Ekvall does a fine job of making the cultural traditions of a highland culture come alive in his survey of a society of nomadic pastoralists, aBrog Pa, in northeast ethnic Tibet, where ecology dominates their existence and prescribes their manner of living. Fields on the Hoof is a study of the complex interdependency of many the influence of the high-altitude environment and its resources; the influence of Buddhism as it counters the survival of folk belief; the social system, culture, and personality the aBrog Pa share with other pastoral nomads; the adaptation of man to animal and animal to man.
