Full Description
The mountainous borderlands of socialist China, Vietnam, and Laos are home to some seventy million people, representing an astonishing array of ethnic diversity. How are these peoples fashioning livelihoods now that their homeland is open to economic investment and political change?
Moving Mountains presents the work of anthropologists, geographers, and political economists who have first-hand experience in the Southeast Asian Massif. Although scholars have typically represented highland people from this region as marginalized and powerless, these case studies - on groups such as the Drung in Yunnan, the Khmu in Laos, and the Hmong in Vietnam - argue that ethnic minorities draw on culture and ethnicity to indigenize modernity and maintain their livelihoods. This unprecedented glimpse into a poorly understood region shows that development initiatives must be built on strong knowledge of local cultures in order to have lasting effect.
Contents
Illustrations
Foreword / Terry McGee
Acknowledgments
1 Rethinking the Relationships between Livelihoods and Ethnicity in Highland China, Vietnam, and Laos / Tim Forsyth and Jean Michaud
2 Economic Marginalization and Social Identity among the Drung People of Northwest Yunnan / Stéphane Gros
3 Integration of a Lineage Society on the Laos-Vietnam Border / Steeve Daviau
4 Oral Histories of Livelihoods and Migration under Socialism and Post-Socialism among the Khmu of Northern Laos / Olivier Évrard
5 Of Rice and Spice: Hmong Livelihood and Diversification in the Northern Vietnam Uplands / Claire Tugault-Lafleur and Sarah Turner
6 Hani Agency and Ways of Seeing Environmental Change on the China-Vietnam Border / John McKinnon
7 Land Reform and Changing Identities in Two Tai-Speaking Districts in Northern Vietnam / Marie Mellac
8 Commoditized Ethnicity for Tourism Development in Yunnan / Margaret Byrne Swain
9 Rubber Transformations: Post-Socialist Livelihoods and Identities for Akha and Tai Lue Farmers in Xishuangbanna, China / Janet C. Sturgeon
10 Conclusion: Lesson for the Future / Jean Michaud
Contributors
Index
