Systematic work in tracing the ethnic origins of different peoples is not only of antiquarian interest. Such attempts help to identify those cultural systems that persist and those that are seemingly less central to a people's life. Knowledge of such central systems is important in analyzing both the past and the present for ethnic groups of related culture and origin. Such knowledge and analysis can also be of great importance to the general comparativist.With these points in mind, I have two main purposes. First, I intend to review existing hypotheses on the ethnic origins of the Newars, and to introduce new evidence that has recently become available. I hope to demonstrate that one main, well-founded hypothesis can form the basis for further work on this topic. A second purpose is to show that historical background will help determine the cultural ground rules for discussing Newari materials in theoretical questions such as the nature of cultural forms found in one or another variation over the Indian subcontinent (Dumont 1961(Dumont -1965Rosser 1966).
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