and Heritage rn Thailand and Laos: Past and Present Prooeedlngs of the Chiang Mai Conterence. 1 - 2 December 2011 Mobility and Heritage in Northern Thailand and Laos: Past and Present Mobility and Heritage in Northern Thailand and Laos: Past and Present Proceedings 0/ the Chiang Mai Conference, 1 - 2 December 20 11 Editedby Olivier Evrar~ Dominique Cuillaud Chqyan Vaddhanaphuti Post/ace by Charles F. Keyes 4 Mobility andheritage in Northern Thailand andLaostpastandpresent Copyright © 2013 Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Printed in Chiang Mai at Good Print. National Library of Thailand Cataloging in Publication Data Evrard,Olivier. Mobility and Heritage in Northern Thailand and Laos: Past and Present.-- Chiang Mai : Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, 2013. 302p. 1. Thailand--History. 2. Laos--History. 1.Guillaud, Dominique, jt. auth. Il. Vaddhanaphuti, Chayan, jt. auth. rv Billault, Laurence, ill. V. Tide. 959.3 ISBN 978-974-672-822-5 Cover picture © Olivier Evrard Lamet woman walking toward her field hut. Ban Takrong, Pha Oudom district, Bokeo province, Lao PD.R. Layout: Laurence Billault illustration & cartography: Laurence Btllault, Elisabeth Habert Institut de Recherche pour le Developpernent : http://wwmirdfr/ PALOC: http://www.paloc.irdfr/ Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. http://www.cesdsoc.cmu.ac.th/ Contents Contents Authors 9 Introduction 11 Mobility and Heritage in Northern Thailand and Laos: Past and Present 11 DOMINIQUE GUILLAUD CHAYAN VADDHANAPHUTI Part 1 Historic andSymbolic Traces ofSedentz"sm 25 1. Sedentarity and metallurgy in upland Southeast Asia 27 OLIVER PRYCE 2. Foucling,deserting and returning: the impeded sedentism of Northern Tai populations. An analysis of the Luang Namtha Chronicles 47 CHANTHAPHlLITH CHIEMSISOURAJ 3. The ruins, the "savages" and the princess: myths, migrations and belonging in Viang Phu Kha, Laos. 55 OLIVIER EVRARD CHANTHAPHILITH CHIEMSISOURAJ 4. Becoming spirit: spirit cults in Northern Thailand 75 TANABE SHIGEHARU 6 Mobility andhentage in Northern Thazland andLaos:pastandpresent Part 2 Territories andthe State 103 5. The rural development policy and the transformation of upland/lowland relationships in Laos since 1975 105 OLIVIER EVRARD 6. Kalayaniwattana District: a new modern space in ethnic cultural area 127 MALEE SrTIHIKRlENGKRAI 7. Mental mapping of inter-ethnic relationships in Pak U District (Luang Prabang Province, North Laos) 141 MAruE GuEMAS Part 3 Borders andCrisis ofSettling 155 --~---_ .._.---..-"-_..._......__..-._.-.-....-- 8. Borderland economy: contract farming and labor mobility in the zone of conflict along the Thai Burma border 157 CHAYAN VADDHANAPHUTI 9. Talaku movement among the Karen in Thai-Burma Borderland: territorialization and deterritorialization Processes 167 KWANCHEWAN BUADAENG 10. The impossible sedentism: The Lao Hmong "illegalimmigrants" in Thailand 185 PRAsrT LEEPREECHA 11. The incomplete sedentarization of nomadic populations: the case of the Mlabri 205 SAKKARIN NA NAN Contents Part 4 Health) Mobility andBelonging 227 12. Access to health care among highlanders and ethnic minority migrants in Thailand 229 PETER KUNSTADTER 13. The commoditisation of therapeutic knowledge among diasporas' populations, the case of the Hmong in Lao PDR 263 AUDREY BOCHATON 14. Transmission and vitality of traditional medicinal knowledge among several ethnic groups of Northern Laos 275 JEAN-MARc DUBOST Post/ace 291 .-----" ..._...._..~-._._. __.---------_.__ ..--_._----_.._-._._---- CHARLES F. KEYES Authors 9 Authors c:A... _____________"m: Dr. Audrey Bochaton, geographer, University of Paris X-Nanterre. Dr. Kwanchewan Buadaeng, anthropologist, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Dr. Chanthaphilith Chiemsisouraj, historian, Director of History Department, National Academy of Social Sciences, Vientiane. Jean-Marc Dubost, ethnobotanist, National Museum of Natural History, Paris. Dr. Olivier Evrard, anthropologist, Institute of Research for Development, Paris & Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Marie Guemas, anthropologist, University of Provence, Aix-Marseille. Prof. Dominique Guillaud, geographer, Director of research unit, "Patrirnoines Locaux", Institute of Research for Development and National Museum of Natural History, Paris. Prof. Charles F. Keyes, anthropologist, Department of Anthropology and Jackson School of International Studies. Dr. Peter Kunstadter, anthropologist, Program for HN Prevention and Treatment, Institute of Research for Development, Chiang Mai. Dr. Prasit Leepreecha, anthropologist, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Dr. Sakkarin Na Nan, anthropologist, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. 10 Mobility andhentage in Northern Thailand andLaostpast andpresent Dr. Oliver Pryce, archaeologist, Research Laboratory for Archeology and History of Art, Oxford University. Prof. Tanabe Shigeharu, anthropologist, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. Dr. Malee Sitthikriengkrai, anthropologist, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Prof. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, anthropologist, Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University. Introduction - D. Gui//aud, C Vaddhanaphuti 11 Introduction Mobility and Hen/age in Northern Thailand and Laos: Past and Present DOMINIQUE GUlLLAUD CHAYAN VADDHANAPHUTI This volume brings together papers that were presented during the conference "Sedentism in the Mekong region: Mobility and Heritage in a long-term perspective" held at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Chiang Mai University, on 1st and 2nd December 2011. This conference was an opportunity to present the results of the program entitled "Sedentary settlements around the Mekong (Thailand/Laos): Identities, techniques, territories and errvironments'" and the works of other researchers from the region about similar issues of locality, territoriality and identity. All the contributions within this volume focus on NorthernThailand and Northern Laos (and to a lesser degree Burma, but always seen from the Thai side)..These two areas share similar archaeological and historical features but have more recently followed different development patterns, offering thereby interesting characteristics for a comparative approach. In Prehistoric times, the Mekong river valley was a migration route followed by several waves of settlement. Diverse geographic and ecological systems offered the migrants opportunities of specialisation and differentiation when 1 Funded by ANR-Les Suds, AlRD and IRD. 12 i\ifobi/il)'andHeritagein j\,'orl bm l ThtU/and andLaos: Pastand Present 300 km F i~~u re l: th regio nal co ntext they settled down. T he middle Mekong valley was also an axis along which independent Tai and Lao principalities have grown, and progressively demarcated themselves from Chinese, Burmese and Khmer centres of power. More recently, from the second half of the 19th century onward, Northern Thailand and Northern Laos have followed different paths on many aspects (characteristics of state building, rural and urban mobility, development and prosperity, use of natural resources etc.). These historical developments gave rise to great contrasts in politics, culture, economy, society, in health and in environment. ]ntroduaion - D. GuiI/atld, C. Vaddhallapht/li 13 ' . ~) I ..) , i :' Phongsal!' . , '" '\ I t Muang Sing.' , - , '" 1 '\ ,/ ' . Lu'a'ng Namll'ia , , -'.Vleng Phu Kha " 100 km ,/ ud omxay \ - - '- "' ~/ '\f Hueysay I • \ - -Ch ng Khong ,, I '...~ ... , " :'11. .... 1 lIdon Thani ,• Khon Kaen \ •Nakhon Ralchasima .-" Lop Burl • • -- .... ..., J ~ - - _ ' - "" - , ,, I ,\ -\ ,, A conference inspired by the theme of sedentism Obviou sly, the question of "sedentism" that guided the conference , and to whi ch ail parti cipants have tried to shed light up on, was not a common issue. Although social sciences have thoroughly studied migration s and l'lUlJility, they have never questioned "se dentism" , a neol ogism that is familiar to Prehistorians only. For them, sedentisrn is one of the main features of the Neolithic period: in 14 Mobility andHeritage in Northern Thailand andLaos:PastandPresent different parts of the world, at the same time in a recent prehistory, envirorunental, demographic, or technological innovations provoked the same kind of changes, summed up in the ubiquitous and simplifying concept of a Neolithic "revolution". This concept has been elaborated in the West, to describe the technical, social and symbolic changes observed in Europe and the Near East. However, it is now generally acknowledged that this "Neolithic revolution" could have had, in different parts of the world, very different aspects, and that this notion could even have been irrelevant in some regions. Sedentism in itself refers to the processes that led more or less mobile human societies, which were dependent on spontaneous resources, to settle down while developing various forms of plant and animal domestication (Guilaine, 2005; Higham, 2002). More specifically,it refers to the process of "rooting down" among human communities, and to the construction of territories and networks. Compared to a two-dimensional territoriality as most geographers define it, sedentism also involves a third dimension thatis the affective and symbolic investment of people in their land. Until now, other fields of Social Sciences and Humanities did not pay as much