About

Nancy E. Levine is a social anthropologist who studies how the political and economic changes associated with state-sponsored projects of modernization affect families and communities. Her research has focused on culturally Tibetan societies in Nepal and China, exploring the logic underlying variations in systems of kinship, marriage, parenting, and demographic change. Her earlier work involved studying peasant farmers in northwestern Nepal and their coping mechanisms in response to economic scarcity and pre-modern mortality conditions. Currently, she investigates the consequences of government-sponsored sedentarization policies for Tibetan pastoralists in Sichuan, Qinghai, and Gansu Provinces, China, examining how relocation to new towns and adaptations to new lifestyles impact their family relationships, community ties, cultural values, and health and well-being. Levine holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, earned in 1978, and her research interests include family and marriage, multi-species anthropology, pastoralism, sedentarization, resettlement, political economy, development, social change, gender, and the Himalayas, Tibet, and Central Asia.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Geography
• History
• Artificial Intelligence
• Anthropology
• Genealogy
• Political Science
• Epistemology
• Demography

Selected publications

• Traditional Taxation Systems in Western Tibet: A Comparative Perspective

  BRILL eBooks · 2023 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Geography
  • Computer Science
  PublisherDOI

• Practical Kinship

  Inner Asia · 2021 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Genealogy

  Abstract This paper assesses enduring values and on-going changes in kin relationships among eastern Tibetan pastoralists. A key finding is the importance of sibling ties, an aspect of kinship life that was overshadowed by earlier historical and anthropological concerns with clans and tribes. The paper begins by reviewing accounts drawn from premodern times, the problematic terms in which these accounts were couched and some of the presuppositions guiding the authors. Next, it discusses government reforms implemented in pastoralist regions beginning in the 1950s and how these reforms have affected personal life and livelihoods. It then considers how long-standing expectations for kin concerning residence and inheritance have combined with new circumstances to create novel household forms and patterns of mutual aid. Brothers and sisters have facilitated adaptations to these new opportunities by providing chains of assistance across the rural–urban divide. Finally, the paper illustrates how focusing on kinship at a personal and practical level can contribute to our understanding of social change.

  PublisherDOI

• Kinship and the State in Tibet and Its Borderlands

  Inner Asia · 2021 · 1 citations

  • Sociology
  • Computer Science
  • Geography
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Supplementary material from "The disequilbrium of double descent: changing inheritance norms among Himba pastoralists"

  Figshare · 2019-01-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Matrilineal systems in sub-Saharan Africa tend to co-occur with horticulture and are rare among pastoralists, with the causal arrow pointing from the introduction of cattle to the loss of matriliny. However, most work on this topic stems from either phylogenetic analyses or historical data. To better understand the shift from matrilineal to patrilineal inheritance that occurred among Bantu populations after the adoption of pastoralism, data from societies that are currently in transition are needed. Himba pastoralists, who practice ‘double descent’, may represent one such society. Using multi-generational ethnography and structured survey data, we describe current norms and preferences about inheritance, as well as associated norms related to female autonomy. We find that preferences for patrilineal inheritance are strong, despite the current practice of matrilineal cattle inheritance. We also find that a preference for patriliny predicts greater acceptance of norm violating behaviour favouring sons over nephews. Finally, we show that there are important generational differences in how men view women's autonomy, which are likely attributable to both changing norms about inheritance and exposure to majority-culture views on women's roles. Our data shed light on how systemic change like the shifts in descent reckoning that occurred during the Bantu expansion can occur.This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals’.

  PublisherDOI

• A multifaceted interdependence. Tibetan pastoralists and their animals

  Études mongoles sibériennes centrasiatiques et tibétaines · 2019-01-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Cet article discute des relations à facettes multiples entre les pasteurs nomades tibétains des provinces du Sichuan et Qinghai et leurs animaux domestiques. Il montre la façon dont ces pasteurs nomades organisent leur vie autour de leurs animaux et trouvent un équilibre, d’une part, entre les besoins de leur maisonnée et leurs capacités de travail et, d’autre part, les besoins de leurs animaux en matière de soins, dans le but d’arriver à une symbiose économiquement productive. Cet article discute aussi les contraintes sur la gestion des troupeaux entraînées par les politiques gouvernementales concernant l’utilisation des terres, les événements météorologiques sévères qui tuent de nombreux animaux, ainsi que des stratégies utilisées par les pasteurs nomades pour reconstruire les troupeaux après de tels événements. Finalement, l’article présente la pratique de « libérer » certains animaux en tant que tsetar, c’est à dire de les rendre interdits de vente et d’abattage dans le but de compenser les péchés commis par les membres de la maisonnée et d’atténuer les malchances diverses. Cette pratique reflète un mélange d’attitudes (pragmatique, symbolique et émotionnelle) dont font preuve les pasteurs nomades de l’est du Tibet à l’égard de leurs animaux au milieu desquels ils vivent, souligne leur dévouement aux principes bouddhiques ainsi que leurs idées quant à la façon dont les animaux domestiques peuvent améliorer leur capital spirituel et leur réputation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Battle for Fortune: State-Led Development, Personhood, and Power among Tibetans in China. By Charlene Makley. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2018. xviii, 324 pp. ISBN: 9781501719646 (cloth).

  The Journal of Asian Studies · 2019-08-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The Battle for Fortune: State-Led Development, Personhood, and Power among Tibetans in China. By Charlene Makley. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2018. xviii, 324 pp. ISBN: 9781501719646 (cloth). - Volume 78 Issue 3

  PublisherDOI

• The disequilibrium of double descent: changing inheritance norms among Himba pastoralists

  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · 2019-07-15 · 20 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Matrilineal systems in sub-Saharan Africa tend to co-occur with horticulture and are rare among pastoralists, with the causal arrow pointing from the introduction of cattle to the loss of matriliny. However, most work on this topic stems from either phylogenetic analyses or historical data. To better understand the shift from matrilineal to patrilineal inheritance that occurred among Bantu populations after the adoption of pastoralism, data from societies that are currently in transition are needed. Himba pastoralists, who practice 'double descent', may represent one such society. Using multi-generational ethnography and structured survey data, we describe current norms and preferences about inheritance, as well as associated norms related to female autonomy. We find that preferences for patrilineal inheritance are strong, despite the current practice of matrilineal cattle inheritance. We also find that a preference for patriliny predicts greater acceptance of norm violating behaviour favouring sons over nephews. Finally, we show that there are important generational differences in how men view women's autonomy, which are probably attributable to both changing norms about inheritance and exposure to majority-culture views on women's roles. Our data shed light on how systemic change like the shifts in descent reckoning that occurred during the Bantu expansion can occur. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Lama Question: Violence, Sovereignty, and Exception in Early Socialist Mongolia by Christopher Kaplonski Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014. 280 pp.

  American Anthropologist · 2016-08-25

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Transforming inequality: Eastern Tibetan pastoralists from 1955 to the present

  Nomadic Peoples · 2015-01-01 · 25 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper traces the recent history and major political and economic transformations that eastern Tibetan pastoralists have experienced from traditional times to the present and examines how changing rights over land and domestic animals have affected patterns of economic and social inequality in this population. Ethnographic data and responses to household surveys conducted in Sichuan and Gansu Provinces in China support the finding that the division of the grasslands to individual households through long-term contracts to state-owned land and government policies supporting sedentarisation are contributing to asset inequality and creating the foundation for class-based social differentiation in this population.

  PublisherDOI

• Geographical Diversions: Tibetan Trade, Global Transactions by Tina Harris

  American Anthropologist · 2014-05-26

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Joan B. Silk

  Arizona State University

  12 shared

• Paule Bolo

  3 shared

• Walter H. Sangree

  3 shared

• Jee‐Peng Tan

  2 shared

• Gérard Lassibille

  Institut Français de l'Éducation

  2 shared

• Sean P. Prall

  University of Missouri

  2 shared

• Brooke A. Scelza

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2 shared

• Richard Schechner

  Sanford Broadway Medical Center

  1 shared

Labs

• Nancy E. Levine LabPI