Market and Monastery: Capitalism in Manangi Trade Diaspora

In the established historiography of trade in Asia, the emergence of Western trading empires invariably triggered the decline and dispersal of old trading networks. In this transregional ethnographic history of the Manangi, a Buddhist trading community from northern Nepal, Prista Ratanapruck provides counter evidence, elucidating how kinship, social, and religious institutions have facilitated the expansion of Manangi trade across South and Southeast Asia. Expounding on how social and moral values shape capital production, accumulation, and redistribution, Market and Monastery examines the entwining relationship between trade and the Manangi’s pursuit of social and spiritual aspirations, ultimately illuminating an intriguing form of capitalism.

Prista Ratanapruck received her B.A. in Economics and PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University. Currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Integrated Development Studies in Nepal, she has previously taught History at Rutgers University, as well as Anthropology at the University of Virginia, Chiangmai University in Thailand, and the Nepa School of Sciences and Humanities in Nepal. Her recent publications include journal articles in JESHO, Encounter, and in the co-edited volume, Radical Egalitarianism (Fordham 2011).