Hmong
The Hmong people are a minority ethnic group in several countries, believed by some researchers to be from the Yellow Basin area in China. The Hmong are known in China as the Miao, a designation that embraces several different ethnic groups. There is debate about usage of this term, especially amongst Hmong living in the West, as it is believed by some to be derogatory, although Hmong living in China still call themselves by this name. Chinese scholars have recorded contact with the Miao as early as the 3rd Century BCE, and wrote of them that they were a proud and independent people. However, after the Han Chinese attempted to impose several new taxation systems and continued expansion of their empire, the Hmong are reported to have rebelled. Many wars were fought, and eventually many Hmong were pushed from China into Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The history of the Hmong people is difficult to trace; they have an oral tradition, but there are no written records except where other people have encountered them. Hmong history has been passed down through legends and ritual ceremonies from one generation to another.
However, throughout the recorded history, the Hmong have remained identifiable as Hmong because they have maintained their own language, customs, and ways of life while adopting the ways of the country in which they live. In the 1960s and '70s many Hmong were secretly recruited by the American CIA to fight against communism during the Vietnam War. After American armed forces pulled out of Vietnam, a communist regime took over in Laos, and ordered the prosecution and re-education of all those who had fought against its cause during the war. Whilst many Hmong are still left in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and China (which houses one of the biggest Hmong populations in the world, 5 million), since 1975 many Hmong have fled Laos in terror. Housed in Thai refugee camps during the 1980s, many have resettled in countries such as the United States, French Guiana, Australia, France, Germany, as well as some who have chosen to stay in Thailand in hope of returning to their own land. In the United States, new generations of Hmong are gradually assimilating into American society while being taught Hmong culture and history by their elders. Many fear that as the older generations pass on, the knowledge of the Hmong among Hmong-Americans will die as well.
Social organization
Clan (xeem) remains a dominant organizing force in Hmong society. There are about eighteen Hmong clans (Chang, Cheng, Chue, Fang, Hang, Her, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lee, Lor, Moua, Pha, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong andYang)Clan membership is inherited upon birth or occasionally through adoption. All children are members of the father’s clan, through which they will trace their ancestors, at birth. Women become members of their husband family upon marriage but will retain the clan name of their father. Members of the same clan consider each other to be kwv tij, translated as "brothers" or "siblings," and they are expected to offer one another mutual support. Respected clan leaders are assume to take responsible for conflict negotiation and sometime the maintenance of religious rituals. Members of a clan who share the same ritual practices may identify as a group on the sub-clan level.
Traditional gender roles
There are traditional gender roles in Hmong society. A man's duty involves family responsibility and the provision for the physical and spiritual welfare of his family. Husbands consult wives before making major decisions regarding family affairs, but the husband is seen as the Head of the House who announces the decision. Hmong women are responsible for nurturing the children, preparing meals, feeding animals, and sharing in agricultural labor. Traditionally, Hmong women eat meals only after the Hmong men have eaten first, respectively, especially if there are guests present in the house.
Shamanism
For followers of traditional Hmong spirituality, the shaman is a healing practitioner who acts as an intermediary between the spirit and material world. Treatment might include herbal remedies or sacrifices of spirit money or animals. In cases of serious illness, the shaman enters a trance and travels through the spirit world to discern the cause and remedy of the problem, usually involving the loss of a soul.
This ceremony, called ua neeb, consists of several parts. The first part of the process is ua neeb Saib: looking to see if the soul has simply lost its way home. If this is the case, the shaman can lead the soul home, called "simple soul recovery" (ua neeb saib xwb).
However, if during ua neeb Saib the shaman observes something seriously wrong with the individual, such as a soul having lost its way home and got caught by some evil being, the shaman will end the first part of the ceremony process by negotiating or pleading with the evil being ("whoever that has control of this individual soul") to release the soul; most of the time this will do. After that, the shaman would lead the soul to its home. Nonetheless, if the first attempt of negotiating pleas and offers to the evil being does not go well, the shaman will have another chance by negotiating with the evil being to make some kind of agreement or deal. Again, most of the time, this second offer will suffice, and if the ill individual recovers his or her soul then that person will offer the evil being some kind of life form in return. Most of the time will be an unlucky chicken or pig. On the evil being's part, it has the choice of accepting or denying the offer by the shaman. If the shaman's offer is accepted, which more than likely will be the case, the shaman will end the first part of the ceremony at this stage and tell the family to wait for whatever interval of the shaman and the evil being have agreed to, normally a month to three months.
After that period, if the sick individual becomes well, then the second part of the ceremony, referred to as ua neeb kho, will be performed in which they send those life forms (chicken or pig) to the evil being. This part of the ceremony will take a bit longer then the first part.
Not everyone gets to become a shaman; they will need to be called upon by their faith. However, there is a chance for an individual to become shaman if shaman practice has been part of their family history.This is due to the belief that ancestral spirits, including the spirits of shamans, are reincarnated into the same family tree. Hmong consider it an honor to be a shaman and to carry the duty of helping mankind according to Hmong mythology.
History
The early history of the Hmong has proven difficult to trace. According to Ratliff, there is linguistic evidence to suggest that they have occupied the same areas of southern China for at least the past 2,000 years. Evidence from mitochondrial DNA in Hmong-Mien/Miao-Yao language speaking populations supports the southern origins of maternal lineages even further back in time, although Hmong/Miao speaking populations show more contact with northeast Asians (i.e. northern Han) than Mien/Yao populations.Historical Chinese documents describe that area being inhabited by 'Miao' people, a group with whom Hmong people are often identified.
Yet, the history of the 'Miao' cannot be equated with the history of the Hmong. Although the term 'Miao' is used today by the Chinese government to denote a group of linguistically and culturally related people (including the Hmong, Hmu, Kho Xiong, and A Hmao), it has been used inconsistently in the past. Throughout the written history of China, it was applied to a variety of peoples considered to be marginal to Han society, including many who are unrelated to contemporary Hmong/Mong people. Christian Culas and Jean Michaud note: "In all these early accounts, then, until roughly the middle of the nineteenth century, there is perpetual confusion about the exact identity of the population groups designated by the term Miao. We should therefore be cautious with respect to the historical value of any early associations."
Conflict between Miao groups and newly arrived settlers increased during the eighteenth-century under repressive economic and cultural reforms imposed by the Qing Dynasty. This led to armed conflict and large-scale migrations continuing into the late nineteenth-century, the period during which most Hmong people emigrated to Southeast Asia. The process began as early as the late-seventeenth-century, before the time of major social unrest, when small groups went in search of better agricultural opportunities.
From July 1919 to March 1921 the Hmong of French Indochina revolted against the colonial authorities in what the French called the War of the Insane ("La Guerre des Fous") and what the Hmongs call Rog Paj Cai (named after the leader Paj Cai, but literally means The War of the flowering of the Law).
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people
Pictures:
Rug: www.vnpeoples.org/Hmong/history.htm
Shaman: http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anth4616/cpweek10.html
Clothes: http://csucub.csuchico.edu/services/SummerFld/Parpages/kyang/greenuniform.jpeg
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March 27th, 2009
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