REVIEW ARTICLES

Review of: Butler-Diaz, Jacqueline, 1981. Yao Design ritual manuals for spirit mediums, but also ofNorthern . : The Siam Society. included are genealogical records, horoscopic Diep Trung Binh, 1997. Patterns on Textiles of the texts, cloth embroidered with blessings, painted Ethnic Group of . : Cultures of masks and headdresses for ritual experts, and Nationalities Publishing House. two copies of the "King Ping Charter."1 Goldman, Ann Yarwood, 1995. Lao Mien Embroi­ The introduction to the catalog contains dery: Migration and Change. Bangkok: White Lotus. background information on the Yao and their Hollmann, Thomas 0. and Freidrich, Michael, 1999. religion and books, as well as the extensive Botschaften an die Gotter: Religiose Handschriften collection of Yao manuscripts at the Bavarian der Yao; Sildchina, Vietnam, , Thailand, State Library, writing materials, woodblock . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. stamps, the restoration of masks, and the King Lemoine, Jacques, 1982. Yao Ceremonial Paintings. Ping Charter. Finally, the book contains a useful Bangkok: White Lotus. 41-item bibliography of works on Yao in Lewis, Paul and Lewis, Elaine, 1984. Peoples ofthe Western languages. Golden Triangle: Six Tribes of Thailand. : The calligraphy and the illustrations in the Thames and Hudson. manuscripts are in many cases striking, even if the items are in less than pristine condition. I Hjorfeifur Jonsson liked photos of dog-eared, singed, water­ damaged, and worn manuscripts for the sense What makes Yao culture collectible, and they gave that the books had really been used. what sense do these collectibles make? By Given the long history and wide dispersal of the looking at some of the writings about the Yao Yao, this sense of movement and wear and tear over the last two decades, I want to suggest that is a welcome reminder about their multiple to a considerable degree (that is, with one histories. Some of the most compelling pieces exception), the exhibits and picture books about in the catalog show that the Y ao have not just the Yao reveal a culture of collecting and carried books about. One example is the text of governmentality while ostensibly portraying the a chant most likely used for ordination rituals, unique, shared, and timeless culture of the Yao written on the unprinted side of a recycled people. The notion that "traditional" cultures American C~P"e-package, a relic from the war in are fast disappearing adds a sense of urgency to Laos. The catalog also contains a photo of the these displays, and contributes to the reality­ other side of the cardboard that identifies the effect of these portrayals as being about the country of origin and states that the contents Yao. were "not to be sold or exchanged "(pp. 34-5). Botschaften . . . ("Instructions to the Gods: Another reminder of the war in Laos is on a Yao Religious Manuscripts") is a catalog for an single sheet found within one of the manuscripts. exhibit of Yao manuscripts and related objects It is written in Lao and shows an encounter at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, between an old (Lao) couple and two soldiers. Germany. The exhibit was for less than two The grandfather asks for mercy from the soldiers, months in late 1999, but the book remains and who reassure him that they are genuine Lao stands as a major effort to present Yao through soldiers and here to protect them from a display of their texts. There is no comparable harassment by the Vietnamese army. After this work on Yao manuscripts, and thus the book revelation, the grandmother declares her great has significant value as an inventory of Y ao relief that the two are "our Lao soldiers" (pp. texts. Botschaften contains catalog descriptions 60-1 ). A third reminder of the world within and photographs of 55 items. The majority are which the Yao have found themselves is a 1951

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) Review Articles 223 addition to the King Ping Charter (not shown), attract interest and the kinds of prices paid. that declares how the Yao were going to From these conversations, I gained some sense cooperate with the now that they of the prices at different levels of this had been liberated and were under the Chairman international trade-network, and the difference Mao's leadership. (pp. 31-2).2 in the tourist price of one or a few books and the Botschaften is not an ethnography. The range dealer-price for ten, a hundred, or more books, and variation of social and cultural formations and then how long one would have to wait for a within the Yao category is not seriously bulk shipment. These mechanics of acquisition discussed in the introduction's brief overviews and trade matter for two reasons not discussed of the Yao and their religion (about two pages in the catalog but which are relevant to its each). But given the subtitle's promise about content. One is the genealogy of European the Yao of southern , Vietnam, Laos, collections of Oriental objects, and the other is Thailand, and Myanmar, the absence of the apparent lack of knowledge about the Yao ethnographic content is frustrating. The reality by those in the antique trade. of the book's Y ao is that of Chinese texts and There is one reason why objects from textual traditions. The bulk of the exhibit­ peoples such as the Yao take on new conno­ materials is identified as variously belonging to tations when they are traded elsewhere. They Youmian or Jingmen subgroups of Yao which become meaningful in a range of ways Botschaften says are both influenced by Chinese connected to their new contexts. My point is Daoism, Jingmen being "orthodox" while not a purist argument about an authentic "Yao" Youmian are defined as ''undogmatic" (p. 12). meaning of these objects. This is because Yao The former have two kinds of ritual specialists, peoples appropriated Daoism and various other Daogong and Shigong, whereas the Y oumian aspects of Chinese culture and society, often have only the lower-ranking Shigong. These for purposes other than their sources would ritual specialists are the primary book-keepers, indicate. Because of these reasons, a textual so to speak. Therefore, some indication of the approach will miss whatever relevance these importance of the ritual experts and their texts texts have had for the Yao. Given social, in social life, as well as the distinction between economic, religious, and other variety among Youmian and Jingmen and that between the more than two million Y ao people, it is orthodox and undogmatic Daoism would have unlikely that there ever was a uniform Yao set been informative. Yao households in Thailand, of meanings for these texts. Yet this is precisely Vietnam and elsewhere sometimes maintain the museum-effect of the display of Yao considerable collections of manuscripts. How manuscripts. It takes on a collective Yao they are used in daily life is a topic of much reference whose sources are the Bavarian State relevance. Library and the international market in Recent generations of Y ao in both Thailand antiquities and "primitive" art and culture, not and Vietnam are schooled in national languages any Yao background of the objects.3 and in general they do not study the Chinese This is not unique to Y ao exhibits. script in which the texts are written. This is part Why, given the lack of knowledge about the of the untold story of why there are so many Yao, is this material collected and exhibited? Yao manuscripts on the market for antiquities What makes Yao objects collectible? For some, and "primitive art." The Bavarian State Library an interest in Y ao things comes from the appeal collection contains over 1,000 manuscripts (p. of Eastern religions in the West. Just outside the 17). By asking traders about these goods, I city of in northern Thailand, there learned that the German library most likely is a Center for Daoist Studies. Quite a few acquired its collection over a few years from a people, after taking the Center's courses, visit calligraphy dealer in England, who bought them nearby shops selling objects such as spirit­ from a "tribal and primitive art" dealer in paintings. The reasons for the exhibit in Munich Thailand. This specialist in Y ao materials in are doubtless more complex. For one thing, it tum makes collecting trips. His scouts in Laos has funding and an institutional framework, a and Vietnam have a sense of what materials Yao Project by the Departments of Chinese

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 224 Review Articles

Studies at the Universities of Hamburg and tainable essences of French Indochina and Munich and the Bavarian State Library, in Chinese . 5 operation for four years before the exhibit. This Museums and collections do not just satisfy institutional context contributes to an expla­ already-existing longings, they also contribute nation of the Chinese textual emphasis and to defmitions of the world and its components possibly of the lack of ethnographic content that can refme and/or create particular tastes concerning the Yao. and desires. An exhibit on Yao manuscripts Some reasons for collecting Yao things are makes the public conversant with the objects, related to the collectors' sense of their identity, which in this case is beneficial for the Y ao and have precious little to do with the Yao Project vis-a-vis its sponsors. It is also likely to themselves. Y ao materials, in spite of their local create not only an interest in these items but significance, come to represent a key to also a desire for these now-valued and significant outsiders' personal or historical space that may but previously obscure or unknown objects.6 have little to do with Y ao realities. One example Collections and exhibits can create new is a major Japanese study of Yao manuscripts markets, and thus articulate relations (and and histories conducted in Thailand around 1970, potential conflicts) among scholars, museums, and led by Y oshiro Shiratori. It ''yielded a dealers, and local experts, producers, and/or collection of almost 2000 items of ethnological suppliers. 7 material, tens of thousands of photographs as Jacques Lemoine's book, Yao Cermonial well as many copies of ancient Yao documents." Paintings, is a case in point. Beautifully One motive behind the research effort was the illustrated with photographs of the paintings possibility that "the actual origins of the. non­ and their details and also of some Y ao rituals, it Chinese tribes in Central and and has helped to consolidate the market for Daoist Southeast [would help to solve] directly or paintings. 8 indirectly the origins of the Wajin, and the A market for these paintings existed in the formative process of Japanese culture."4 1970s, but the book made dealers and buyers Many collectors' stories are more personal, better able to attach a set of meanings to the but also relate to national pasts in international objects that made them much more valuable. In contexts. One concerns a dealer in Yao his Introduction, Lemoine states that he wrote antiquities in search of his own Chinese roots: the book "in order to help connoisseurs and a Singaporean Chinese who does not speak collectors understand and appreciate the Chinese but who became fascinated with the treasures they have acquired" {p. 8). There are culture and objects of the Yao after living in still paintings on the market, and all the better Thailand for some time. To him, various aspects shops have a copy of Lemoine's book for their of Y ao culture suggested that they were "more customers to peruse. Like museums, publishers Chinese than the Chinese" who had lost much hold an important place in the connections of their supposed essence. Another collector is among dealers, experts, and the public. The a Frenchman who grew up fascinated with the publisher of Yao Ceremonial Paintings had been exotics of Indochina, and once in Thailand an antiques dealer, but turned publisher once he started amassing a collection of things from the saw Lemoine's manuscript. Yao in Vietnam. Initially, he supplied the ex­ The presentation of material in Yao Singaporean dealer with an inventory of the Ceremonial Paintings is largely informed by things he would like, and from this the latter Chinese texts, and the problems of linking the gained a sense of how to supply his store that materials to Yao rather than to collectors and he has run for over ten years since. Both are connoisseurs are similar to those with still collecting Yao objects. One is thinking Botschaften. Because the German collection about making a museum from his collection most likely came in the mail and the Project's while the other already has a private museum. team may never have met any Yao, this may be In these life-stories, Yao objects from Vietnam understandable.9 and Laos have to some extent satisfied, in This is less acceptable in the case ofLemoine Thailand, longings for the otherwise unat- who did research with the Yao in Laos and

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) Review Articles 225

Thailand. Lemoine's treatment ofDaoism misses no religion. They worship nothing and offer no interesting aspects of ritual dynamics, such as prayers or sacrifices except in times of trouble. the high-level ritual ordinations that are featured They are doubtful about the existence of ghosts in some of the photographs. Chao La, who or demons, excepting the spirits of their own helped Lemoine find ritual experts to interview, ancestors who seem a rather unkind lot." He was the son of a high level Mien headman who relates how disappointed he was on entering a ruled over more than 100 villages within the Miao house because he initially saw nothing French colony and was renowned for. his military interesting, but that his "spirits revived [once prowess. Later, Chao La and his older brother his travel-partner pointed out to him] all sorts of were generals in Vang Pao's CIA-supported instruments and utensils fashioned of wood, army during the American "secret war" in Laos. bamboo, gourds and fibre, which showed great Given that the ritual ordinations are expensive ingenuity and some of which possessed that and mostly done by the wealthy, it is significant beauty of utter simplicity which is brought to that the photos in Lemoine's book show mass perfection by the interiors of Japanese houses. ordinations sponsored by Chao La. 10 Well, at least these people were ingenimis"15 In all likelihood, he was both elevating his To Blofeld, the hilltribes were ancient own military and spiritual status and reinforcing peoples whose "extinction ... would be a shame his command over his followers. Drawing on [because their cultures had] hardly changed in his encounters with Western academics, Chao thousands of years-a rich source of material La wore the cap and gown of a Ph.D. for some for anthropologists and all students of the human of his rituals. He did not pretend to hold a race." 16 Western academic degree, but wore. the outfit The interest in dress as something notable because of the analogy between his ritual rank and collectable has a longer history than the (to-sai, "master-teacher") and that of academics. interest in the accoutrements of Yao religion. This lesson in cultural translation was apparently Before World War II, there was an exhibit of missed by the team behind Botschaften, as it is "Siam's tribal dresses" in the lecture hall of the in Yao Ceremonial Paintings. 11 Siam Society in Bangkok. The idea originated In both books, the (Chinese) origins of a with Major Erik Seidenfaden, who gave a speech text or another object explain its true meaning. I when the exhibit was launched in December, have not learned whether Chao La was a 1937. 17 collector of any kind, but his father who had the His idea had been to collect "as far as title Phaya Luang collected all kinds of clocks possible, all the national costumes of the various and had a special room for his collection. 12 branches of the , as well as all the In Thailand in the early 20'h century, the dresses of the non-Thai communities who are connotations of ritual rank among Mien shifted mostly domiciled in the hills on the western from military prowess to success in farming. 13 boundary of the Kingdom and in the moun­ Lemoine's omission ofwhat goes on in social tainous North. [His] thought was really to have life, in spite of his research, only reinforces the all these dresses executed in a size to suit models sense that the significance of the Y ao resides in of a height of not more than fifty centimeters."18 texts whose privileged interpreters are foreign Seidenfaden was concerned that "time­ scholars literate in Chinese. 14 honored national and regional costumes [were] From this perspective, what I view as the fast disappearing, to be replaced by dresses of lack of knowledge about the Yao in Botschaften more or less international fashion ... Therefore is not a mistake that should have been corrected. if future generations are not to be kept in It is the essence of the presentation of Yao to ignorance as to how their ancestors clothed collectors and the interested public in the West. themselves, it is high time now to collect all the The focus on Yao religious objects in books various dresses still worn by the inhabitants of and exhibits is recent. One example of the this picturesque and beautiful land, and to keep previous lack of interest interest in this subject them carefully preserved in our museums for is John Blofeld, who wrote in the 1950s that future information and study."19 This assembly "properly speaking, the Miaos and Yaos have of dresses, largely in miniature, was an attempt

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 226 Review Articles to visualize Siam through these markers ofethnic or Lisu will conjur up mental images of the identities. In this exhibit, Y ao clothes were a distinctive dress of each group" (p. 11 ). 23 part of the disappearing diversity of Siam. A Pictures and accompanying text bring to life footnote to this article states that the dresses these separate and unique cultures in ways that were handed over to the National Museum in make them eminently collectible. The final 1938, but it is not clear what subsequently chapter, Signs ofChange (pp. 287-91), contains happened to them. photos of"modern" things in the everyday lives Yao collectibles do not stand out in the of uplanders. The signs of change (cars, account of this exhibit, but this is in many ways motorcycles, cassette players, sewing machines, a notable museumizing project. For one thing, it foreign tourists, Thai schools) serve to place the visually represented Siam/Thailand through its cultures of the "six tribes" out of time, at the ethnic diversity that included upland populations. same time that they produce the collector's effect Seidenfaden's view of Siam through this exhibit that the ethnic things in view are soon to was neither widely shared nor long-lasting. Y ao disappear. As Seidenfaden wrote in 1937; "It and other upland minorities only came into has been rightly said that the honk of the motor official and public view again, and then as a lorry with its load of cheap foreign textiles national problem, with integration policies and sounds the death knell of the national costumes, anti-insurgency campaigns during the 1960s. A while the radio and the cinematograph are part of these later efforts was the establishment rapidly exterminating provincial dialects and of the Tribal Research Centre (now Institute), ancient manners and customs."24 whose mandate included studies of the "six main Predictably, Peoples ofthe Golden Triangle tribes," Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, and is at hand in many of the stores that sell tribal Mien. 20 The mandate of the research center handicrafts in Thailand. If one were to take the effectively defined the "ethnic landscape" of book as a guide to the Mien (Y ao) in Thailand, nothern Thailand's hills as that of six groups of it would most likely produce disappointment people,21 and the Centre had a museum where similar to that of John Blofeld, that there is not the six tribes were on view through a display of much of interest in the villages. The book their material culture. presents an ethnic world that never was. As The rather arbitrary definition of the six tribes such, it reminds me of an episode from my has since become routinized, and is both research with Thailand's Mien when a Yao naturalized and commemorated in the coffee­ expert from the Tribal Research Institute arrived table book Peoples of the Golden Triangle: Six with two photographers to document the Yao Tribes of Thailand. In its illustrations and photo way of making New Year sweets. To document captions, this book is much like a museum the reality they were after, they first had the exhibit. At least two museums in Thailand draw local people change their clothes and the directly on the book for its displays ofYao.22 instruments they were using, and then they Peoples ofthe Golden Triangle presents each proceeded to photograph what they themselves of the six tribes as an entity, to the point that had conjured up based on their expectations each ethnic group has a personality or a "basic about "real" Yao. Peoples ofthe Golden Triangle theme." Thus one learns that "a desire for has a resonance similar to Botschaften and Yao harmony is a basic theme in the Sgaw and Pwo Ceremonial Paintings, that is more related to Karen cultures . . . A desire for independence the reality of collectors and museums than to dominates the lives of the Hmong ... A desire that of the upland ethnic minorities in northern for propriety is a driving theme in Mien culture Thailand and neighboring countries. In ... A desire for blessing is a dominant theme addressing the longings and tastes of interested throughout Lahu culture . . . A desire for outsiders, these books are successful. The culture continuity is a dominant theme among the Akha these books describe is not that ofYao. Rather, ... [and] a desire for primacy is predominant in their authors' ideas about Y ao serve as a vehicle Lisu culture" (p. 10). These are people of dress, for the perpetuation of particular kinds oflonging according to the authors. "Just the mention of and pleasure within the culture of connois­ the names Karen, Hmong, Mien, Lahu, Akha, seurship and collecting.

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) Review Articles 227

Ann Y. Goldmann's Lao Mien Embroidery the entire Vietnamese nation. Vietnam produces is closer to its subject. The material draws on a wide range oflovely woven products including the women embroiderers who went to the United mats and carpets. Wearable textiles and States after the war in Laos had uprooted their utilitarian fabrics play an indispensable role in lives. There are many individual voices and the historical and cultural evolution of stories of particular lives in the book. In this, Vietnamese peoples . . . the ethnic groups of Lao Mien Embroidery breaks markedly from Vietnam create decorative designs and patterns the generalized Yao in the timeless hills of most on textiles as their unique historical, aesthetic other work. To appreciate the visual and textual and religious expressions"(p. 1). This positive materials on variation and changes in embro­ presentation leaves out entirely the extent to idery, the reader must be willing to meet the which "ethnic" dress and culture are a political subject half-way. The book provides a con­ issue and a matter of official directions. At an siderable inventory ofMien embroidery designs, international conference on the cultural heritage and contains a glossary of well over 200 relevant of Vietnam's ethnic minority groups, one Mien terms. The stories that the book tells, about Vietnamese ethnologist stated that: "In the war-time in Thailand and Laos in the 1960s and course of development, each ethnic group should 1970s, and about migration and new life in the know how to preserve fine customs, reform bad (pp. 27-36) reveal various aspects habits and accept and build new fine customs of the social and historical life of cloth, designs, both traditional and modem."26 and dress. Through these interesting stories and In contemporary Vietnam, as in Thailand, the accompanying photographs Goldmann "ethnic dress" is a rare sight outside the context conveys a reality of Lao Mien embroidery that of ethnic tourism and shops with minority is firmly grounded in particular encounters, handicrafts. Aside from remote settlements, histories, and women's life-stories. As such, minority peoples such as Zao tend to wear Goldmann's book (including Sandra Cate's "market clothes," in part at least because of the informative introductory chapter) shows that a stigma attached to ethnic minority cultures as presentation of Mien (material) culture to a backwards. The expectation about backwardness Western audience does not have to be alienated in minority areas is apparent for instance in from Mien or other Yao realities.25 Binh 's remark about batik designs on Dao Tien The chapter on Yao (called "Dao," but clothes: "One can hardly believe that such pronounced "Zao" in Vietnam) in Diep Trung beautiful 'works of art' are created with these Binh'sPatterns on Textiles ofthe Ethnic Groups primitive tools" (p. 133). The official appre­ in Northeast of Vietnam (pp. 81-135) is much ciation of ethnic minority clothes and other more conventional. There are no individuals or markers of difference within the modem nations particular histories, not to speak of a situated of Thailand and Vietnam, evident for instance researcher, behind the accounts of pieces of in recent museum projects, sits rather uneasily clothing. The Yao materials are presented by with the official suppression of the practices of subgroup (Dao Tien, Dao Quan Chet, Dao Thanh difference that are associated with the upland Y, and Dao Thanh Phan). These sub-group minority peoples.27 identifications are Vietnamese, and do not Much the same is true of Yao in China, in necessarily match the local reality of the various picture books as much as in the focus of Y ao Zao groups in the country. As with research on cultural practices within the Chinese nation.28 Thailand's Yao at the Tribal Research Institute, With one exception, the portrayals of the Vietnamese research on Zao is entangled with Yao in these books do not reveal much about official definitions of minority identity, and the Yao themselves. Rather, these works draw concerns to some extent the manifestation of on the Yao and sometimes other upland ethnic expertise by the state's agents, and an official minority groups to perpetuate other cultures, definition of the nation. This is evident for notably those of collectors and governments. instance in the first words of the book's These efforts are projections, whose effect is Introduction: "The woven products of its 54 the notion that "culture" is something that ethnic groups are valued cultural treasures of concerns the Yao and similar peoples. The

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 228 Review Articles attribution of "culture" to the Yao and other International, 1998), 3-19, and Hjorleifur Jonsson, ethnic minorities is part of a classificatory "Yao Minority Identity and the Location ofDifference scheme that divides up the world's peoples in in the South China Borderlands," Ethnos 65 particular ways. The location of culture in (2000):56-82. particular places implies the separate location 2 Chinese authorities incorporated many Yao of expertise regarding the collection, definition, leaders into local administrative structures. While display, and improvement of the objects and the first decades of communist rule saw many attempts practices pertaining to (in this case) the Yao. to curb "feudal superstitions," the post-Mao era has With the exception of Goldmann's book, these been characterized by a different gaze on Yao works perpetuate an attractive stereotype ofYao customs, now as the bedrock of social morality. See as a timeless people with a unique culture and Ralph Litzinger, "Reimagining the State in Post-Mao dress that we Modems are lucky to have on China," in Cultures of Insecurity: States, Com­ view before their dress and other uniqueness munities, and the Production ofDanger (Jutta Welds, disappear. What these portrayals fail to Mark Laffey, Hugh Gusterson, and Raymond Duvall, acknowledge is that the uniqueness they are eds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, after is a product of a museumizing culture and 1999), 293-318. that the Yao they display are of their own 3 On the ethnic reference of the objects, see note 6. making. The aestheticization ofYao objects is a While the trajectory of the objects in this display political process, while the presentation of these makes them commodities, the musemn-effect and objects in exhibits and books tends to gloss the catalog (both through its text and its silences) over politics and history. Except for Lao Mien presents them as culture/religion. As presented, the Embroidery, these works on Yao collectibles objects are rare and exotic, and require several years are primarily valuable as (unintended) sources for a team of experts to reveal the knowledge they about the classification and collection of the contain concerning the Yao. James Clifford's "On ethnic Other. Collecting Art and Culture," in his The Predicament of Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Notes: Press, 1988), 215-51, provides a useful discussion of collections and the classifications of objects as "art," 1 This document is also known as "The Yao "culture," "commodities," etc. The textual emphasis Passport," "License for Crossing the Hills," and by of the exhibit that Botschaften accompanied has many several other terms. It is attributed to a Chinese parallels in European studies of . See Emperor, and explains how the Yao ancestor Pien Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Hung (P'an Hu) earned a princess for a bride after Under Colonialism (Donald Lopez, ed. Chicago: doing the emperor a great favor. Variously in the University of Chicago Press, 1995). form of a book or a scroll, this manuscript defmes 4 Namio Egami, "Preface," in Ethnography of the Yao as free to live in the forests beyond the state, Hill Tribes of (Y oshiro Shiratori, ed. explains their royally-decreed twelve lineages, and Tokyo: Sophia University, 1978), 280-81, quote from states that it is issued for the protection of the Yao p. 281. against duties of state subjects. See Kia Shen Pong: 5 Susan Stewart, On Longing: Narratives of the Passport for Travelling in the Hills. Perpetual miniature,· the gigantic, the souvenir, the collection Redaction of the Imperial Decree of Emperor Ping (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984) Huang for Protection when Travelling in the Hills provides a wide-ranging account of the relations (Theraphan L. Thongkum, ed. Bangkok: Chula­ )>etween longing and various kinds of collections and longkorn University, Linguistics Research Unit, musemns. Christian F. Feest has discussed German 1991), Huang Yu, "A Preliminary Study of the Yao and other European interest in and identification with 'King Ping's Charter,"' in The Yao of South China Indians of North America. Like Stewart, he shows (Jacques Lemoine and Chiao Chien, eds. Paris: , how various aspects of such fascinations concern 1991), 89-123, Barend J. ter Haar, "A New identity formation. In his words, European concerns Interpretation of the Yao Charters," in New with American Indians have been "a homegrown Developments in Asian Studies (Peter van de Velde fantasy embellished with the trappings of exotic and Alex McCay, eds. London: Kegan Paul stereotype." Feest, "Europe's Indians," in The

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Invented Indian (James A. Clifton, ed. New Alfred McCoy, The Politics of Heroin (New York: Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1990), 313- Lawrence Hill, 1991), pp. 283-386. 32, quote from p. 330. 11 Yao Ceremonial Paintings contains two pictures 6 A recent comparable example is a well-illustrated from a second-level (to-sai) ordination, p. 26. These article on intricately embroidered spirit medium's show a ritual specialist and Chao La climbing a sword robes from Lantien Yao in northern Laos, published ladder, the latter wearing the cap and gown of a in a magazine aimed at textile afficionados. I had seen "Western" academic. The pictures show a crowd of the robes around in "tribal" stores for some time, and ordinands wearing "Daoist" robes with the "Western" I am told that they sold much better once this article caps. Lemoine makes no comment on the outfits. came out. Wimolrat Jenjarassakul, Vichai Chinalai 12 See K.G. Izikowitz, Over Dimmornas Berg and Lee J. Chinalai, "Yao Lan Tan Shamans' Robes." (Stockholm: Bonniers, 1944), pp. 72-73. On the Hali 109 (Spring 2000), 94-9, p. 120. As a "Yao mutual appropriations of material culture by expert," I have had some of these encounters. Once I Europeans and Pacific Islanders and the range of was given a photocopy of a manuscript and asked to significance that the objects acquired in their new find out whatever I could, such as identity, meaning, contexts, see Nicholas Thomas, Entangled Objects: and purpose. This was for American traders in tribal Exchange, Material Culture, and Colonialism in the exotica on their acquisition trip in northern Thailand. Pacific (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, My sojourns with the photocopy among the Mien of 1991). Thailand revealed only that the book contained the 13 For a discussion of changes in Mien ritual text ofa ritual chant and was in a different Yao dialect. practices, see Hjorleifur Jonsson, "Moving House: All the books are written in Chinese, but they are read Migration and the Place of the Household on the in (the local dialect's) Yao ritual language that is Thai Periphery." Journal of the Siam Society 87 separate from everyday language. The spirit mediums' (1999): pp. 99-118, and Jonsson, "Does the House robes, like the manuscripts in the exhibit in Munich, Hold?: History and the Shape ofMien (Yao) Society." are "Yao" because they are labeled so by experts. The Ethnohistory (forthcoming). Tay in have the same kinds of robes 14 Lemoine has castigated "anthropologists lacking for spirit mediums, as well as other Daoist imagery knowledge of written Chinese" for not recognizing and Chinese texts. These are multi-ethnic objects and that Yao have a unilateral, patrilineal kinship system. motifs across the south China borderlands, whose His criticism is aimed at Douglas Miles, whose work ethnic identification is a product of museumizing and showed clearly that at least among Mien in Thailand, marketing. descent was bilateral. There is a patrilineal rhetoric 7 See for instance Edwin Wade, "The Ethnic Art to Mien kinship, and people's lineage position can be Market in the American Southwest, 1880-1980," in altered with a single ritual to fit this ideal. Though a Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material ritual of re-filiation, an outsider becomes directly Culture (George W. Stocking, ed. Madison: linked to the set of ancestors that the household has University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 167-91. relations with. This is not confined to the incorporation 8 Lemoine had written articles on the subject for of men into households, women as spouses and afficionado magazines, one for Conaissance des Arts children whether born to the household or adopted (Paris, August 1979) and another for Arts of Asia from elsewhere also must be ritually introduced to (, January 1981). the ancestors. Any Mien adult that goes through this 9 The three photos of Yao people and villages in has first to be ritually separated from the household Botschaflen are all from other people's publications. of his previous affiliation. Yao genealogical books 10 This history may help identify the ordination present the ideal world of patrilineages. Confronted chant that is written on the back of a U.S. care­ with a mis-match between rhetoric and practice, package. Chao La's access to American supplies for Lemoine relies on what the texts say. For Lemoine's his "secret army" and his followers, as well as his critique, see his "Yao Religion and Society" in emphasis on Mien ritual practices, make him a likely Highlanders ofThailand (John McKinnon and Wanat candidate as the sponsor of the ordination ritual. The Bhruksasri, eds. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University exhibit's emphasis on "Yao" misses such important Press, 1983), pp. 194-211, quote from p. 209. The particulars. On Chao La and his political context, see issue ofre-filiations places ritual rank in a new light. Once a man has ordained to kwa-tang rank, he cannot

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 230 Review Articles be incorporated into the household of another lineage. W.A.R. Wood's Land of Smiles (Bangkok: See Yoshino Akira, "Father and Son, Master and Krungdebamagar Press, 1935) that shows men and Disciple: The Patrilateral Ideology on the Mien Yao women dressed in what I take to be Tai Lue outfits of Northern Thailand," in Perspectives on Chinese (facing p. 128). A photo captioned "Yao people, Society: Anthropological Views from Japan (Suenari North Thailand" in Seidenfaden's The Thai Peoples, Michio, J.S. Eades, and C. Daniels, eds. Kent, shows men and women that most likely are Lahu Canterbury: Centre for Social Anthropology and (fig. 32). The men wear "Shan" jackets, and the Computing, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1995), women wear what most likely are Lahu dresses. pp. 265-73. Viewing ritual ordinations as something Seidenfaden refers to this picture in his text on Yao, Yao collectively "have" or "do" fundamentally where he states that "the Yaos in Thailand belong to misconstrues the local and historically varied the Lanten clan" (132). Lantien Yao are not known significance of these practices. to have ever lived within Thailand, nor do the people 15 John Blofeld, "Some Hilltribes ofNorth Thailand in the photo wear what are considered to be "Lantien" (Miaos and Yaos)." Journal of the Siam Society 43 clothes. The various mis-identifications are indicative (1955): pp. 1-20. Quotes from pp. 9 and 4. of the emphasis on identifying and photographing 16 Blofeld, "Some Hill tribes," p. 17. the exotic peoples of Siam at the time, and need to 17 Seidenfaden, "Siam's Tribal Dresses," Journal be understood within the context of Siamese of the Siam Society 31 (2). Reprinted in Selected exploration and ethnography (done in part by Articles from the Siam Society Journal, Vol II, 1929- expatriates) that Seidenfaden's exhibit was a part 1953 (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1954), pp. 84- of. For a discussion of early Siamese ethnography, 94. He is best known for his book The Thai Peoples see Thongchai Winichakul, "The Others Within: (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1958). The coverage in Travel and Ethno-spatial Differentiation of Siamese his book is largely the same as that of the exhibit. To Subjects, 1885-1910," in Civility and Savagery: Seidenfaden, it was Siam in the 1930s rather than a Social Identity in Tai States (Andrew Turton, ed. single ethnic group that was collectible. London: Curzon, 2000), pp. 38-62. 18 Seidenfaden, "Siam's Tribal Dresses," p. 84. The 20 William R. Geddes, "The Tribal Research Centre, stated reason for the intended mini-ization of these Thailand: An Account of Plans and Activities" in representations of the peoples of Siam was in order Southeast Asian Tribes, Minorities, and Nations (Peter to fit them above the bookcases in the Siam Society Kunstadter, ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library. Following Stewart's logic in her book On Press, 1967), pp. 553-581. Longing, one can also posit this museum project as 21 For an ethnographic critique of the supposed an attempted dollhouse of Siam's disappearing reality of the "six tribes," see Peter Hinton, "Do the cultural diversity. Seidenfaden complained in his Karen Really Exist?" in Highlanders of Thailand address that not all the ethnics followed his (John McKinnon and Wanat Bhruksasri, eds. Kuala instructions toward miniatures. Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 155- 19 Seidenfaden, "Siam's Tribal Dresses," p. 85. 168. Karl Dohring's Siam, Land und Volk (Darmstadt: 22 The National Museum in Chiang Saen, Chiang Folkwang Verlag, 1923) has photos of women in Rai Province, uses photos, maps, and text from the Yao dress but with the caption "Karen Frau." This book. The Hilltribe Museum and Education Center, book has recently been re-issued in English in run by the Population and Community Development Thailand, but the mis-identification ofYao as Karen Association in City (upstairs from their still stands. See Karl Dohring, The Country and restaurant, Cabbages and Condoms), draws on its People of Siam (translated by Walter J. Tips, with a text and photos. Foreword by Krisana Daroonthanom. Bangkok: 23 There is an interesting parallel between this White Lotus, 1999), 11, 109. Presumably, upland portrayal and the recent British pop-sensation the peoples were so unknown in Siam in the 1920s that Spice Girls, each of whom had their own dress, the gloss "Karen" ("Yang," "Kariang") was sufficient hairstyle, and personality. A collector of "tribal art in reference to any and all of them, as "Lawa" had and culture" is unlikely to feel much commonality to served earlier and "Meo" did in more recent times. those assembling Spice Girls paraphernalia. This is Among other mis-identifications from this period one of the ways in which collections serve to mark are a photo with the caption "Yao Women" in identity and social distinctions.

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24 Seidenfaden, "Siam's Tribal Dresses," p. 85. The Forbes & David Henley, Khon Muang: People museumizing impulse is partly informed by the urge and Principalities of North Thailand, Bertil to save "disappearing ways." This impulse is not Lintner, The Kachin: Lords ofBurma's Northern confined to museum projects, it is equally true of Frontier. [Chiang Mai]: Teak House 1997. much anthropological reporting on "vanishing traditional worlds." See James Clifford, "On Ronald D. Renard Ethnographic Allegory, in Writing Culture (James Clifford and George Marcus, eds. Berkeley: Those familiar with the local publishing University of Press, 1986), pp. 98-121. scene have been following the fortunes of the Richard K. Diran in his book The Vanishing Tribes 'People and Cultures' of Southeast Asia series of Burma (New York: Amphoto Art, 1997) writes: for some years now. Changes in orientation, "It is my hope that this book will help to preserve the format, and authors of many books in the series unique traditions of Burma's ethnic groups for future as well as certain imponderables resulted in generations. If not, then at least the photographic Teak House Publications of Chiang Mai serving record will be there" ( 11 ). as the virtual publishers. The "credits" opposite 25 For a separate study of Mien identity and culture the Table of Contents in each volume hint at the in an American context, see Jeffrey MacDonald, complexity of this process that led to the series' Transnational Aspects of Iu-Mien Refugee Identity current form of serious "coffee table" books on (New York: Garland, 1997). ethnic minorities in mainland Southeast Asia 26 Ha Van Thu, "Positive and Negative Factors in and the far south of China. Authors of the Traditional Customs and Practices of Ethnic published works include an academic, jour­ Minorities in Vietnam," UNESCO, International nalists, and a non-Aristotelian peripatetic. All Expert Meeting for the Safeguarding and Promotion are excellently illustrated with historical and of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Minority Groups contemporary photography. Although manu­ in Vietnam, Hanoi, 15-18 March, 1994. For a scripts and in one case, camera-ready text, have discussion of some of these issues, see Oscar been prepared for additional titles, no new works Salemink, "Sedentarization and Selective Preservation have appeared in the last year, making it among the Montagnards in the Vietnamese Central appropriate to review what has been accom­ Highlands," in Turbulent Times and Enduring plished in the series to date. Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian The appearance of these books coincides Massif (Jean Michaud, ed. London: Curzon, 2000), with new ways of studying ethnic groups, such pp. 125-148. For a Chinese emphasis on reform as mentioned in Hjorleifur Jonnson's review regarding Yao clothing, see Xiaowen, "Study of article in this issue of the JSS. Because of such the Pai Yao Dresses and Ornaments," in The Yao of analyses of ethnic groups in this part of the South China (Jacques Lemoine and Chiao Chien, world, this review will discuss how ethnic eds. Paris: Pangu, 1991), pp. 421-456. groups, particularly smaller groups such as 27 See Jonsson, "Yao Minority Identity," 62. Kachin and Akha, have been studied, and what 28 See Ralph Litzinger, "Reimagining the State," contribution the People and Cultures Series Litzinger, "Memory Work: Reconstituting the Ethnic makes to this study. in Post-Mao China." Cultural Anthropology 13 The study of ethnic minorities in Southeast (1998): pp. 224-255, and Litzinger, Other Chinas: Asia, as peoples of intrinsic interest, began when The Yao and the Politics of National Belonging European and North American explorers, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000). missionaries, and ethnographers, appeared in the region's uplands during the nineteenth century. Previously Thai and neighboring kingdoms had considered the hill and forest Review of: Andrew Forbes, The Haw: Traders people as inferior non-Buddhist denizens of the of the Golden Triangle; Jim Goodman, The forest. The word, Kariang (Karen), for example Akha: Guardians of the Forest, Jim Goodman, does not appear in the Royal Chronicle of Children ofthe Jade Dragon: The Naxi ofLijian Ayutthaya even though there were Karens in and Their Mountain Neighbours the Yi, Andrew Ratchaburi, , Suphanburi and other

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 232 Review Articles areas in the western forests and hills controlled this light. They have found that certain groups, by Ayutthaya and surely known to the such as the Miao (Meo) and the Yao, are in fact chroniclers. Nor does the word appear in the collections of sometimes diverse peoples that Mon chronicles of the Hanthawaddy which ruled sometimes do not even speak the same language. to the west of those hills (and despite the fact As such, Chinese terms like Miao and Yao, just that the borrowed the word, like Burmese term, Kachin, are roughly Kariang, from Mon). equivalent to the term "" that meant The early Western authors, particularly non-Hellenics beyond the pale of ancient Greek ethnographers, treated the hill groups as civilization. primitive 'noble' savages, living in a timeless The examination of these groups is compli­ non-historical equilibrium. Ethnographers cated by the various names they are called and assumed that ethnic groups were units sharing prefer to be called. For example, Hmong common characteristics such as ancestry, (sometimes known as Green Miao) in Thailand language, and culture that were essentially do not like to be called Miao. However, Mien (a unchanged for centuries. Many articles in the Yao sub-group) find the term Yao acceptable. early years ofthe JSS discussed the hill peoples Similarly, the names national governments apply in this way. to certain groups often differ. Vietnam, for The assumption that ethnic groups are so example, refers to the Yao as Dao (pronounced uniformly unchanging has been questioned "Zao"). The Lao government calls one group frequently since E.R. Leach discussed what it Lao Huay that elsewhere. is known as Lanten means to be Kachin in his epochal work, (and is also a Yao group). The result is something Political Systems of Highland Burma in 1954. that the British Burma colonial official, James Leach provided a generation of anthropologists George Scott, called an "ethnological thicket" in Southeast Asia with new questions by but which also is terminological diversity if not examining to what extent "a single type of social disagreement. structure prevails throughout the Kachin area". Such a situation does not differ significantly [p. 3] from what is found in some European countries Although a discussion of the social structures and the "races" there. In the Spanish "race", for Leach found among the Kachin is beyond the example, the mutually barely intelligible tongues scope of this paper, he noted that the word, of Castilian, Catalan, and Galician are all Kachin, was a Burmese, not a Kachin term. The officially spoken 'Spanish' languages. In Italy, Burmese used it to refer to different peoples Genovese is so different from the Italian spoken speaking a variety oflanguages such as Jingpaw, in Rome that it could be a foreign language. Lisu, and Maru and whose social structure Some Genoese contend that there are (almost) varied. Leach also pioneered the use of historical more Genovese words in common with English evidence to support his thesis regarding the than with Italian. ethnic group he was studying. Issues such as these make it difficult to Leach concluded that ethnographic terms in discuss the various groups and groupings in Southeast Asia were not defined according to way that satisfies both social scientists and the the practices of European anthropological general public. So it is that when there was a scholarship. He recognized that such an request for the Society to republish Erik artificially defined group as the Kachin did not Seidenfaden's classic, The Thai Peoples either possess any uniform identity. Instead, the in its present form or updated, a response was Burmese had created something new and what difficult. While republishing is desirable, the they called Kachin was not so understood by conditions in which different ethnic groups in the Kachin themselves. Westerners in Burma, Thailand are now found have changed so however, adopted the use of the term, Kachin profoundly considerable discussion is required. applying to it an assumed (but unreal) sharing To review the various factors now important in of ancestry, language, and other characteristics. their lives in a changing Thailand requires raising For the last 20-30 years, anthropologists questions such as Jonsson and others like him have increasingly looked at ethnic groups in pose.

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) Review Articles 233

The Teak House books are meant for readers discussing "Who Are the Haw?", Forbes who want to gain an overview of the different manages not to estimate the population of the groups from authors and photographers familiar Haw. More on their current conditions would with and well-disposed towards them. These have been useful. Readers might well gain from books also appeal to the members of the groups learning that the Haw-dominated Doi Mae described. Akha and Kachin who have been Salong Rotary Club is the only such club in shown their book by this reviewer have all grown Thailand to hold its meetings in Chinese as well enthusiastic that such handsome publications as other, weightier, information. have been done on them. Although quite a few Some issues of contemporary Haw society books have been written on the Khon Muang are covered Ann Maxwell Hill's Merchants and Kachin and a fair number on the Akha, and Migrants: Ethnicity and Trade Among none on any except the Khon Muang are so Yunnanese Chinese in Southeast Asia (1998, well-illustrated and show the reader so well New Haven:Yale Southeast Asia Studies), what the people, their clothing, and their which also provides a historical backdrop to surroundings are like. Jim Goodman's book, the Haw in the region. Between the two works, Children of the Jade Dragon, on the Naxi and scholars have recently gained a solid base for the Yi of northwestern , is the first book­ studying the modem issues confronting the length treatment ofthese groups readily available Haw, such as assimilation into Thai life and to the world outside China in decades. their situation in Myanmar where conditions The different authors respond to questions are more in flux. such as those raised by Jonsson to various Bertil Lintner is a well-known Swedish degrees. Perhaps the most astute answers of journalist who has written extensively on the interest to scholars of Southeast Asia are the contemporary politics of Burma. His trek in works on the Haw (Yunnanese Muslim Chinese) 1985 and 1986 across insurgent areas in the by Andrew Forbes and the Kachin by Bertil north of the country, besides making him an Lintner. These shall be discussed in some depth. enemy of the state, gave him a profound Andrew Forbes, an Islamicist historian from awareness of the peoples, such as Kachin, who the United Kingdom, a Senior Associate were settled there. He lived among the Kachins Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford, and for almost all of 1986. Subsequently he has presently based in Chiang Mai, is well-known written about the politics and the trade in drugs for his scholarship on the Haw. His command in the region for the Far Eastern Economic of the sources is evident in what may well be Review and as an independent author. the most comprehensive bibliography of In the present work, Lintner begins by asking, Western language sources on the Haw in "Who Are the Kachin?" He discusses their social existence. Forbes also used various Chinese structure, explaining the basics of Kachin sources but these were not included in the diversity. He points out the there are people bibliography because of mistaken advice from called Kachin, such as Lisu, who are not someone in the publishing process. "entirely convinced that they are Kachins at Through his command of the historical all." Conscious of such concerns, the Kachin sources, Forbes provides new insights on the Independence Organisation invented a new term, dynamics of this complex region. He traces the Wunpawng, referring to all the clans and origins of the Haw as a definable group in linguistic groups that are indicated by the term, Yunnan, their entry into the trade with Chiang Kachin. This has proven so popular among these Mai, Mandalay and elsewhere south of Yunnan, people that its use has spread across the border and their large-scale southward migration in the to China where it is spelled Wunpong. twentieth century. The Haw came to play a key Major aspects of Kachin life are covered role in the marketing of opium and other comprehensively. Lintner gives a history of commodities in the region. Christian contacts and reviews the important Less space is devoted to contemporary role the Baptist and the Catholic churches have societal issues in Thailand such as how the Haw played in Kachinland. He also devotes are coping in modem Thai society. Despite considerable attention to the important role the

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000) 234 Review Articles

Kachins played in the British Burma military may tum out to be a relatively peaceful and and how, during World War II, they managed prosperous era, a fitting and long-awaited reward to keep a part of as the only area for their many years of struggle and war." of the country out of the control of the Japanese Of additional value is the inclusion of several military. The influence of Christianity and the hundred photographs. Oliver Hargreave and E.J. military were important factors in the KIO Haas, two Chiang Mai-based photographers afterwards and its long resistance to the central were able to travel to several places in Kachin government. A separate chapter is devoted to State. The images in the book from their visits the mining area of Hpakant where the world's to the jade mines, Myitkyina, and other sites most expensive jadeite is extracted. show Kachin diversity well. Additional photos Lintner discusses the present situation of the from archival sources enhance their contem­ Kachin, particularly the implications of the KIO porary images. ceasefrre with the government and how the future Whether the other manuscripts appear in will be for the Kachins. Lintner echoes the words book form is uncertain. Their publication of another Swede, the missionary Ola Hanson, depends on whether the likes of Cleo and who wrote in 1913 that the "future of the hill Saratsawati resolve the imponderables in the tribes is bound up with the future of Burma." international production process that have so Lintner ends on a hopeful note, stating that "the frustrated the publication of the texts on Karens, Kachins seem finally to be on the verge of what Lao, Naga, Hmong, Lisu, Yao and others.

Journal ofthe Siam Society 88.1 & 2 (2000)