BBA 1263 Hons.

in Business Administration
SOCIOLOGY 5th Semester

ANSWERS
1.
Raute people are nomadic. There is a resounding no to permanent settlements. The reason
for the nomadic life is based on the story that once when they lived at a place for a length
of time, death took one of their family members. From then on they started believing that
living in a single place is a bad star and they never stayed in one place for long. They accept
food grains bartering with their wooden products to sustain their life. They are not
interested in other forms of jobs and occupations. They feel that education is of no use for
them. They are accomplished with a unique art of monkey hunting and they make a special
net to trap monkeys. Hunting is carried out through the united effort of males in the
community. However, they are not interested in hunting birds and wild animals.

After death of a community member, Raute bury the dead in a nearby forest and shift their
camp very quickly to another place. They cut soft tress for carving wooden containers and
barter with them for grains. Since they move to another location, there is always ample time
for the trees to regenerate. Rautes drink water from springs only. They do not drink the
water from a pond, hand pumps or wells. They consider the availability of spring water
while shifting to a new place. Raute are endogamous. They follow a nuclear family
structure. After a marriage, the new couple move to a new tent to start married life together.
They will even leave their widowed mother and sister after marriage.

They are the worshippers of Kul Devata. They believes their God decides whether they
alive or dead and the presences of every members of tribes during the puja makes God
happy.

The Rautes prefer to use only a certain species of woods, as not to not create any clash with
the villagers. Their wooden products have significant value for two reasons: i) it provides
them source of subsistence to feed their children. As they have no interest in agriculture,
carving wooden products is a singular way of serving their hand to mouth, and ii) Wooden
products serve to continue the legacy of Raute culture for being culturally and economically
important.

2.

In early phases of human evolution, the main sources of clothing were animal skins, bark
and leaf of trees; however, it has modified gradually with time and technology. With the

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BBA 1263 Hons.in Business Administration
SOCIOLOGY 5th Semester

time, the concept of clothing has also changed from mere protection to material culture.
Since it is an integral part of the human culture today, it obviously gets influenced by the
changes that have occurred in other aspect of culture, such as economy, demography,
physical environment, religion, etc.

This generation nomad Raute has good adaption of Nepalese language. Nowdays, Raute
developed to control the ongoing livelihood challenges is ‘communication competence’ in
local language. In spite of a lot of unprecedented vicissitudes, the Raute have been found
keeping on the process of learning communication skills and turning themselves into
eloquent traders from the silent barterers, thereby increasing the cultural proximity and
emotional attachment with the sedentary people. Interestingly, in addition to normal way
of communication, the Raute have gradually learnt the artistic way of conversation like the
local villagers. The fluency in local dialect has benefitted the Raute in many ways. Firstly,
since the communication skills are considered as the prime techniques for cross cultural
adaptation, Raute’s competence in Nepalese/local language has helped them in negotiating
the cultural differences with the villagers. Until some decades ago, the nomadic Raute used
to wear pheasant feathers, cock combs, woven rhododendron and deer skin as clothes.
However, the use of animal skin and feather was left in the early 1980s . The traditional
attire of both sexes seems similar, but the dressing style is different. Men wear short
Bhangro-traditional attire, made up with the fibre of hemp plant, which covers the body
from knee to neck and head turban where women, along with the Ghagro covering from
calf to neck, use shawl on the neck to complete the attire.

3.

Raute is one of the endangered indigenous groups of Nepal. The modern concept of
economic development means little to the nomadic Raute. Indeed, the developmental
programs launched by the government impinge the traditional way of life. For the nomadic
Raute, the development equates with the freedom to roam peacefully through the forests
but the various projects of the government restrict them from roaming freely in the jungle.

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BBA 1263 Hons.in Business Administration
SOCIOLOGY 5th Semester

As the nomadic Raute are hunters and gatherers, it is very difficult to separate the economy
from social structure and work division. They have an economic primarily based on hunting
of monkeys with nets, and arrows sometimes, gathering of yams and other edible plants
from the forest and exchanging the wooden utensils for food with the surrounding villagers.

Hunting monkeys is a co-operative effort for Raute male members, and normally they hunt
dividing themselves into many groups, a group comprising more than 10 members. The
collected meat is usually divided equally among those who participated and give some parts
to those who remain at home or have gone for gathering, but those who are in the village
for trading the wooden objects that day do not receive anything because of their religious
belief.

Fishing, on the other hand, is not the popular mode of economy in the community, but both
genders do it if they get opportunity. The Raute carve wooden objects to barter for food
grains with the surrounding villages. They are always friendly in business and normally do
not force the villagers to buy their goods.

However, when someone orders from them the wooden object, they consider it as a word
of promise to buy their goods and lose temper in case the supposed buyer turn aside. As far
as the economy generation by Raute women is concerned, they gather plants, particularly
yams, in the forest and involve in trading woodenwares.

Change is a natural process. Every person or society of any community has certain
limit or capacity to build up their socio cultural life. With the emergence of some
phenomena certain change have occur in every sphere of life of any community.
Globalization is one of these and it is a multidimensional phenomenon and its effects
on political, economic, social and cultural sphere of any society of the world. The
term quality of life means the wellbeing of any society or individual. The quality
of life is not only including the wealth and employment it also include physical,
social and cultural sphere of life. The indigenous or tribal people the original settler are
mostly live in forest, hills and other naturally isolated regions which are rich in
mineral resources.