherpa men in Life and Death did I really see it. The role of gender in general is a major theme but mostly juxtaposed to longstanding masculine ideals. When women come onto the climbing scene in full force Ortner shows that some of these movements need to be extremely feminist to counteract the long standing masculine atmosphere. The Sherpas seem to get stuck in the middle of the western sexual revolution and to make matters more complicated also add their own views of gender into the mix.

Then there are problems of sex added to the already complicated world of multicultural mountaineering. It really should not be a surprise that there were liaisons between Sherpas and women mountaineers but still it did. The marriages on the other surprised me even more. I do not know why, they just did. I imagine that this was probably one of the fears that men had when women started entering the climbing scene, but I doubt that the men were blameless in the same regard.

Life and Death overall has been thus far the most enlightening book that we have read. There is a lot more to Sherpas then expeditions and mountains, it is a major part, but far from the whole nine yards. This book has started to really get the cogs in my head spinning about the overarching themes of the class