Full Description
This volume presents the most comprehensive collection of research on Hmong culture and life in Asia yet to be published. It compliments the abundant material on the Hmong diaspora by focusing instead on the Hmong in their Asian homeland. The contributors are scholars from a number of different backgrounds with a deep knowledge of Hmong society and culture, including several Hmong. The first group of essays addresses the fabric of Hmong culture by considering issues of history, language, and identity among the Hmong/Miao from Laos to China. The second part introduces the challenges faced by the Hmong in contemporary Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Issues of History, Language and Identity
History
1. The State of Hmong Studies (An Essay on Bibliography)--Nicholas Tapp
2. From Culture Circle to Cultural Ecology: The Hmong/Miao as reflected in German and Austrian Anthropology--Christian Postert
3. A Contribution to the Study of Hmong (Miao) Migrations and History--Christian Culas and Jean Michaud
4. Innovation and Tradition in Rituals and Cosmology: Hmong Messianism and Shamanism in Southeast Asia--Christian Culas
Language
5. Pa-hng and the Classification of the Hmong-Mien Languages--Barbara Niederer
6. Vocabulary of Environment and Subsistence in the Hmong-Mien Protolanguage--Martha Rafliff
7. A Note on the Ethno-Semantics of Proverb Usage in Mong Njua (Green Hmong)--Thomas Amis Lyman
8. Problems in the Interpretation of Hmong Surnames--Kao-ly Yang
Identity
9. The A Hmao in Northest Yunnan and Northwest Guizhou Provinces: Perspectives on the Encounter with the A Hmao from some Western Protestant Missionaries--R. Alison Lewis
10. Miao Identity in Western Guizhou: China during the Republican Period--Cheung Siu-Woo
11. Hmong/Miao Transnationality: Identity beyond Culture--Louisa Schein
Part 2: Current Issues
Vietnam
12. Hmong and the Land Question in Vietnam: National Policy and Local Concepts of the Environment--Claes Corlin
13. The Hmong and Forest Management in Northern Vietnam's Mountainous Areas--Vuong Duy Quang
Thailand
14. Ntoo Xeeb: Cultural Redefinition for Forest Conservation among the Hmong in Thailand--Prasit Leepreecha
15. Following Hmong Cultural Pathways for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS: Notes from the Field--Patricia V. Symonds
16. Hmong Marriage Patterns in Thailand in Relation to Social Change--Peter Kunstadter
17. Rape: Perceptions and Processes of Hmong Customary Law--Robert Cooper
Laos
18. Transnational Adaptation: An Overview of the Hmong of Laos--Gar Yia Lee
19. The Hmong and Development in the Lao People's Democratic Republic--Jan Ovesen
Epilogue
20. Hmong Refugees from Laos: The Challenge of Social Change--Yang Dao
Index
Notes on Contributors
