On an isolated Himalayan hillside in northwest Nepal, the village that was the subject of this groundbreaking study in the late '60s--at the time two weeks' walk from the nearest commercial transportation--was as culturally complex as it was remote. While the villagers were largely self-sufficient, it was the ways in which they still depended on outside forces that anthropologist Fisher analyses compellingly in this work.Republished almost 50 years after the original fieldwork to coincide with the publication of a recent follow-up investigation by Fisher (Trans-Himalayan Traders Transformed), the two volumes provide a fascinating and significant view of the evolution of this once remote culture....well researched, well analysed and equally well-written ethnography. The author's style is insightfull and easy-going, with a certain wit and frankness... exceptionally good... Donald A. Messerschmidt, Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1986.