
MA (St. Andrews), PhD (Edinburgh)
Chair in Anthropology
- About
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- Email Address
- m.a.mills@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272622
- Office Address
Department of Anthropology, G1 Edward Wright Building, Kings College Campus. Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-4pm.
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
Prof. Martin A. Mills is Chair in Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and Director of the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research. He specialises in the comparative organisation and structure of governance in religious, state and medical institutions. He has previously lectured and researched at the universities of Edinburgh, St.Andrews and Sussex. Dr. Mills' principal research focus is the anthropological study of Tibetan communities, in particular its religious and governmental institutions. Author of Identity, Ritual and State in Tibetan Buddhism: The Foundations of Authority in Gelukpa Monasticism (Routledge 2003), he has carried out fieldwork in Tibet, Ladakh, China, Northern India and Scotland over the last thirty years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and member of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth, as well as member of the International Association for Tibetan Studies and the International Association of Ladakh Studies.
The Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research (SCHR) is an interdisciplinary research centre focused on the Tibetan Plateau and Hindu Kush-Himalaya. Amongst its public duties is to provide research-level briefings to policy makers and parliamentarians, with research and secretariat support provided to the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Tibet since 2007.
Read the SCHR's latest report to the Scottish Parliament, Climate Change on the Third Pole: Causes, Processes and Consequences (2021).
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Director, Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research,
Elected Senator (Social Sciences),
Senior Personal Tutor (Social Sciences).
- External Memberships
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- Chairman, Aberdeen China Studies Group
- Member, International Association of Ladakh Studies;
- Member, International Association of Tibetan Studies;
- Member, Scottish Parliament Cross-Party Group on Tibet;
- Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute;
- Fellow, Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth.
- Research
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Research Overview
Most anthropologists have three specialisations: one theoretical, the next substantive, and the third personal, or we might even say 'human':
Theoretically, my major research interest lies in the anthropology of the person. This is a multi- and interdisciplinary concern that requires taking on board a wide variety of perspectives, from the legal, religious and cultural to the cognitive and neurological. Since theorising the person stands at the heart of almost all systems of knowledge, from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, understanding how human beings encounter and experience personhood remains one of the fundamental but as yet unanswered puzzles within human understanding. A secondary feature of this theoretical interest is the comparative study of authority in political, religious and medical spheres - as a basis for the understanding of legitimate governance. This is not simply in terms of the imposition of command, but also the creation and organisation of social and theoretical truths within populations, and the formation of consensus. Thematically, this research focus involves a general specialisation in the comparative organisation and structure of governance in religious, state and medical institutions.
In substantive and ethnographic terms, my primary research interest lies in the ethnography of Tibet and Tibetan-speaking areas, and in particular its religious and state life. Over the last four decades, this has involved a progression of research projects focused on the ceremonial nexuses of Tibetan monastic and state life, with research fieldwork in Ladakh, Zanskar, Tibet and Himachal Pradesh. Such projects have involved the formulation of new ways in which modern ethnographers of Tibetan regions can integrate their work with textual specialists and indigenous scholars to create an historical anthropology of the region.
In personal terms, I carry out research and practical engagement work on the question of climate change. Much of this is related to climate change research in the Tibetan and Himalayan regions, including research briefings for parliamentary organisations both in the UK and beyond. This involves collaboration with climatologists, geologists and glaciologists on the urgent issues facing Asia, most particularly in terms of water resources and disaster relief. More widely, I have a strong interest in the deeper causes of, and responses to, climate change at the human level: What are the deep causes of anthropogenic climate change? Why are we collectively so poor and so conflicted in our response to climate change and environmental degradation? How can we understand a way forward?
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Anthropology.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Anthropology
- Asian Studies
- Buddhism
- Climate Change
- Politics
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
Ritual and State in Tibetan History
Since 2003, Mills has engaged in extensive research on the indigenous constitutional history of Tibet. This has involved three main areas of research: the study of the political history of the Ganden Podrang, the Dalai Lama's government at Lhasa from 1642 to 1959, and in exile since 1959; the philological study of medieval and modern manuscripts as they relate to Tibetan understandings of legitimate governance, in particular its own mythology of divine Buddhist kingship; and the ethnographic and historical study of the Ganden Podrang's ceremonial practices of statecraft.
At the heart of these issues is a theoretical concern with four issues:
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The importance of ceremony and ceremonial understandings of statecraft - rather than mere belief - as the basis for the daily functioning and sovereignty of religious states.
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The formation of mythological and constitutional and narratives as the basis for indigenous solidarities and political consciousness, both in the past and the modern day;
- The study of indigenous relations with the land and landscape as an central aspect of ceremonial sovereignty.
- The place of conflict and warfare in religious states such as historical Tibet.
Climate Change on the Third Pole: Causes, Processes and Consequences
Parliamentary report on rapidly advancing climate change on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding mountains, and the effects this will have on freshwater resources for all of Asia.
Collaborations
As Director of the Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research, Dr Mills is Secretary of the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet, and a member of the Cross-Party Group on China and the Westminster All-Parliamentary Group on Tibet. In his advisory role for these groups, he has authored and co-authored parliamentary briefing papers on public protest, human rights, religious regulation, political sovereignty and international law and environmental change on the Tibetan Plateau (see Publications). He is also Chairman of the Aberdeen Chinese Studies Group.
In doing so, Dr Mills has maintained a wide variety of fruitful collaborations, including amongst others:
- The Scottish Parliament at Hollyrood, Edinburgh.
- The International Association fot Tibet Studies.
- The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD, Nepal)
- The Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center, one of the world's principal sources on indigenous Tibetan historical and religious manuscripts.
- The Edinburgh Buddhist Studies Network.
- The Tibet Society, London.
- The International Campaign for Tibet.
- The Office of Tibet, London.
- The Tibet Policy Institute.
- The Confucius Institute, Scotland.
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Research Supervision Areas
- Political anthropology and the anthropology of the state
- Medical Anthropology
- Tibetan and Himalayan systems of governance.
- Buddhist monasticism and ritual
- Religion and the state
- Modern religious movements and insurgencies
Postgraduate Taught
- SL5010 Principles of Research Design
- SL5006 Research Skills
Undergraduate
- AT2005 Political Anthropology (groups, nations and movements)
- AT4525 The Constitutional Imagination (anthropology of the state)
- AT3540 Medical Anthropology
- Publications
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Page 1 of 4 Results 1 to 10 of 38
The Ceremonial State of the Ganden Podrang
Tibetan Rulers: Governance and the State in Tibetan History. Vajra AcademicChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)The 'Trick of Law': The Hermeneutics of Early Buddhist Law in Tibet
Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law. Ginsberg, T., Schontal, B. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, pp. 99-123, 24 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Exorcising Mauss' Ghost in the Western Himalayas: Buddhist Giving as Collective Work
Monks, Money and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism. Brumann, C., Abrahams-Kavunenko, S., Świtek, B. (eds.). 1 edition. Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 109-124, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350213791.ch00-6
Exorcising Mauss’s Ghost in the Western Himalayas: Buddhist Giving as Collective Work
Monks, Money, and Morality: The Balancing Act of Contemporary Buddhism. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., pp. 109-124, 16 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersClimate Change on the Third Pole: Causes, Processes and Consequences: A Working Paper by The Scottish Centre for Himalayan Research for the Scottish Parliament’s Cross-Party Group on Tibet
Commissioned by Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on Tibet. Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Tibet. 43 pagesBooks and Reports: Commissioned ReportsThe Last Gift of the God-King: Narrating the Dalai Lama’s Resignation
Tibetan Subjectivities on the Global Stage: Negotiating Dispossession. Bhoil, S., Galvan-Alvarez, E. (eds.). Lexington BooksChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersPlaying the Long Game?: The Politics of Religious Revival in China and Tibet
Asia DialogueContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesA strange modernity: On the contradictions of the neoliberal university
ANUAC, vol. 6, pp. 47-52Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2980
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/14442/1/2980_9159_1_PB.pdf
Dividing the Third Pole: Beijing's Vision for the Tibetan Plateau
China Policy Institute: AnalysisContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesReview of Subject to Death: Life and Loss in a Buddhist World, by Robert Desjarlais: Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2016, 295 pp. including bibliography and indexes, 39 photographs, US$30.00 (paperback), ISBN 9780226355870
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 678-679Contributions to Journals: Review articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2017.1342901