Research Catalog

Title

Calling in the soul : gender and the cycle of life in a Hmong village / Patricia V. Symonds.

Author

Symonds, Patricia V.

Publication

Seattle : University of Washington Press, c2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xlix, 326 p. : ill., maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"'Calling in the Soul' (Hu Plig) is the chant the Hmong use to guide the soul of a newborn baby into its body on the third day after birth. Based on extensive original research conducted in the late 1980s in a village in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and the gender relationships evident in these practices." "The social framework of the Hmong (or Miao, as they are called in China, and Meo, in Thailand), who have lived on the fringes of powerful Southeast Asian states for centuries, is distinctly patrilineal, granting little direct power to women. Yet within the limits of this structure, Hmong women wield considerable influence in the spiritually critical realms of birth and death."--Jacket.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books

Alternative Title

Gender and the cycle of life in a Hmong village

Subject

• Hmong (Asian people) > Thailand, Northern > Rites and ceremonies
• Hmong Americans > Social life and customs
• Life cycle, Human > Religious aspects
• Patrilineal kinship > Thailand, Northern
• Sex role > Thailand, Northern
• Sexual division of labor > Thailand, Northern
• Thailand, Northern > Social life and customs
• Women, Hmong > Thailand, Northern > Social conditions

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-313) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction : Conducting research in a Hmong village -- 1. Hmong cosmology : a balance of opposites -- 2. Mothers, daughters, and wives -- 3. Birth : the journey to the land of light -- 4. Death : the journey to the land of darkness -- 5. Reflections on power, gender, and the cycle of life -- Epilogue : HIV/AIDS and the Hmong in Thailand -- App. A. "Hu Plig (Calling in the Soul) : Hmong text -- App. B. "Showing the Way" (Qhuab Kev) : English translation -- App. C. "Qhuab Kev" (Showing the Way) : Hmong text -- App. D. Flower Village demographics -- App. E. A Shamanic healing in the United States -- App. F. Health care and gender issues of Hmong in the United States.

ISBN

0295983264 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2003049342

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library