Skip to navigation – Site map

HomeLatest issues45

45 | 2018
Trichologie tibétaine

Les cheveux et leur traitement au Tibet
Tibetan Trichology: Hair and Its Treatment in Tibet
Edited by Françoise Robin , Nicola Schneider and Nicolas Sihlé
Couverture d'Ateliers d'anthropologie, 45|2018
More about this picture
Credits: Collection Jacques Bacot avec la permission d’Olivier de Bernon

This issue on hair and its treatment in the Tibetan cultural area establishes a dialogue with the work of Christian Bromberger, who proposed a general analytical approach to the social treatment of hair on the head and body. In the Tibetan world, hair is a corporeal element closely associated with the prosperity and vitality of the individual (as we are reminded in the ethnographic account by a Tibetan contributor in this issue). It also reflects contemporary evolutions, with breaks in the ascribing of value to long hair among laypeople, or the possibility of critical political interpretations of its length. Among religious people, capillary modalities are highly codified, varying depending on the form of religious specialisation. The contrast is obvious between the shaven-headed monastic clergy and, at the other extreme, the case of long-haired female non-monastic virtuoso adepts, and especially tantrists and their genuine culture of long hair, even dreadlocks. The texts assembled in this issue reveal a particularly rich trichological culture, suggesting how Bromberger’s work could be extended towards a more complete anthropology of hair.

Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search