Introduction of the Kusunda population and the tribal name

There are more than 7000 languages in the world today. Many of them are endangered languages, and Kusunda is one of them.

世界上有多達7000個語言, 其中包含許多瀕危語言, 本篇文章所探討的Kusunda語即是其一。

Nepal is situated on the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain ranges and is a multi-ethnic country. There are many ethnic minorities and endangered languages in Nepal, among them Kusunda. For decades, the Kusunda language was thought to be a moribund language. The recent discovery of a few remaining Kusunda speakers, however, merely changed the label from a moribund language to a highly endangered language. At present, there are only two fluent Kusunda speakers, Mrs. Gyani Maiya Sen Kusunda and Mrs. Kamala Sen Kusunda. The younger generation does not speak the Kusunda language and can only identify a few Kusunda words. But now, Mr. Aaley and these two speakers are teaching Kusunda to the children again. There is not much information available about the Kusunda culture and language. I summarize the existing studies and introduce Kusunda the tribal name, culture, myth and language here. I hope this series brings attention to endangered languages and ethnic minorities.    

Kusunda as a tribal name? It’s a misunderstanding

將錯就錯的Kusunda族稱

Ethnic identities can be classified as endonyms or “self-proclaimed names” and exonyms or “names given by others”. The term “Kusunda” is not a self-proclaimed tribal name. It was given by the neighboring tribes. Scholars heard this term and then used it to describe this population without actually consulting the native speakers. Afterwards, linguistic studies, anthropological studies, and even the Nepalese government used “Kusunda” as the official name to identify this group of people.

一個族群的名稱可分為自稱以及他稱, 而語言學家發現Kusunda語言時,使用的就是他稱來紀錄此族群以及語言。後來的語言學研究,人類學研究甚至是政府機關的認證都延續使用Kusunda來稱呼這一族群, 但其實這名稱的使用是來自於一場誤會。

The research about the Kusunda dates back to 1848, which was conducted by Brian Houghton Hodgson.[1]. In the 1970s, a pioneer study systematically analysing the Kusunda language was done by Dr. John Reinhard[2]. In the past, the term “Kusunda” was thought to describe a group of aboriginal peoples who lived in the forest, because the Kusunda people’s life style was that of nomadic hunter-gatherer[2]. However, Kusunda has a negative connotation, as some people use this term for those who have bad behavior or those who are rude[3]. It all started with a misunderstanding, and the result was that many Kusunda people were ashamed to be labelled as “Kusunda”, so they speak other languages or use other surnames instead[3, 4].

Kusunda族群的研究可以追逤到1848年Brian Houghton Hodgson的研究[1], 而第一份對於Kusunda語言做有系統的田野調查是來自於1970年代John Reinhard的論文[2]。由於Kusunda族群是曾經居住在森林當中的原住民族, 在過去的年代, Kusunda一詞一直被認為是泛指生活在樹林當中以打獵維生的族群[2]。事實上, Kusunda具有負面的意涵,是鄰近的族群用來稱呼生活習慣不佳或是粗鄙的人[3]。一場誤會,讓許多從森林走入都市的Kusunda族人不願意再承認自己的背景,學習使用其他的語言以及姓氏藉以擺脫加諸於身的負面族稱[3, 4]。

The real Kusunda tribal name is Gelangdei Myahak, also known as Ban Raja in Nepali language. As it is stated in Aaley’s book, Myahak means “King” and Gelangdei is “of the forests” in Kusunda language. Therefore, the tribal name stands for “King/people of the jungle”. Reinhard’s mention that Kusunda people prefer to call themselves “Ban Raja” is incorrect, as described in Aaley’s book and Rana’s article. In addition, Rana mentioned that the Kusunda tribal name is Myahak – King of forests, but this is an incomplete tribal name, too.

那到底Kusunda真正的族稱是什麼呢？在Aaley的Kusunda辭典裡提到, 真正的族稱是Gelangdei Myahak, 翻譯成尼泊爾語是Ban Raja [3]。Kusunda語中Myahak是 王, 而Gelang是森林的意思, 所以Gelangdei Myahak以及Ban Raja都是森林之王的意思。在Reinhard的文章中提到Kusunda人自稱Ban Raja是與Aaley以及Rana的文獻不相同的地方。而Rana的文章中提到Kusunda的族稱是Myahak, Myahak一詞已包含King of forests也與Aaley所提及的族稱不一樣。

Even though I have now clarified the Kusunda’s tribal name, all the existing studies are using “Kusunda” as an official identity of this group. Due to the fact that there are not many Kusunda people today, they are not able to justify the correct tribal name to the world. The only hope they have is to document the mother tongue with the help of field linguists, such as Dr. Tim Bodt and Mr. Uday Aaley. Using inaccurate ethnic identities to label languages or minority populations is very common. For example, many minority populations in South America are not given appropriate ethnic identities due to the ego of colonizers in the past. Today, “how to call a tribe with a proper identity” is one of the hot topics in the field of anthropology. Could ethnic minorities themselves have a say in this respect?

即使現在已經知道了Kusunda族人的自稱, 但目前已公諸於世的文章早已慣性的使用Kusunda來稱呼這一群人。由於人數稀少, 現有的Kusunda族群或許沒有機會再替自己正名, 目前僅只希望藉由語言學家(例如Dr. Tim Bodt 以及 Mr. Uday Aaley) 的幫助將自己的母語記錄下來, 所以不在乎是否自己的族名是來自於早期的偏見。其實這樣的誤會十分常見, 比如說南美洲的一些少數族群, 由於殖民者不加以考察而使用了錯誤的名稱甚至是沿用至今。現在的人類學學界掀起一股反思, 如何給予族群的正確的名稱? 少數族群是否可以也有一點發言權呢？

Reference

1. Hodgson, B. H. (1848). On the Chepang and Kusunda tribes of Nepal. JASB, 17(1848), 650-58.

2. Reinhard, J., & Toba, T. (1970). A preliminary linguistic analysis and vocabulary of the Kusunda language. Summer Institute of Linguistics and Tribhuvan University.

3. Aaley, U. R. (2017). Kusunda Tribe and Dictionary. self-publish.

4. Rana, B. K. (2002). New materials on the Kusunda language. 4th Round Table on the Ethnogenesis of South and Central Asia, Harvard University, May.

Acknowledgement

I sincerely thank Ms. Sophie Chang and Dr. Tim Bolt for helping with the editing.

This article originally published on Apr 19, 2019 at www.preserveandshare.org