The article reviews what the author considers some of the most recent and more significant ethnographic writing on Nepal. Here the author tries to contrast earlier assumptions of cultural disintegration and exploitation with more recent insights into how people have resisted and shaped the structures of those who ruled them. The article reviews a number of recent writings on Nepalese ritual and culture, and questions whether ethnic identities flowed from religious orthodoxies, as these provided the categories by which the Muluki Ain classified Nepal's diverse population. (Rajeev Ranjan Singh 2007-02-23)