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No. 6	Thai-Yunnan Project Newsletter	September 1989

This NEWSLETTER is edited by Gehan Wijeyewardene and published in the
Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies;
printed at Central Printery; the masthead is by Susan Wigham of
Graphic Design (all of The Australian National  University ). The logo
is from a water colour , 'Tai women fishing' by Kang  Huo.

Material in this NEWSLETTER may be freely reproduced with due
acknowledgement. Correspondence is welcome and contributions will be
given sympathetic consideration. (All correspondence to The Editor,
Department of Anthropology, RSPacS, ANU, Box  4 GPO, Canberra, ACT
2601, Australia.)

Number Six  September 1989					ISSN
1032-500X


contents


Identity and Integrity	1
The Soviet View of Southeast Asia	2
Logging and Conservation	10
Two LŸ songs	11
Translations:
	Jinuo and Jinuo longhouses	13
	Dai water festival	20
	Dai fermented and pickled foods	21
	Wa longhouses	22
News and Correspondence
	Zhuang-Dong Proverbs	25
	Bronze Drums	25	Lanna-Thai Dictionary	26
	Wa brewing and betel nut
Obituary: Dr. Jennifer Cushman	28
About the newsletter	28


 Identity and Integrity

	The Centre for Southeast Asian Studies of Monash University,
Melbourne organized a two-day conference (Thailand: aspects of
identity, 1939 - 1989) early this month to mark the fiftieth
anniversary of the change of name of Siam to the Kingdom of Thailand.
The papers covered a range of subjects bearing on 'identity',
including the national language and regional diversity (Anthony
Diller), the role of astrology (Nerida Cook) and the Communist Party
of Thailand (Somsak Jeamteerasakul). The keynote address was given by
Sulak Sivaraksa, who traced the history of Thai cultural and political
identity, expressing certain disagreement with the direction of
national policy since Ayutthaya. Central to his hopes for the future
was emphasis, in the formulation of policy, on the Thai notion of baan
as against the mŸang.  In other words, the fostering of autonomy
within local communities and the minimalization of external political
direction.
	The feelings of optimism generated by Thailand's recent
economic successes and political advances were given concrete
expression by John Girling in his discussion of the limitations
inherent in democratic processes and their relationship to free-market
economies. Chai-anan Samudavanija took a less optimistic view
concerning the  eclipse of  the  'bureaucratic polity'

and the hopeful prognoses about the Chartchai regime.
	One of the more prosaic, perhaps, but crucial aspects of the
definition of the identity of Thailand with respect to the community
of nation states, is the definition of her own boundaries, their
maintenance and recognition in international law. Since World War II a
series of events have served to define the geopolitical identity of
Thailand.  In his 1968 book Asian Frontiers Alistair Lamb briefly
recounts the Thai response to the 1962 decision by the International
Court of Justice on Preah Vihear.
'Since receiving the Court's decision, the Thais have, in effect,
demarcated unilaterally the boundary in the Preah Vihear region by the
erection of a high fence. It must be admitted, however, that the main
Thai objective was less the desire for boundary demarcation than the
wish to spite the Cambodians: the Thai fence spoils the view from the
temple.'
	Elsewhere, too, since then, the Thai have not always been
happy about their boundaries - and no wonder, in the second half of
the 20th Century, it appears they were the big losers in the 19th
Century scramble for empire in Southeast Asia. But in various ways
borders have been defined, fought over and, generally, accepted. In
the most recent dispute with Laos and the fighting at Ban Rom Klao,
the Thai Army turned their policy around and made peace with Laos
despite the opposition of their own Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Another interesting development on the western, Burmese, border has
been the kind of accommodation reached with drug runners.  Two place
names illustrate one process of establishing territorial integrity.
In the late 1970s Mae Salong was the headquarters of the Kuomintang in
Thailand and from it was run an extended trade in heroin and opium.
During his period as Prime Minister, General Kriangsak reached an
agreement with the Kuomintang, which among other things, traded
citizenship for official abandonment of the opium trade and the
establishment of an official Thai presence in Mae Salong.  A splendid
new road is part of the effort to create a destination for tourists.
Not far away is the town now officially known as Ban Thoed Thai.  Up
to 1982 this was Ban Hin Taek, the headquarters in Thailand of Khun
Sa, known internationally as a heroin king, and now Commander-in-Chief
of the Muang Tai Army, the combined forces of the Shan rebels in
Burma.  In 1982 the Thai army attacked and occupied Ban Hin Taek. In
retaliation Khun Sa burned down government buildings, most notably the
police station, in the border town of Mae Sai.  Khun Sa's ouster from
Hin Taek did not put an end to the heroin trade, but it did establish
the integrity of Thai borders. The Thai Geographical Encyclopaedia of
1964 has no knowledge of either of these two locations.
	But 'integrity' is not only a geopolitical concept. Elsewhere
in this number we publish a brief communication from John McKinnon in
which he warns against the dangers of uncritical environmentalism.
His main concern is for the welfare of highlanders in northern
Thailand and across the borders.  The establishment of Thai authority
on these vulnerable borders was clearly a necessity if the logging
bans were to be enforced. Their enforcement could see the forcible
relocation of highland communities accompanied by immense hardship.
But much hardship and disaster are already there. The road to Mae
Salong is surrounded by devastation - there is hardly a tree to be
seen.  This devastation is already happening across the border and
must accelerate as Thailand buys Burmese timber.  On the other side of
the country, the battles of Ban Rom Klao were also, at least partly,
about timber, as roads were built, it seems, to facilitate the
movement of timber not only from the disputed areas, but also from
recognized areas of Laos.  The aim of turning the battlefields of
Southeast Asia into market places is a worthy endeavour of the
Chartchai government - nevertheless it would be fatal if Thai economic
success created conditions which were used to devastate the resources
of her neighbours.  The integrity of the region, the integrity of the
environment and the moral integrity of all, should not only be the
concern of those who exercise power, but also of the international
academic community who derive so much value from the region.






















The photograph at left is on the way to Mae Salong. Hardly a tree
stands, and burning of grass for swidden still goes on. Everywhere is
seen ja kommunit - satru chaw thai  'Communist grass- the enemy of the
Thai people'. In Laos, this appalling weed is said to be called ja
amerikan. The photograph at right is in the Doi Tung region. The
destruction of forest and erosion is evident here too, but the
photograph also shows terraced rice fields said to be the work of
Akha.




The Soviet View on Southeast Asia
(1951)

T.H. Rigby

Indo-China1

Professor Rigby comments:
A historical irony suggests itself in re-reading this chapter of my
1951 thesis, a chapter titled 'Success in Indo-China'.  The perceived
success was twofold: nowhere else in Southeast Asia did Soviet
analysis seem so nearly as plausible, and nowhere did the communists
enjoy comparable prospects of triumphing politically and militarily.
And these perceptions were evidently vindicated by the triumphant
struggles of the next quarter century.  Yet today it is to Indo-China
that most minds first turn if invited to consider the darker
consequences of Communist rule, while those neighbouring states where
the 'socialist revolution' failed now figure in one of the major
success stories of socio-economic development in the final quarter of
the twentieth century.

In Indo-China, in contrast to the other countries of Southeast Asia,
nationalist movements have tended to represent less the agglomeration
of territory and population gathered into a single state by the
accidents of imperialist conquest than the ancient constituent nations
which were united by European rule.  This is no doubt due mainly to
the comparatively late subjugation of the country and to Annam's
thousand year existence as a highly centralized sovereign state.  It
is now clear, however, that whether the future of Vietnam lies with Ho
Chi-Minh or with Bao Dai, Indo-China is likely to remain as permanent
and concrete a unity as the Philippines or Indonesia.2
	Despite the fact that Indo-China was the last country in
Southeast Asia, apart from Siam, to be conquered by the West, it had
become by the thirties almost the classical colony of Leninist theory.
Economically it was soon as much an appendage of the metropolitan
country as were the Philippines, and even more than the latter its
industry had been retarded for the sake of preserving markets and
raw-material sources for imperialist concerns.  In contrast to the
comparative 'open-door' policy of the Dutch in Indonesia, the French
established in Indo-China 'the most protectionist system in Southeast
Asia',3 which kept non-French investments at an insignificant level.
Indo-China also gives us the classical case of a Stalinist colonial
revolution, with a communist-led movement maintaining its authority
over a large part of the country in full scale military conflict with
the imperial power, and political developments taking forms readily
susceptible to interpretation in terms of communist doctrine on the
colonial class-struggle.  Consequently, Soviet writers have been able
to give a more straightforward, less garbled account of events there
than of those in any other part of Southeast Asia.
	Soviet descriptions of the economic and class structure of
Indo-China base themselves on statistics of the colonial government
and on French writers.  Such descriptions stress the stultifying
effects of French economic policy on the development of Indo-Chinese
industry, claiming these effects to be the deliberate aim of the
colonial government.  Such secondary industry as has grown up in the
country represents predominantly the export of French capital, native
capital playing little part.  Consequently, while a considerable
proletariat had emerged by the thirties, mostly employed in the mining
and plantation industries, in transport and to a lesser extent in the
preparation of local primary products for the world market, there was
only the tiniest national bourgeoisie.  Even more than that of most
other colonial countries, the bourgeoisie of Indo-China is essentially
commercial and compradore in character.4  This is held to have aided
the Indo-Chinese proletariat in winning the 'hegemony' of the
national-liberation movement.  The conditions of the working-class,
bad enough on any account, are made appear even worse by treating the
exceptionally bad period of the middle twenties as typical and by
writing off all progressive labour legislation as attempts 'to create
for planters and businessmen favourable conditions for even harsher
exploitation of the workers'.5
	The Soviet description of land-ownership and rural class
relationships in Indo-China tallies fairly closely with that given by
Western writers.6  Twenty-five percent of the cultivated land of
Vietnam belonged before the war to French interests, and a
considerable proportion of the land was in the hands of the local
gentry, usurers and 'kulaks'.  The latter applied mainly to
Cochin-China and southern Annam, where the typical figure was the
landless and indebted tennant.  In the Central and Western provinces
of Cochin-China 45 per cent of the area under rice was owned by 2.5
per cent of the landholders.  In Northern Annam and Tonkin the
impoverished peasant owning and working a tiny plot absurdly
inadequate to support his family predominated.  Over 90 per cent of
all landholders in Tonkin possessed plots of under 2 hectares.  Their
conditions were hardly better than those of the landless tenants, who
often paid up to two-thirds of their crop in rent.  Along with the
process of the alienation of land from the peasants has gone the
differentiation within and disintegration of the peasant commune.  One
result of this is that village common land, formerly really used
collectively by the villagers, has passed to the virtual ownership of
native notables.  Before the Second World War such land accounted for
21 per cent of the area under rice in Tonkin, and 25 per cent in
Annam.7
	Even the most severe Western critics of the effects of
imperialist domination in Indo-China admit that certain benefits have
accrued to the country from the French conquest.  Soviet writing on
Indo-China differs from its Western equivalent in denying that the
people have profited in any way from European rule.  The undoubtedly
valuable services of the colonial administration in the field of
irrigation, for instance, are completely discounted.  Again, a
naturally strong Marxist case is completely vitiated by a trimming of
the facts which reduces it to absurdity.
	The most interesting feature of the Soviet account of the
development of the Indo-Chinese 'national-liberation movement' prior
to the Second World War is the class characterization accorded the
various nationalist and left-wing organisations.  This throws
considerable light on the Soviet concept of the intelligentsia as
applied to colonial conditions.  However, as I shall be discussing
this question in the final chapter, it will suffice here to summarize
this account briefly.
	Before the First World War Indo-China was the scene of
numerous peasant riots and local risings.  At the same time, 'several
groups of the nationalist and national-revolutionary intelligentsia'
arose, mostly amongst exiles in Southern China.  These two wings of
the movement, however, remained isolated from each other, as the
nationalist organisations were almost entirely occupied in propaganda
amongst the intelligentsia, and made no attempt to organise and give
direction to the spontaneous movement of the masses.
	The First World War brought the beginning of secondary
industry in Indo-China, and with it the emergence of the Indo-Chinese
proletariat.  The ensuing years saw many workers' strikes and
demonstrations, which however were as yet comparatively unorganised,
with demands limited to immediate economic issues.  During the period
1925-1927 the anti-imperialist movement was particularly active, the
peasantry, proletariat, petty bourgeoisie and intelligentsia
participating in riots, terrorist attacks and revolutionary agitation.
This movement was suppressed with the utmost severity.  However, new
leaders emerged to direct the decapitated national-revolutionary
organisations, and in 1930-31, there was a new upsurge of resisitance.
Earlier accounts of the events of this period appear to treat the
various participating organisations fairly.  The leading role of
'petty-bourgeois' groups, especially the Vietnam Quoc Zan Dang
(frankly styled 'The Indochinese Kuomintang') and the importance of
depression conditions as a stimulus to resistance receive adequate
attention.8  However, later accounts stress the primacy of the
proletariat in these developments, and associate them with the
formation of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party, which took place at the
same period.9  Soviet economists and historians, even more than other
Soviet scientists, have had to retreat a long way from objectivity in
the last few years of growing extrangement from the West.  It is of
interest that in describing the circumstances surrounding the
establishment of the Communist Party in 1930, Soviet writers make no
mention of the leading part played by emigre intellectuals in this
process, or of the role of Ho Chi-Minh (then Nguyen Ai-Quoc) as chief
agent of the Comintern for the whole of Southeast Asia.10  The scanty
success of the communist party in the first decade of its existence
Soviet writers are able largely to ascribe, with some justice, to the
activities of 'Trotskyite provocateurs'.  The Indo-Chinese communists
have always been embarrassed by terrorist and anti-Stalinist Communist
groups whose programmes and actions have appeared more consistently
revolutionary than their own.  These are characterized as misguided
and impractical idealists, or as in the case of the Trotskyists, as
agents of the imperialists seeking to disorganise the national
movement.  On the other hand there can be little doubt that its
comparatively moderate but practical policy contributed to the growing
prestige of the Communist Party during the late thirties, just as the
restrained but consistently nationalist line of the communist-led
Viet-Minh helped it to amass greater public support than its rivals
during 1945 and 1946.
	As in the case of the founding of the Communist Party of
Indo-China, Soviet writers do not mention that the establishment of
the Viet-Minh league took place on Chinese soil, although they make
much of the fact that the Kuomintang-sponsored organisation, the Dong
Minh Hoi, had its origin there.  They attribute the success of the
Viet-Minh in establishing a government in August 1945 to the prestige
won for this organisation by its role as leader of the anti-Japanese
resistance movement.  In this we will agree with them, but will add
that the favourable attitude of the Chinese occupation authorities
aided greatly in the consolidation of Ho's regime in Northern Vietnam
during the first months after the defeat of Japan, while this is
conveniently overlooked in Soviet accounts.  Nor is there any mention
of the comparative failure of the Viet-Minh in Cochin-China and
Southern Annam, although this fact is particularly well adapted to a
Marxist interpretation in terms of different class-structure (which we
have noted above), without having to refer to the contrasting policies
of the Chinese and British occupation forces.
	A further circumstance of this period, to which I have found
no reference in Soviet publications, is the disbandment of the
Indo-Chinese Communist Party in November 1945.  This action is capable
of interpretation in either of two ways.  It may have represented an
attempt by Ho Chi-Minh to increase the internal and international
popularity of his regime by minimizing its communist appearance,
without allowing the actual direction of affairs to slip from
communist control; or it may have signified that this Stalinist
veteran was genuinely cutting his links with world communism in the
interests of Vietnamese nationalism.  The latter is certainly the
interpretation the Viet-Minh leaders wanted the non-communist world to
place upon the dissolution of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party, an
interpretation which for some time was fairly generally held in the
West and still has some adherents, despite the now abundant evidence
against it.  If Ho's action in disbanding the communist party had been
more than a tactical manoevre in the ultimate interests of the party,
how did he manage to retain the support of all  Indo-China's Stalinist
leaders, as well as the approval of the whole communist world?  It is
of course impossible to say what part, if any, Soviet and other
foreign communist leaders played in the decision to officially
dissolve the party.  However, right from 1945 Soviet writers have
characterized Ho's regime as communist-led.  Failure to report the
dissolution of the communist party may reflect embarrassment at the
difficulty of representing in favourable terms a manoeuvre so directly
at variance with the general recommendations of the Stalinist classics
on colonial revolution.
	The 'elections' conducted by Ho's government in January 1946
are of course held to have been genuinely democratic, with the whole
population freely participating in the choosing of the representatives
they wanted, for the first time in the country's history.  The
highpoint of absurdity here is the claim that 'despite conditions of
the most unrestrained terror', 90 per cent of the adult population of
Cochin-China voted in these 'elections'.11  From then on the story is
one of French perfidy and brutality meeting defeat after defeat at the
hands of the united and heroic people of Vietnam.  The
Franco-Vietnamese agreement of March 1946 and the 'modus vivendi' of
September of the same year are held to have reflected merely attempts
by the French to gain time to build up their military forces in the
country.  The French had no intention of honouring these agreements
and it was they, not the Viet-Minh who started the fighting in
December 1946.
	The Soviet analysis of the 'alignment of class forces' in
post-war Vietnam sees a certain narrowing of the anti-imperialist
front as the struggle has developed.  We are told that at the time of
the 'proclamation of independence' (August 1945), both the big
bourgeoisie and part of the feudal landlord class were prepared to
support the 'republic', thinking that they would thus be able to
retain their calss rule and hinder the development and deepening of
the revolution.  But as soon as the 'people's-democratic' character of
the communist-led 'liberation' movement became clear, these
bourgeois-feudal fellow-travellers withdrew their support.  The French
imperialists now have the collaboration of the compradore bourgeoisie
and the 'feudal and semi-feudal landlords', who always served
imperialism, as well as of the not numerous big industrial
bourgeoisie.  'All these exploiting classes and strata are helping the
French in their fight against the Republic, providing the personnel
for the various puppet regimes of the imperialists, at the same time
as profiting by the Republic's difficult economic position to build up
their fortunes by all sorts of speculations'.12
	The leading force in the 'people's-democratic camp' is the
proletariat of  Vietnam, headed by the communists.  The chief ally of
the proletariat is the peasantry, which accounts for the bulk of
Vietnam's population.  These classes constitute the basis of the
national front, and in close alliance with them go the numerous urban
poor.  The national front also includes the petty and medium
bourgeoisie, and a considerable part of the intelligentsia.13
	True to the notion of 'an alliance of the national-liberation
movement in the colonies with the proletarian movement in the advanced
countries', the Soviet press makes much of agitation in France against
the 'dirty war' in Vietnam, and of refusals of communist-controlled
French transport unions to handle munitions and supplies destined for
Indo-China.  There is no hint in Soviet reports of any dissatisfaction
on the part of Ho Chi-Minh with the aid accorded him by the French
communists.  In any case, talk about such dissatisfaction should not
be taken too seriously.14
	The chief enemy of the 'Democratic Republic of Vietnam',
however, is not seen as French imperialism, but as the Americans.15
The French monopolies are now supposed to occupy a secondary role in
the exploitation of 'their' colonies.  'Marshallized' France is bound
to foster American capital investment in the territories it controls.
We are reminded that on the announcement of President Truman's point
four programme of aid to underdeveloped areas, the French government
announced that it was 'prepared to asociate itself with the
undertaking initiated by the United States government'.  A
Franco-American Society for the Development of Overseas Territories of
the French Union was formed from a number of big French and American
banks, including the Bank of Indo-China.  Between 1938 and 1950
American imports into the French colonies increased almost eightfold.
A significant part of this increased trade is concentrated in the
French-controlled areas of Indo-China.  Before the war Indo-China had
a trade deficit of 194 million francs with the United States; by 1948
this figure had risen to 4,617 million francs.16
	These are the arguments advanced by Soviet writers to support
their contention that the American imperialists have the same interest
in maintaining the colonial regime in Indo-China as have the French.
The Americans' interest, moreover, has a strategic as well as an
economic aspect.  They are supposed to be working for 'an aggressive
Pacific Pact', and for the establishment of a 'cordon sanitaire' and a
string of bases along the southern borders of the People's Republic
of China, reserving an important role for Indo-China in both of these
projects.
	It would be tedious and of little value to recount in detail
the Soviet version of post-war political developments in the
French-controlled areas of Indo-China.17  Ultimate control here is
seen as resting with the United States, Mr William Bullitt being given
the credit for returning the emperior Bao Dai to his throne.  In July
1950 Soviet papers confidently predicted that the Americans, in view
of Bao Dai's failure to win any sizeable support amongst the people of
Vietnam, would shortly have him replaced by the prominent Vietnamese
Catholic, Ngo Din Diem.18  A year later it was being asserted that the
purpose of Mr Bullitt's current visit to Southeast Asia was 'to
clarify the attitude of these countries to the use of troops, at
present located in Korea under "United Nations Command", in the
struggle with the national-liberation movement in Indochina, Malay and
Burma, in the event of the Korean conflict being settled by
negotiation'.19
	Soviet publications add little or nothing to our scanty
knowledge of internal conditions in the rebel-controlled areas of
Indo-China, and on this Ho's own official news service remains the
most valuable source of information.  Reports of economic conditions
in 'Republican' territory published in the Soviet press are concerned
primarily with increased production and the spread of the 'patriotic
emulation movement'.  The rice harvest, amounting to 1,552,000 tons in
1945, had risen to 1,887,000 tons by 1947, and in 1949 reached
2,244,000 tons.20  Reports of land reform check with other
information.  The estates of landlords collaborating with the French
have been confiscated.  Village common lands have been 'removed from
the virtual ownership of big landowners' and distributed among the
peasants.  All unused land fit for cultivation has also been
registered and distributed.  Land rents have been reduced by up to 50
per cent and the land tax by 25 per cent.  Usury and the corvŽe have
been forbidden, and the peasants are helped by loans of money and
draught animals, though it is not explained how this is organised
except that a special bank has been set up to handle credits for
peasants and handicraftsmen.21  Every citizen, on attaining the age of
18, is entitled to the use of 3 hectares of land on condition that he
till it with his own labour.  At the end of two years the plot becomes
his own property.22
	In the field of industry, it is asserted that, due to the
enthusiasm and resourcefulness of Vietnam's workers, the Republic has
enjoyed ever-increasing supplies of arms and war-materials, as well as
of other manufactured products, including textiles and paper - despite
the hardship of living and working in the jungle under war conditions,
the worn-out state of much industrial plant, the poor transportation
facilities and scarcity of raw materials.  The government plan is
being overfulfilled by 208-300 per cent by many enterprises.  New
State factories are mass producing bazookas and mine-throwers.  Soviet
reports refer to the progressive labour legislation introduced by Ho's
government although few details of this are forthcoming.  There is
provision for annual leave with pay, 'social insurance', sick-pay,
pensions, and payments to mothers of large families.  There is mention
of voluntary overtime without pay in state-owned factories and
plantations.23  On the other hand it is claimed that factory and
office workers received wage increases in 1948 averaging 25 per cent,
and that their wages are now five times as great as those of workers
in the same occupations in the French controlled areas.  But no
comparable information is given about price levels.24  The government
is reported to be encouraging the organisation of consumers'
cooperatives.  In the field of culture the chief claims concern, of
course, the attack on illiteracy.  It is said that, while only 5 per
cent of the population could read and write before the war, the
percentage had been raised by 1949 to 80 per cent.25
	The Soviet version of the fighting in Indo-China is based
almost exclusively on General Vo Nguyen Giap's optimistic communiques.
The claim persists that 90 per cent both of the area and of the
population of Vietnam are under the control of Ho's government.
	Particular reticence is manifested by Soviet authorities on
the actual channels of political power in the 'Democratic Republic of
Vietnam'.  We are told that 'the foundation of Vietnam's new state
structure is the people's committee, which is the organ of power in
every administrative unit.  People's committees are elected by
universal suffrage with secret ballot, and their members are unpaid.
They render great assistance to the government in the carrying out of
its internal policy'.26  But the duties of these committees and their
official relations with the central government remain a mystery.  It
is stressed that Ho's government includes ministers 'of the most
varying class origin and views, yet all united by the common will to
lead their country to independence'.27  On the other hand,
publications intended exclusively for the Soviet public qualify this
by referring to the 'leading role' of the communists.  But silence is
preserved on the organisational techniques by means of which communist
leadership is exercised, and on the nature of the channels along which
communist directives flow to find expression in government decrees and
the resolution of "voluntary" mass organizations'.28  All that we get
is the old clichŽ about communist policies usually being adopted
because their obvious correctness is recognized by the non-communists.
	The recognition of Ho's government by the Soviet Union,
Communist China and the 'People's Democracies' was hailed by the
Soviet press as a measure to 'strengthen the international position of
the republic and inspire the people of Vietnam to new exploits in the
fight for peace and democracy'.  The participation of Viet-Minh
representatives in Soviet-sponsored congresses of youth, women's,
trade-union and cultural organisations is given considerable
publicity, as are the activities of the 'Peace Movement' in Vietnam.
	If, despite such close relations between the 'Democratic
Republic of Vietnam' and the world communist movement any doubt
persisted as to the 'Marxist orthodoxy' of Ho's regime, this should
have been dispelled by developments within the 'national-liberation
movement' of Indo-China over the past two years.  As these
developments have so far received little attention in the
English-language press, it will be useful to review them briefly here
before describing the Soviet reaction to them.  These developments
proceeded along two main lines - extension of the movement to Laos and
Cambodia, and organisational changes inVietnam itself.
	The importance for the strategy of Asian communism of the
conference of Asian communist-led trade unions that took place at
Peking at the end of 1949 has already been indicated.  On that
occasion Liu Shao-Chi emphasized that 'a decisive condition for the
victorious outcome of the national liberation struggle is the
formation, when the necessary internal conditions allow for it, of
people's liberation armies under the leadership of the Communist
Party'.  The months that followed saw the 'Declaration of Independence
of Free Cambodia' by the newly-formed 'Provisional Central Committee
for National Liberation of Free Cambodia', and the setting up of a
'National United Front' and 'Resistance Coalition Government' under
Prince Souphanouwong in Laos.  These appear to be part of the
political paraphernalia of new communist led 'national-liberation
armies'.  Souphanouwong, brother of the former Laotian premier
Phetsarath, has been one of the most prominent figures of the
anti-French resistance in Laos since 1945.  His 'government's' general
policy is:
'1)	To unite the whole people within the National United Front and
around the Resistance Coalition Government of Laos, in order to drive
out the French imperialists, to wipe out the traitors, to achieve
genuine independence and unity, and build up the welfare and happiness
of the Laotian people.
2)	to unite with the brotherly peoples of Vietnam and Cambodia
with a view to driving out their common enemy - the French
imperialists.
3)	To stand in the World Camp of Peace and Democracy and oppose
the aggressive plots of the imperialists.'29
	The policy statement of the Cambodian movement follows the
same lines.  Although the communists in Laos and Cambodia are at
present working even further behind the scenes than were the
Vietnamese communists in the early days of the Viet-Minh, the links
between the 'National liberation movement' in these countries and Ho's
movement, and the world-communist movement as a whole, are obvious
enough from this quotation alone.
	The position was made perfectly clear the three day conference
in November 1950 between representatives of the rebel forces of
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to prepare a 'joint national united front
of Indo China'.  The joint statement signed on behalf of the
conference by Huang Quoc Viet, communist general secretary of the Viet
Minh league, Prince Souphanouwong of Laos and Sieu Heng, leader of the
'Cambodian Liberation Army', included this remark:  'in their
preparations for a third world war the imperialists, headed by the
Americans, are planning to use Indo-China as a military base of
aggression against new China and of repression of the liberation
movement of Southeast Asia.  Therefore the struggle of the peoples of
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia is closely connected with the world wide
movement for the defence of peace.  In order to achieve complete
independence and unity, they must stand in the world camp of peace and
oppose the fomentation of a third world war.'30
	There was no doubt about where the 'hegemony' within his
'joint united national front' was to lie.  The official report of the
further conference held in March 1951, 'to outline the organisational
principles and the program of action for the Joint National United
Front', quotes Sieu Heng as follows:  'Under the clearsighted
leadership of president Ho and with the friendly assistance, both
moral and material, of the Lienviet front and of the National United
Front of Laos, the people and army of Cambodia will fight resolutely
for their liberation and for the maintenance of world peace, and are
sure to win victory.'31
	Judging from photographs published in Viet-Nam Information,
these new 'people's liberation armies' are as yet not very formidable
fighting forces, and one is not surprised that the French authorities
in these states are not greatly embarrassed by them so far.
Nevertheless we should not underrate the importance of these
developments.  The communist armies of vietnam, Burma and Malaya had
similarly modest beginnings.  Hence it is strange that these events
have gone practically unmentioned in the Soviet press, especially as
it is certainly not the Soviet way to be shy about new extensions of
the world communist movement, even when they are still mainly
programmatic.  A possible explanation of Soviet reticence about these
achievements is that uncertainty remains about the viability of these
new movements.  They may be unsure of the leaders through whom the
communists are working in Laos and Cambodia, or of the ability of the
movement to attract any considerable number of recruits.  It would not
do to be too boastful about an army which might any day transfer its
allegiance or else be annihilated in a single encounter with a couple
of companies of the Foreign Legion.  Be that as it may, not a single
exploit of the Cambodian or Laotian 'liberation armies' has yet found
mention in the Soviet press, although if we can believe Viet-Nam
Information, they have been engaged in skirmishes32 on a considerably
larger scale than those of the Kubong in the Philippines, which
receive ample publicity in Pravda and Izvestia.  In fact, the first
the Soviet public heard of the developments in Laos and Cambodia was
the brief announcement in April 1951 that 'A conference of people's
representatives of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos has taken steps to set
up a joint united front of these three countries'.33
	Recent developments within the 'national-liberation movement'
of Vietnam itself are of no less interest.  In the speech from which I
have already quoted, Liu Shao-Chi also stated that: 'The experience of
the victorious national libertion struggle of the Chinese people
teaches us that the working class must unite with all parties, groups
and organisations willing to fight the imperialists and their
hirelings and to form a broad, nation-wide united front, headed by the
working class and its vanguard - the Communist Party, the Party
equipped with the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the Party that has
mastered the art of revolutionary strategy and tactics: that breathes
the spirit of revolutionary irreconcilability to enemies of the
people, the spirit of proletarian organisation and discipline in the
mass movement of the peoples'.34  If this can be interpreted as a call
to the communists to assert more openly their leading role in relation
to their 'allies' and to reinforce their centralized control of the
'national-liberation movements', it was not long in securing results
in Vietnam.
	The former reluctance to associate Ho's regime too obviously
with the communist world - certainly an anachronism at this advanced
stage of the cold war and of the hot war in Vietnam - was swept aside
with the recognition of the 'Democratic Republic of Vietnam' by the
communist states of Europe and Asia.  At about the same time a
conference was called of Vietnam trade unions, whose tasks were 'to
carry out the plans and decisions of the ... conference of Trade
Unions of Asia and Oceania which met in Peking' - and 'to map out
plans for consolidating the Vietnamese working masses and making them
a vanguard in the fight for national liberation and in the building of
a new national economy'.35  The next six months saw a 'general
mobilization of manpower and material resources'; the adminstrative
machinery of the state was 'consolidated and strengthened on the basis
of democratic centralism'; and the educational and juridical systems
were 'reformed according to the spirit of new democracy'.36
	The culmination of this process was the launching in March
1951, of the Vietnam Workers' (Laodong) Party.  This party, 'armed
with the Marxist Leninist theory, organised according to the principle
of democratic centralism, and developing by means of criticism and
self-criticism', is held to unite 'the most patriotic, most ardent,
the most revolutionary workers, peasants and intellectual workers'
into a 'vanguard army, a general staff, a powerful, clearsighted,
determined, pure and thoroughly revolutionary political party', whose
task is to lead the people of Vietnam in the struggle for complete
national liberation, and to 'fully realize People's Democracy, so as
to advance towards socialism'.37
	This may be taken as the final emergence of the communist
party as the party of the State, after more than five years of
semi-clandestine existence as the Marxist Study Group and elaborate
indirect control over the administration.  Simultaneously with the
formation of the Laodong Party went the merging of the Viet-Minh - the
broad United Front Party through which the communists had formerly
exercised their 'leading role' - in the Lienviet league.38  As the
latter is not a policy-making body, but merely a front organisation
formed in 1946 to mobilize well-to-do sections of the population - as
well as the 'toiling masses' - behind the regime, it is clear that
henceforth non-communist nationalists were to be exluded from such
minor participation in power as they had previously enjoyed.
	The new climate of attitudes in the 'Democratic Republic' both
in their internal and their international aspects, emerges in a recent
statement by General Vo Nguyen Giap, C in C of the ' Vietnam People's
Liberation  Army'.  Vo gave the following reasons to explain why his
forces 'have won and will win'.
	'It is because the PLA fights for a just cause, for national
independence, democracy and peace.
	It is because it is wholeheartedly supported in its struggle
by the entire people, the valiant people of Vietnam who give their
children and their resources for the front, and are united in the
national front of Lienviet for unity and independence.
	It is because the army like the people have been formed,
educated and led formerly by the Communist Party of Indo China, now by
the Vietnam Laodong Party - the Party of the toiling masses and of the
people - which, armed with the Marxist-Leninist ideology, has
successfully led the struggle of the people at the most difficult
moments.
	It is because it is imbued with the spirit of fighting,
sacrifice and unbound faithfulness to the people and the country of
President Ho Chi-Minh, leader of the Party and the people, Father of
the nation.
	It is because it has been able to profit by the very rich and
valuable experience of its older brothers, the Soviet Army and the PLA
of the Chinese people.  From the Soviet Army it has learnt proletarian
internationalism, faithfulness to the people and to the cause of the
people.  From the Chinese PLA it has learnt the whole system of
military thought, of strategy and tactics in colonial and
semi-colonial countries.  More recently it has learnt from the Korean
People's Army how a weak people can vanquish the Americans' modern
troops.
	Finally it is because the armed struggle of the Vietnamese
people is not an isolated struggle.  It has the wholehearted support
of the USSR, China and the New Democracies and the active sympathy of
the peoples of France, of the French colonies and the forces of
progress and peace in the world.  In the neighbourhood of Vietnam the
Peoples of Laos and Cambodia, engaged in armed struggle, are closely
co-ordinating their efforts with those of Vietnam against the common
enemy.'39
	As Soviet editors appear to ascribe greater news value to
military and economic developments than to purely organisational ones,
there would be little reason for surprise if these changes in Vietnam
received as little attention as did the activisation of resistance in
Laos and Cambodia.  However, although the reorganisation and
reorientation which took place during 1950 passed unmentioned in the
Soviet press, the founding of the Laodong Party and the merging of the
Viet Minh league in the Lien-Viet front were fairly adequately
reported.40  On the other hand the months immediately following
brought no Soviet assessment of the significance of these
developments.  In fact, while Soviet writers boost the military and
economic successes of Ho's regime, no general moral is drawn about the
course of the struggle in Vietnam over the past six years, and we must
turn to the Vietnamese communists themselves for this.  'This
victory', writes General Vo, 'shows that in the years following World
War II while the forces of peace, democracy and socialism have been
developing and while the forces of imperialism have been declining,
the victory of armed struggle is possible not only in large colonial
and semi-colonial countries such as China but also in much smaller
ones like Korea and Vietnam.'41

* * *

Logging and Conservation
a response to 'Disasters'

John McKinnon

	It was with interest that I read your note Disasters in Number
3, December 1988: 32, but perhaps it is best to qualify the response.
There is clear authority for stating that the floods in the South
would have occurred regardless of whether any trees had been cut. I
understand more rain fell in 72 hours than was experienced in many
parts of the Northeast last year. Such heavy concentrated falls
inevitably result in earth slumps and floods.
	There are dangers in people reading events myopically through
fashionable ideology. As a result of the floods in the South a ban on
logging has been declared. Thailand needs timber and the stated
intention is to get it from Burma (or should I say the Union of
Myanma?). Chavalit has been particularly chummy with the Burmese
authorities and it appears that recent attacks on Karen positions from
across the Thai border may have been set up in negotiations with the
Thai Army. Interests in Thailand stand to make considerable financial
gains if the Burmese can secure the border.
	The long term consequences of uncritically promoting the
conservation cause may well hold dangers for highlanders. The grafting
of the logging ban on to existing plans for management of the national
watershed will give new life to programs drawn up by Forestry and the
Thai Army to involuntarily relocate all villages from areas with
characteristics identified as qualifying for watershed protection.
This will include many long standing Karen communities. Given the
manner in which eviction has been conducted in the past (Chupinit
Kesmanee 1988 Cultural Survival  12(4): 2-6) there apear to be few
reasons for optimism.
	This is not to say that all environmental management
strategies are a waste of time or that stricter controls on logging
are irrelevant. Just a note of caution is advisable when it comes to
this particular issue.
           
* * *

TWO L† SONGS
translated from Tai LŸ into Chinese by
Dao Xin Hua
and into English by
Li Xiang Yang & Wang Biao

[These songs, part of a weaving ritual, belong to the category known
to the LŸ as  kaap and in north Thailand as sor.]

SONG OF OFFERINGS
Listen!
My dearest brother;
Pray listen carefully.
My songs are like broth without salt,
Which to you may not be delicious
For I have no talent of striking my heart's chord
At the sight of things.
My songs are like pure boiled water,
No aroma will you taste,
For I possess no capacity of singing extempore.
Oh, my dearest!
Your songs are more fragrant than Yulan magnolia
Making me lose my way home.
Oh, my dearest!
Your songs are far sweeter than dried bananas
Distracting me from thinking of my beloved at home.
You were born earlier than I;
You see the Sun more often than I do;
And you sing longer songs.
Your songs are as numerous as the leaves of the trees,
Your knowledge much deeper than the seas.
Today I am here with you,
It's Yu Guang's best luck.
Today I am here with you,
Yu Guang has gained inexhaustible power.
It's a pity today that
I've forgotten to bring flowers and candles here
Only my constricted throat for songs.
O my true master!
I will offer my coil of hair
As a gorgeous lotus flower
And produce my fingers
As five straight pairs of candles.
Now, let me present the flowers,
And now allow me to light the candles
Before kneeling in worship, offering the sacrifice.
O the clean robe
Is the ceremony garment of my master;
The soft kneeling cushion
Is the mat of silk cotton flower by my master;
The pillow towel with the design of various flowers
Is the brocade embroidered by my master;
And the endless array of sacrifices,
Both food and daily necessities,
Are all made for my master.
They are offered to clean the sins of this life,
And ask for good luck and happiness in the after life.
I devoutly wish all the sacrifices here
Become a basin of clear sacred water
Washing away the master's sins in his life;
I piously wish all the sacrifices here
Become a holy ship
Taking my holy master on board
And sailing against the strong wind and fierce waves,
Across the place where his soul is punished,
Until the destination people yearn for ---
"Sukhavati"

*

ONE MARCH IS DIFFERENT FROM ANOTHER

Pray listen!
Your beloved sister is going to sing
That one March is different from another.
The golden bamboo joints are short in March,
And the Jiali trees are luxuriant in April.
My dearest brother is to make a big spinning wheel,
Together with a cotton gin.
Oh, my dearest brother,
Forget not the baskets and the winding stand.
After finishing the requirements for weaving,
You must clean the cotton fields;
Fell the parasitic trees and bamboos,
Hoe out the reed and cogongrass.
Open up the field on the gentle hillsides
And fence it with bamboo sticks.
The field cannot be too large,
But cleaned according to actual requirements.
Too large a piece of land is hard to manage,
And could be spoiled by horses and cows.
The best acreage is large enough to sow
Seven large bamboo baskets of cotton seeds,
And ten large baskets of sesame seeds.
Excessive close planting and small seedlings, my dear
Will encourage encroaching grass,
And you must weed with sharpened hoe
Not long after the sowing.
Oh my dearest brother,
Be careful with the weeding
Lest the grass return everywhere.
May in the Dai calendar is known to be Spring
When taro and mulberry sprout.
Cuckoos sing in the trees about the field,
Turtle doves and crickets chirp here and there.
When the felled reeds and bushes are dried, my dear,
You must set fire to them on the hills.
As the fire dies out, brother,
You and I will go up in the hills,
Cut short the unburnt branches,
And carry them home as firewood.
When June in the Dai calendar comes,
We will go to the field after washing our hair,
When the sky is streaked with sunny clouds.
It will rain spring rains in July,
And we will sow the cotton seeds on the hillside.
You will dig holes with a bamboo stick, my dear.
And I will place the cotton seeds in the holes.
In August, the season of the cicada's cry,
Cuckoos will sing gaily in the bamboos.
The sown cotton seeds will burst into two tender leaves,
And the cucumber and gourd plants will vine,
Requiring weeding and earthing up their roots.
In September, cucumber and muskmelon plants
Will bear innumerable fruits.
The big one is worthy of 'yibaiyin'
While the small one sells for 'siliangsi'
Ah, God grants us a fortune.
In October, the cotton plants will bear cotton bolls.
Those bursting first will be picked first,
Carried back and piled about the village.
There is a market for the picked cotton.
The November sky is a clear expanse,
As crystalline as the water-drops on the banana leaves.
When December comes, all the cotton bolls will burst,
All the hills look white.
We will carry the cotton back in baskets, Dear.
Dry it in the sun before sorting and ginning.
O what an ocean of white cotton.
Fluff the cotton after you gin it, my dearest sister,
And set up the spinning wheel after the cotton is fluffed.
Then the valley night will be lit by fire.
The two flames are different.
The glowing flames are torches carried by the young men
Who seek the love of young girls.
Before the sun goes down in the west,
The girls go to bathe in the river,
And then go home to dress , waiting for their beloved.
When night falls
They will go down from the bamboo buildings,
Spinning cotton threads until
Dew moistens their clothes.
After the threads are spun,
The girls will starch them in the red rice gruel.
If they want to dye the yarn red,
They'll add Perilla to the gruel.
The thick threads are used to weave coarse cloth,
While the thin are woven into brocade.
The woven cloth may be used at will,
Making clothes or for offering to the Buddha.
Such is the custom in Asia.
If you want to make a robe to worship Buddha,
The cloth should be dyed yellow in ginger and indigo.
The design of horses and elephants woven into the brocade
And offered to the Buddha in the temple,
Where the monks will pray for your happiness.
The next day, people will offer their own children
To the monastery as novices,
There they have to learn to chant the scriptures.
That is the task of the monks and novices.
They must finish chanting one page in ten days,
And finish one text in twenty days.
Monks cannot be idle in the monastery.
Novices should not disappoint their parents,
Who send them meals every day.
Novices should carry meals for the monks,
And rise early to sweep the grounds.
That's the job of the novices.
In the Buddhist texts such words are written:
If you've done your duty,
You'll be lucky and happy in the after life.
The happiness is as fragrant as the lotus flower,
That you can find throughout Asia.
Here, at the end of the singing,
Let my song bless you!

Translations

by Irene Bain

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE JI-NUO

[The following excerpts have been taken from Zhong-guo Da
Bai-ke-quan-shu: Min-zu (The Chinese Encyclopaedia: Ethnic Groups)42
pp. 190-2 to provide some general background and supplementary
information on the Ji-nuo.]

	Ji-nuo is the name by which members of this minority identify
themselves and the term translates as 'descendents of the maternal
uncle' or 'the ethnic group which respects the maternal uncle'. The
Ji-nuo language is classified in the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman
language group of the Han-Tibetan language system. The old name for
Ji-nuo Xiang [Village, referred to in the following article as Ji-nuo
Lo-ke Commune] is Ji-nuo Shan [mountain]. Qing Dynasty gazetteers
refer to this as You-le Shan, the name the Ji-nuo give to the
mountain, indicating that this minority is an ancient tribe of the
area. During the Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Han Chinese merchants
entered the area and propogated tea and techniques for tea-production.
	In the past, the Ji-nuo undertook slash-and-burn agriculture
and had no irrigation facilities. The major crops are early-maturing
rice, cotton, corn, bananas, papayas and tea. The staple food is rice.
The festival for eating the new rice is called Hao-xi-zao, but the
most important celebration is for the New Year and is called
Te-mao-er. Oxen and water buffaloes are common but, with the exception
of a few villages, are not used for ploughing but rather as
sacrifices. Tea-production is a side-line for females and hunting a
secondary activity for males. Food obtained by hunting shared equally.
Before 1949 land renting, hiring of labour and money-lending were
already in evidence but not a group which lived by exploitation alone.
A village generally had two elders, the more senior called zhuo-ba
and the junior termed zhuo-sheng. These were the eldest individuals
from specified ancient clans. The Ji-nuo were animists and also
worshipped their ancestors.
	'Among the minority groups in China today, the Ji-nuo
long-houses most nearly approximate the model long-house system. In
the mid-1960's the village of Long-pa [Long-pa Zhai] still contained
eight long-houses on stilts. The largest long-house had 13 households
containing 48 people. Long-house inhabitants could not casually
migrate to or from the long-house. Nuclear families in the long-house
were referred to as 'stoves'. The nuclear family operated an
independent economy and property was kept in  private rooms. Only land
and the long-house were owned collectively. If sons in a nuclear
family married or family division occurred, two stoves were created.
The La-hu  of Lan-cang and Geng-ma in Yunnan and the Bu-lang of
Meng-hai, Yunnan also have long-houses, but of a much smaller scale.'
	In the early 1950's there were still traces of cosanguine
marriage and some villages had no restrictions on intra-clan marriage.
Other villages prohibited marriage between clan members but permitted
them to live together as lovers. There was also much evidence of a
matriarchal system. Usually only mothers were empowered to sacrifice a
chicken and 'summon the spirits'  for a sick child. In the ceremony
for newly-weds it was the eldest female who took the torch upstairs
and first lit the family stove. Although the village elders were
already males, they were still referred to by the term from the
matriarchal clan commune Zuo-mi-you-ka which refers to an old paternal
grandmother. The partilineal commune probably superseded the
matriarchal commune over 300 years ago. In the 1940's, some villages
contained long-houses with over 100 members.
	In 1954, the first Communist Party ethnic work team arrived in
Ji-nuo Shan to promote production. In 1955 the first work exchange
team was established and, in 1957, an agricultural cooperative. In
1978 Ji-nuo  village was designated as a predominantly forested area
in accord with local conditions. Irrigation works have led to paddy
rice production. There are two hydro-electric power stations and
Ji-nuo village has electric lighting. Tractors and machinery for
agricultural processing have come into use. In 1982, the Ji-nuo
numbered 11,974 persons.

* * *

A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF JI-NUO LONG-HOUSES
    By Zhu Bao-tian

[In 1963 the Yunnan Provincial Museum dispatched Ma Chang-zhou, Yang
Jie, Tian Ying-kang and Pu En-li to undertake an ethnographic survey
of the Ji-nuo and the long-houses of Long-pa Zhai [Village]. In 1974,
Li Yong-heng and the author were again sent to research the form of
the long-houses and to prepare a second research report. In 1978 the
author returned to the Ji-nuo Autonomous District to obtain
supplementary materials on the long-houses of Long-pa Zhai. The
present account present a modified version of the 1963 materials.]

The Ji-nuo comprise over 10,000 persons living in extended families
concentrated in the Ji-nuo Lo-ke Commune (also known as You-le Shan)
of Jing-hong County, Xi-shuang-ban-na Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan
Province. The entire region is dense virgin forest, with rich soils,
abundant rainfall and mild temperatures which make it especially
suitable for agriculture and commercial crops. The Ji-nuo have a long
history of tea-cultivation. Since the early Qing Dynasty [1644-1911],
this area has been one of the six mountains renowned for producing
Pu-er tea. Owing to various factors however, the socio-economic
development of the Ji-nuo was comparatively slow and although theirs
was a class society, it retained many vestiges of primitive society,
such as the long-houses of Long-pa Zhai. 'Clan structure and family
life are closely linked to household architecture and provide a
thorough understanding of the progression from primitive times toward
civilisation.'43 This account represents preliminary investigations
into the nature, form and special characteristics of Long-pa Zhai
long-houses.
	Long-pa Zhai is located mid-way up You-le Shan [Mountain]. In
the Ji-nuo language, 'Long-pa' means 'those who dwell on the steep,
stone slope'. According to our 1963 survey, the village of Long-pa was
populated solely by Ji-nuo; 221 persons in 67 households.  There were
in total four surnames: A-lao-lao, A-zhe-rao, A-sha-rao and A-che,
living separately in ten large long-houses, as indicated in Table 1
below [table on page 17].
	The long-houses of Long-pa Zhai are built in the style of
pole-dwellings: a rectangular building with a door at each end, wooden
bridging beams and supporting wooden posts.  The four walls are made
of woven bamboo strips and are roofed with thatch secured by vines.
There are no windows and day-time lighting is dim. The supporting
posts dove-tail with the main beams and the whole structure is built
without nails. Materials for constructing a long-house are readily
obtained, its construction is speedy and the result, durable.

Take for example the long-house of Zi-er (Fig. 1),




















































1. wooden, treadle-operated tilt hammer for hulling rice 2. stairs 3.
flat roof [suitable for drying clothes] 4. wooden veranda 5. exterior
wall 6. main door 7. guest-room 8. inner door 9. bamboo wall 10. posts
11. clan stove 12. iron tripod 13. 'pot-village' 14. wooden stool 15.
low bamboo partition 16. individual family doors 17. bamboo bed 18.
wooden bed 19. bamboo railing 20. living quarters of the family-head
21. room for religious activities.
an A-che-rao family-head: this structure is 28 metres long by 16
metres wide and seven metres high. Its eight posts form the house
frame and at the left of each main door are wooden stairs of 7-8
steps. Inside the main door is a 2 metre wide, rectangular guest-room.
In the Ji-nuo language this is called a-xo meaning 'the place where
the Han live'. Passing through the guest-room one enters the main hall
of the long-house. Here are the thirteen smaller rooms which serve as
sleeping quarters for each nuclear family. 2.5 metres from each door
is the household stove,  a tripod formed by three upright stones.
These stoves occupy the centre of the hall and are enclosed by a
wooden rectangle measuring 13.2 metres in length and 1.14 metres wide.
To the right of each stove is another stove used for religious
purposes or by guests (this is probably the clan stove). Outsiders can
calculate the number of households in a long-house by counting its
stoves. According to Ji-nuo custom, it is fixed that the room on the
far right belongs to the family-head. When the family-head dies, his
family members must depart voluntarily to make room for the incoming
family-head. It sometimes happens that the families of the old and new
family-heads are of different size. This is solved by enlarging or
re-building the room or by distributing all rooms in the long-house.
The far right end of the guest-room is partitioned to form a room for
religious purposes. Hanging on the four walls are the skulls and teeth
of game killed by the long-house members; a display of collective
hunting skill. Normally this room is out-of-bounds to all persons.
Rectangular store-rooms of various sizes belonging to individual
nuclear households line the walls of the main-hall. Previously, it was
not the practice to lock these rooms and they became places for young
lovers to meet.
	The study of ethnic housing customs was considered important
among anthropologists from an early date. In Ancient Society the
famous American Anthropologist Morgan made a major contribution to the
development of research on the history of primitive society. Marx and
Engels held Morgan's work in high regard. Engels identified Morgan's
main achievement as discovering the essential characteristics of clans
and their relationship to tribes. This outstanding discovery revealed
the standard form of the internal organisation in primitive communist
society.44 Moreover, Morgan made an intensive study of Iroquois
housing and indicated that 'they constructed a rectangular communal
dwelling which could contain five, ten or even twenty households and
each long-house had a communal life-style.' Thereafter, the Russian
anthropologist Sergey P. Tolstov45 [1907-1976] undertook further
research into the Iroquois long-house using Morgan's study...   Table
2 [see page 17] provides a comparison between the Iroquois, based on
his earlier findings, and the Ji-nuo.
	We can observe many similarities from a comparison of these
two types of long-house. These similarities reflect common
characteristics in the development of housing habits among ancient
peoples, but we must also recognise that the long-houses of the Ji-nuo
have peculiar characteristics worthy of further examination.
(1) Due to the passage of time it is difficult to determine when the
long-houses of the Ji-nuo were constructed. Traditional Ji-nuo
accounts concerning establishment of the village inform us that 'a
widow with her seven sons and seven daughters originally settled
mid-way up Jie-zu [Clan of the Elder Sister] Mountain. These sons and
daughters intermarried.' This indicates that at some time in primitive
society the Ji-nuo passed through a stage of consanguinal marriage.
	The earliest tale of the Ji-nuo long-house is as follows:
After the Ji-nuo migrated to You-le Shan they divided into two groups
which could intermarry. The group on the mountain-face were
partiarchal and those on the rear slope were matriarchal. Afterwards,
the group on the mountain-face fragmented into two groups called
Ci-tong Zhai, which was patriarchal,  and Man-duo Zhai which was
matriarchal.  The group on the rear slopes also divided into two
groups: Man-piao Zhai (patriarchal)  and Man-po Zhai (matriarchal).
After many decades of development, Ci-tong and Man-duo on the
mountain-face evolved into Man-ya Zhai, Man-hai Zhai, Man-gui Zhai,
Man-shan Zhai, Hui-zhen Zhai, Hui-lu Zhai, Pa-ni Zhai, Er-zhuang Zhai,
Shen-niu Zhai and Nuo-man-xiu matriarchal settlements. On the rear
slopes Long-pa Zhai, Mo-yang Zhai, Zha-gong Zhai, Zha-lu Zhai, Shi-zui
Zhai, Man-bie Zhai, Man-kui Zhai, Man-ka Zhai and Kuan-ma Zhai son and
daughter settlements developed. These are the oldest of the Ji-nuo
settlements. In researching the moieties of the Seneca, Engels
discovered that these moieties were the earliest clans formed below
the level of the tribe. As marriage was prohibited within the clans,
each tribe must contain at least two clans to ensure its existence. As
the tribes developed, the clans subdivided to produce two or more new
clans and these continued to exist as individual clans and include the
earliest of the female clans and so the moiety continues to exist.46.
From this we can see that the earliest Ji-nuo settlements on the
mountain-face (male) and on the rear-slope (female) were probably the
earliest clans to emerge from tribes and that these clans were in fact
moieties. Ci-tong Zhai (a partiarchal village) and Man-duo Zhai (a
matriarchal village) are probably two clans which split from a moiety
and then produced the ten or so daughter clans in Man-ya Zhai and
Man-hai Zhai. Our understanding concurs with that of Engels concerning
the Seneca: 'The gentes  within one phratry [moiety] are considered to
be brother gentes.'47  According to this theoretical principle of
Engels it is evident that in ancient times the Ji-nuo tribe split to
form the earliest clans (that is moieties), split again to produce the
clans and split once more to produce son and daughter clans. This
indicates that in ancient times the Ji-nuo passed through a
matriarchal commune stage and probably also a stage of primitive
communism resembling that of the Iroquois in which between five and
twenty families lived in a single long-house. The Ji-nuo maintained
the custom of living in long-houses during the period in which they
changed from the matriarchal to a patriarchal  system.
(2) Membership of the extended families of the Long-pa Zhai
long-houses is based on surname (A-lao-lao, A-shao-rao, A-che-rao and
A-che) and blood-relationship. The Ji-nuo explain this very clearly:
'Only those with a common ancestor can live together.' This is evident
from a study of the thirteen long-houses of the A-che-rao family [see
table 3 page 18].
	The blood-relationship between these three households becomes
clearer when we examine the preceeding fourth and fifth generations.
The long-houses of the four surnames in Long-pa Zhai have already
begun dividing into a number of long-houses, but these ought to be
considered in terms of clan names which have lost their original
significance with the passage of time.
Engels stated that 'Today we can still see among the Serbs and
Bulgarians the familial commune and family-headship called Zarduga
(broadly meaning extended family) and the Bratstvo (moiety)' which he
called 'a group marriage system which produced a family based on a
matriarchal system and is in the process of moving toward a
contemporary individual family.'48 The long-houses of Long-pa Zhai
ought to be considered an extremely rare example of this historically
significant turning-point.
(3)  Although the Long-pa Zhai long-houses have already begun dividing
into relatively small long-houses (containing at most ten to twenty
households and at minimum only one or two) each retains a male
family-head This is a key characteristic of Ji-nuo long-houses
apparent in an analysis of three A-che-rao long-houses [see table 4
page 18].
	The Ji-nuo called the family-head Wei-zhe-le, meaning 'to be
in charge of a family'. The family-head is usually an elder of the
long-house who is skilled in managing affairs and holds a high
reputation. He is chosen by the house members. In the early years
after Liberation [1949], the paternal family-head was still empowered
to organise the production activities undertaken by the nuclear
families of the long-house. In the past, the Ji-nuo were accustomed to
work together to sow crops and this was referred to as sha-da-ke,
da-ba in Ji-nuo meaning 'to join as a large group in planting a plot
of land'. The family-head organised the small households in sowing the
crops and allocated land among them. The family-head also made a
unified plan for harvesting. In bad years when famine prevailed, the
family-head would pray for protection before his own stove. On festive
occasions he offered well-wishes to the long-house members and each
nuclear family could commence eating only after kow-towing. These
speeches were without fixed format and the length depended on the
eloquence of the family-head, but they generally included wishes for
bountiful harvest and seasonable weather.  The family-head was also
accustomed to bless the stoves of long-house members. Each of the
three stones which formed the stove base had a special name and
significance, as in the following figure:








The stone labelled A was called Kuan-dou  and stood  for  the
individual  nuclear  families  of  the

[continued page 19]



Table 1


Long-house	Name of	Number of	Number of	Number of
surname:	family head:	households:	persons:
long-houses:


A-lao-lao	Da-bu-lu-zhou	Ê7	18	1
	A-shu-zhi	Ê8	24	1
	Da-mu-la-zi	Ê2	Ê2	1

A-che-rao	Zi-er	13	44	1
	Sha-ke	Ê5	14	1
	A-shi	Ê8	29	1

A-sha-rao	Mu-la-zi	Ê7	20	1
	Sha-mu-la	Ê6	22	1
	Sha-piao	Ê1	Ê6	1

A-che	Da-sha-bu-lu	10	33	1


total		67	221	10









Table 2

	Iroquois	Ji-nuo


Long-house form:	huge wooden dwelling	pole-dwelling
Scale:	50-80 feet	25 m long x 15 m wide
Distribution of
individual rooms:	one couple per room	one couple per room
Stove usage rules:	4 couples per stove	one couple per stove
Stoves per house:	5-7	around 10
Relation between
living habitat & stove:	symmetrical	symmetrical
Intra-house inheritance system:	patrilineal	matrilineal
Intra-house control:	power rests with female	power rests with male
	family-head	family-head
Intra-house marriage system:	uxorilocal 	virilocal




Table 3

generations:	Fifth	Fourth	Third	Second	First


	Biao-che	Che-bu-lu	Bu-la-er

	Mu-la-xiao	Mu-la-biao
		Bai-mu	Sha-bu-la
			Biao-bai
				Bai-zi	Zi-er
			Mu-la-zhe	A-bu-lu	Mu-la-ya
				A-lin
			Che-zi
	Zi-xiao	Bu-la-che		Po-er
				Sha-yao
				Bu-lu-mu-la *
			Che-bu-lu	Sha-piao
				Bu-lu-zhou
			Mu-la-ji	Da-mu-la-bu-lu
		Bu-la-cheng
			Po-zi	Zi-mu-la
		Bu-la-che	Che-rao	Che-ya


note:   *   indicates the family-head of this house





Table 4

First long-house: 13 households containing 45 people.  Zi-er is the
family-head.
	Xiao-bu-lu-che	5 people	Da-mu-la-bu-lu	6 people
	Zi-mu-la	3 people	Zhong-sha-yao	4 people
	Sha-piao	2 people	Bu-lu-mu-lu	5 people
	Shao-bu-lu-zhou	2 people	Da-po-er	2 people
	Mu-la-ya	1 person	Xiao-sha-mu-la	5 people
	A-lin	1 person	Zi-er	8 people
	Lao-bu-lu-dan	1 person.

Second long-house:  5 households containing 12 people.  Sha-ke is the
family-head.
	Zhong-po-bu-lu	2 people	Zhong-che-mu-la	2 people
	Sha-mo	1 person	Che-mu-la	2 people
	Sha-ke	5 people.

Third long-house:  7 households containing 21 people.  A-shi is the
family-head.
	Yao-zi	2 people	Mu-la-zhe	1 person
	Da-sha-mu-la	3 people	A-shi	3 people
	Bai-jie	2 people	Bu-lu-du	3 people
	Bai-men	7 people.



long-house. The stone labelled B was called Zhe-luo and represented
the family-head of the long-house. The stone labelled C was called
Dao-mi and represented the village collectivity.
	When the family-head worshipped the stove on major festivals
he first gave a portion of the tribute to the family-head of the
long-house then to the village collectivity and last to the individual
nuclear families of the long-house. The special significance the
Ji-nuo attach to the stove probably reflects three types of land
ownership: that of the village common ownership, long-house common
ownership and the occupation rights of individual nuclear families.
The custom of worshipping the stove sometimes also reflects on
everyday life.
	At harvest each year the family-head of the long-house takes
steamed rice made from new grain and carefully studies the direction
in which the steam first emanates from the pot. If the steam appears
first from direction B then long-house members will enjoy good
hunting, if from direction C there will be a year of abundant harvest,
but steam from direction A signifies a poor crop. Under the leadership
of the family-head  the long-house members work together, live
together, worship together and share among themselves; a picture of a
familial commune under family-headship. The powers and duties of the
paternal family-head of the long-house have developed along with the
system of private ownership however, and it was the paternal
family-head who first destroyed the ancient traditions, customs and
system of the long-house which produced further diversification of the
long-house members in Long-pa Zhai.
	Ethnographic materials indicate that long-houses are not
limited to the Ji-nuo but are also common to the La-hu,49 Du-long50
and Li of Hai-nan Island.51

[The author then lists sites in other parts of China where remains of
New Stone-Age houses have been excavated since 1949 and concludes that
'most of these sites are considered to have been matriarchal
long-houses. No houses have been found to date which indicate a
familial commune long-house under a family-head.']

Source: Min-zu-xue Yan-jiu , May 1982, Vol. 3, pp. 138-149.

* * *

THE SPREAD AND EVOLUTION OF THE WATER-SPLASHING FESTIVAL
AMONG THE DAI MINORITY OF CHINA

Chen Qian

 [In earlier sections of this article the author discusses the origin
and spread of the festival outside China. He considers it originated
in India as a ceremony associated with Brahmanism. 'The Festival
spread with Brahmanism to Burma, Thailand, Laos and the Dai areas of
Yunnan. The Water-splashing Festival is closely linked with the
calendar. The origin and spread of this festival reflect the
importance attached to water for agricultural production by the
workers of these countries. It also illustrates that introduced
customs can only develop when they blend with the indigenous
culture.']
	After the Water-splashing festival spread among the Dai of
Yunnan its mythology melded with that of the Dai and the custom came
to represent a struggle between good and evil. It is said that in
ancient times there was a terrible tyrant in the area where the Dai
lived. Neither fire nor water, arrows or spears could harm him. He
frequently plundered treasure, slaves and beautiful women from his
domain and no-one could stop him. His seven wives were all beautiful
women stolen from among the people and each loathed her lord but
lacked means of escape. One day, the tyrant returned with a huge
bundle of booty and began boasting in front of his youngest, seventh
wife whom he loved most. The quick-witted woman took the opportunity
to state: 'The abilities of my lord are matchless, he has no enemies
anywhere, he will surely live forever.' On hearing this the tyrant
became even more assured and unwittingly let slip the secret of his
vulnerability: that if one hair was plucked from his head and tied
around his neck he would certainly die. The seventh wife told this to
the other wives and they agreed to save the people by murdering him
that night. After the tyrant was sleeping soundly, they gently took a
hair and tied it tightly around his neck. With a thud the tyrants'
head fell to the floor, but they were not to know that after hitting
the ground the head would burst into flames. From these flames many
tyrants lept toward them. With desperate resolve the eldest wife
grabbed the head and wrapped it to extinguish the fire. The tyrant
died. To save the people further harm each wife took a turn to guard
the head for a year. When it came time to transfer the head the other
wives would splash water on the guardian to wash away the
blood-stains. Seven years elapsed before the tyrants' head finally
stopped bleeding and died. The Dai commemorated the bravery of these
seven women by splashing water on each other once a year on this day.
	There are also many other tales, but these are roughly the
same. There is one which clearly indicates the difference between the
Chinese and Indian calendar and agricultural seasons. In this story
the heavenly elder [Tai-shang Lao-jun]  is gambling with the Buddhist
deity [Fo-zu] on the condition that the loser will be decapitated. The
heavenly elder gave the time when the rice should be sown and
harvested, but the rice failed to sprout. The Buddhist deity then
specified the time for sowing and reaping, and the grain grew well and
gave good harvest. Having lost, the heavenly elder lost his head. On
striking the ground it burst into flames and so the Buddhist diety
charged seven celestial females with responsibility for the head, each
to guard it for one year. When the time came to transfer the head, the
other six females splashed water on the seventh to wash away the
blood-stains. The story indicates that the Chinese calendar and
agricultural seasons conformed to climate in the Yangzi-Yellow River
region and were unsuited to Yunnan. In the region where the Dai lived,
the Indian Ocean climate produced distinct wet and dry seasons and
made the Indian calendar more suitable as a basis for agriculture.

From: 'Po-shui Jie de Qi-yuan, Chuan-bo Ji-qi Yi-yi' (On the Origin of
the Water-splashing Festival, its Spread and Significance) Yunnan
She-hui Ke-xue Yuan (Yunnan Social Science), 1981, No. 3 pp. 62-6.

***

FERMENTED AND PICKLED FOOD AMONG THE
DAI OF XI-SHUANG-BAN-NA

Yin Shao-ting

	The ethnic minorities of Xi-shuang-ban-na produce a wide range
of fermented foods using a variety of methods. The most common
techniques are described below.
	Sour tea: Tea-leaves are stirred in a pot over dry-heat until
limp. The leaves are then squeezed, placed in a bamboo tube and sealed
with a wooden stick. Natural fermentation occurs several days later.
The tube is then unsealed and the leaves dried in the sun. Tea
prepared in this manner may be stored for long periods.
	Pickled bamboo shoots: There are two methods of preparation:
the first involves rinsing the shoots in water then cutting out the
heart of the root-base, which is poisonous. The shoots are cut into
slices or strips (strips should be squeezed in water) then salt and
chilli-peppers are added. Cooked glutinous rice is washed and then
stirred into the mixture to produce fermentation. Pickled bamboo
shoots can be stored for more than a year. In the second method,
bamboo shoots are also cut into slices or strips but then placed in a
bamboo tube. A stick slightly narrower than the mouth of the bamboo
tube is driven into the ground and the tube is up-ended over the
stick. A stone is placed on the top to weigh down the tube and excude
the liquid. Bamboo shoots fermented in this manner will keep for over
a year.
	Pickled vegetables: Many wild greens or vegetables are
suitable for pickling and the water method will serve as an example.
The vegetable is dried in the sun for a day or two and then the stems
are beaten with a stick until soft. The vegetable is washed clean in a
bamboo basket and placed in a pot with glutinous rice which has been
cooked and washed. After four to five hot days the contents ferment
and turn sour.
	Nan-mi52 (Dai term): Vegetables are picked when flowering,
rinsed and dried in the sun for a day or two. The vegetables are then
crushed in a mortar and placed in a pot with cold water and glutinous
rice which has been cooked and washed. After the mixture is fully
fermented it is scooped from the pot and squeezed to remove the dregs.
The stew is then simmered until it forms a paste. This is placed on
the tough sheaths of bamboo shoots and dried in the sun until it
becomes a hard, black substance suited to long-term storage. It is
only necessary to add one or two pinches to soup. This soup can be
served  as a dipping sauce with glutinous rice and the xing-cao plant
[Houttuynia cordata].
	Pickled fish: The fish is washed and scaled then soaked in
clear lime-wash for half an hour or overnight. The lime-wash makes the
fish firm and less likely to spoil. The fish is then rinsed well in
fresh water and placed in a pot or bamboo tube. Salt, glutinous rice
which has been cooked and washed, or glutinous rice flour are added
then the tube is sealed. Fermentation and pickling require a week of
hot weather or around ten days in colder weather. Pickled fish is
eaten cooked or served raw with garlic seasoning.
	Pickled meat: Beef, pork or beef skin can be prepared by two
methods.  In the first, the meat is mixed with pickled bamboo shoots
and cooked glutinous rice. The mixture is then wrapped in a banana
leaf and bound tightly with bamboo strips until fermentation is
complete. In the second method, the meat is mixed with cooked
glutinous rice, stuffed in a bamboo tube and sealed. The sealing
method is as follows; a banana leaf slightly larger than the mouth of
the tube is squeezed into the tube to cover the mixture and two short
slivers of bamboo are made into a cross and lodged in the tube to
secure the banana leaf. The procedure is repeated with a second banana
leaf and bamboo cross. Water is then poured into the tube to make the
seal air-tight. The meat is eaten either cooked or raw.
	Fermented beans: Soy-beans are first rinsed and then soaked
overnight. The next day they are boiled soft then spread in a shallow
bamboo basket and covered with bamboo or sugar-cane leaves until
fermented. When the surface of the beans becomes mouldy, chilli
peppers and salt are added and the whole mixture is pulped. The
resulting paste is moulded into pieces which are wrapped in banana
leaves and placed in a grain store. There are a variety of fermented
beans in Xi-shuang-ban-na: dry beans, beans with liquid, plain beans,
chillied beans and bean milk, but the manner of preparation is
essentially the same in each case.
	Alcohol: In brewing spirits it is first necessary to make the
brewing agent. The simplest method is used by the Ai-ni of the Ha-ni
minority who use only rice flour, chilli peppers, ginger and a type of
flower called biao-biao-liang by the Dai. The method the Dai
themselves use is much more complicated: the author interviewed Yan
Yuan, a fifty-seven year old brewer living in Man-chang Zhai [Village]
in Da-luo District of Meng-hai County. Yan began distilling spirits in
1948 and is now a renowned expert. His brewing agent is made from
glutinous rice flour and 32 other plants, some of which are used as
flavourings and others to raise the alcohol content. Although the use
of so many different additives was surprising, the author was later
informed that a Dai brewer in Meng-ya District of Meng-hai County used
over 100 different plants to produce a fermentation agent.
	Brewing methods used by Yan Yuan is as follows:
	Manufacturing the brewing agent: First collect and wash the 32
different plants then mix and boil them for about four hours. Let the
resulting liquid cool. Weigh out 22 jin [12.5 kg] of glutinous rice,
wash it and leave soaking for about one hour. Dry the rice in a
shallow bamboo basket and grind it in a mortar. Mix four jin [2 kg] of
forty per cent proof spirits and the cooled plant extract with
glutinous rice flour and knead to form round cakes weighing about one
jin [0.5 kg] each. Before the cakes have completely dried in the sun,
make a shallow depression in the centre of each, sprinkle this with
powder ground from old brewing agent and top with a little spirits.
Then wrap the cakes in grass to facilitate fermentation. This will
require 7-8 days in summertime and longer during winter.
	Brewing the spirits: First boil or steam the basic ingredients
(rice or mixed grain) then let cool. Mix with the ground brewing agent
in the ratio of one and a half powdered cakes per fifty jin [25 kg] of
grain. When making grain or rice wine during winter the basic
ingredients should still be a little warm when the brewing agent is
added. The mixture should be placed in a shallow bamboo basket and
tightly covered on top. The bottom of the basket should be left
uncovered to facilitate filtering. Once the strained liquid has
drained out, it should be poured into a large pitcher to ferment. The
process requires a minimum of 15 days but is best left for a month
before distilling.

Origin and development of fermented foods:

	As market-gardening is only found around the cities in
Xi-shuang-ban-na most areas still rely on wild greens as a source of
vegetables. The inhabitants have chosen several hundred types of food
from among the 5,000 kinds of plants and 1,153 types of animals
available (in earlier times the range was even larger).  In the
forested terraces, along the paddy verges and in rivers and ditches
are animals and plants that even the locals cannot name precisely. In
breaks from labouring the people picked some of these wild plants
wrapped them in a banana leaf and carried them home. Frequently,
hunting yeilded more meat than could be consumed before spoilage began
and so the remainder is roasted dry or pickled in a bamboo tube. These
methods of preservation are everywhere apparent, are of ancient origin
and explain the frequent use of fermented foods in local cooking. In
early times, food wrapped in this manner would have fermented easily
in the high heat of the region, but it is likely that a long period
elapsed before natural fermentation became a controlled process.
	Most of the products described above use rice as the
fermenting agent. From this it is evident that food fermentation could
only have become a skill after the adoption or rice agriculture. The
lactic acid in cooked rice speeds fermentation and kills the fungi
which cause deterioration, thereby increasing the range and quality of
fermented foods. At this point, fermentation became the main method by
which food was stored.
	The appearance of alcoholic beverages indicates that a high
standard of fermented food processing had been reached. There is a
traditional account of the origin of alcohol from Meng-a District in
Meng-hai County: In earlier times the Dai and the La-hu  of the area
used tree leaves to wrap food for making Buddhist offerings. After
food was left in the crook of a tree for several days the bundle began
to drip water which was delicious to drink. This was the discovery of
spirits. The complex preperation of the brewing agent represents the
high point of spirit-making skill among the minorities of
Xi-shuang-ban-na.

Special characteristics of fermented food:

	The principle characteristic of fermented foods from
Xi-shaung-ban-na is their 'sourness': a quality which can reduce
internal heat [a concept used in traditional Chinese medicine] and aid
digestion and absorption of nourishment. There is a saying that 'Han
like food sweet and barbarians like it sour', which indicates that the
Dai habit of eating sour food is widely known. In terms of the range
and quality, the Dai are the most skilled of the Xi-shuang-ban-na
minorities producing fermented and pickled foods. The Bu-lang, Ha-ni,
Ji-nuo and La-hu  of the mountains all recognise this fact.

From: Min-zu-xue yu Xian-dai-hua (Ethnology and Modernisation) 1987
No. 4 pp. 53-4.

* * *

WA MINORITY LONG-HOUSES
IN DA-SAN-MEN ZHAI,
XI-MENG COUNTY

 Fu Su-fei (April, 1957)

Building the long-house of the Wo-lang-liu:

	The Wo-lang System: The Wo-lang  are calledMang na-ke-rao in
Wa. According to tradition, the Wo-lang  were the earliest officials
of the Wa and were charged with responsibility for the drum room, the
village ghosts and with ruling on decapitation. They were repositories
of Wa history and traditions. The position of Wo-lang is hereditary
and I consider it to be a vestige of the ancient position of clan
leader. If deer, red deer, or wild boars are killed by hunters, they
must give a portion to the Wo-lang. At the house-building festivities
the Wo-lang must be the first to drink (p. 101).







































	The Wo-lang-liu  is the great chief of Da-ma-san Zhai,
although some people intimated that his management was incompetent and
he did not deserve to be regarded as a chief, never mind a great
chief.
	Mu-yi-yi, the highest spirit in the primitive religion of the
Da-ma-san Wa, can only be worshiped in the long-house of the
Wo-lang-liu.53
	The surname of the Wo-lang-liu is A-mi-ang and he is the
official in charge of the wooden-drum room. I infer that the drum room
could not have originated before the patriachial tribe. The Ge-lei-nuo
of traditional accounts could only have been an ethnic hero during the
period in which the matriarchial system was changing to a patriarchy.
His contemporary, Ge-la-tuo, was also a hero and originator of the
drum-room (pp. 222-3).
	The Mo-ba  system: Mo-ba is a La-hu term but has become
popular in the area around Ma-san [According to the author, the
settlements around Da-ma-san, Xiao-ma-san, Wo-niu Zhai and Xiao-xin
Zhai were originally a single unit]. The term in Wa is Beng-cai and
the Yue-song Wa refer to the Mo-ba as Ben-chai. The Mo-ba spend most
of their time undertaking ghost ceremonies for villagers. Some local
settlements do not attach the importance to ghost ceremonies that they
enjoy in Ma-san; in some cases the ceremony does not include
incantations. The author could find no cases of apprentice Mo-ba and
considers that the Mo-ba are religious specialists who have emerged
from the Wo-lang [chiefs] group (pp. 101-2).
	It is not clear whether the Mo-ba system is a complete social
system, but the links between the religious and political system in
Ma-san are close and a number of political positions are held by
Mo-ba. It is not possible to undertake either of the important
ceremonies associated with house-building or severing an ox-tail
without the two great Mo-ba of Da-ma-san being present.

House-building:
	First day of the Na  Month (31st January, 1957 in the Wa
Calendar).
	Ordinary houses may be constructed during the An month of the
Wa calendar. The following month of Na is the only period in which
long-houses are to be built. Several days into the Na month, the
Wo-lang-liu kills seven chickens and chants to the ghosts in
preparation for house-building. On the 13th, the villagers help the
Wo-lang-liu carry grass and cut bamboo in preparation for
house-building. At mid-day, the Great Mo-ba Ai-sao sacrifices a pig
and examines the entrails. The pattern on the surface of the liver is
vertical and the organ is full of water - a good omen. A horizontal
pattern would indicate a hanging. The pig is gutted, cooked and
offered to the ancestors. In the afternoon, Ai-Sao recites
incantations before the stove. Then he leads the villagers in singing
the house-building song. They begin to remove the old thatch from the
house.
	On the 14th, the work of dismantling the old thatch continues
and utensils from the individual rooms are removed to the guest room.
On this day the whole village ceases production and goes to cut bamboo
and timber in preparation for house construction. Four relatives of
the Wo-lang-liu come from Mo-se-mai to offer well-wishes. In the
afternoon an ox is killed and everyone is invited to eat. The family
of the Wo-lang-liu stews a pot of beef mixed with ox-droppings. After
the Mo-ba  chants to the ghosts, the stew is portioned out for eating.
At 7.00 pm, Ai-sao pushes the stick which has been used for killing
the ox into the vacant ground behind the house and addresses the
ghosts. Then the nephews in the Wo-lang-liu  clan dig a hole beside
the stick then insert an eight metre high bamboo pole and fill in the
hole. On top of the bamboo pole is a one metre-long bamboo cross.
Seventeen poles are stuck around the main pole and these lean against
it. The structure formed by these poles is called ni-he-dao-ge; ni-he
meaning house and dao-ge  meaning to drag, the implication being that
the old house is temporarily dragged to this spot. It is also referred
to as ni-he-qiao, meaning the house for dancing. Singing and dancing
continue throughout the night.
	On the 15th, production is still prohibited. In the early
morning, over 20 villagers dismantle the old house and at 9.00 am
construction of the new house commences. The foundations remain in
place. Of the sixteen original bamboo poles only the two at the front
are changed. The rotted wooden posts at front and rear are replaced.
At about 5.00 pm in the afternoon the thatch has been put in place
with only a gap remaining above the ridge-pole. At 2.00 pm that
afternoon two water buffalo and an ox  are slaughtered and a
divination is made from the livers. The larger and smaller parts of
the liver are stuck together at one place - a bad omen. Ai-wan says,
'From this oracle it is apparent that another settlement will carry
off some villagers.' If the two parts did not adhere this would have
constituted a lucky omen. The meat of the ox is divided for all to
eat. At 4.00 pm  the eight metre pole at the centre of the
Ni-he-dao-ge  is replaced with a 25 metre-long bamboo pole with a
cross on top. Children and youths play at climbing the pole. It is an
exciting atmosphere with spectators milling about including twenty-odd
well-wishers from other villages, people portioning out beef and
others firing guns. In the evening, over fifty young men and women
arrive from Yue-song and they sing and dance around the Ni-he-dao-ge .
The great Mo-ba  Ai-sao appears in ceremonial dress, carrying the
stick for slaughtering sacrificial animals. He leads seven or eight
people into the new house to chant to the ghosts and to sing and dance
around the ghost stove. Over 300 people participate in  singing and
dancing during the evening. Beside the central pole of the
Ni-he-dao-ge  are two kegs of spirits with special attendants to serve
the dancers and singers. There are also people to cook meat and rice
for the guests of the Mo-ba.  At midnight the Mo-ba  goes to the
wooden-drum room of Ai-liu to divine from a chicken. A bamboo sliver
is inserted into the bird to kill it, but the result is unlucky; a
person will probably die.  Another chicken is killed and this time the
omen is good and there is dancing in the drum-room.
	On the evening of the 15th, the singing and dancing continue
throughout the night. The people of Yue-song leap around the
Ni-a-dao-ge  and those of Ma-san leap behind the new house. On the
morning of the 16th, the people from Yue-song disperse among the homes
of Da-ma-san to eat. Then they dance until it is time to return to
Yue-song. Those from Da-ma-san continue dancing. At 7.00 pm, a
suckling pig is slaughtered and singing and dancing cease after
midnight when the ceremony for the ghosts ends.
	On the 17th and 18th, the Mo-ba  chants for the ghosts and
offers sacrifice to the house-spirit.
	On the 19th, the gaps along the ridge-pole of the house are
covered in thatch and images of wild animals and humans are sketched
on the walls. Small wooden carvings of human figures and forked wood
are attached to each end of the ridge-pole.
	On the 20th, there is chanting for the ghosts, singing and
dancing.
	The whole process of house-building requires eleven days. Each
household of Da-ma-san has provided a bucket of rice, a sai-yin [a
local measure equal to ten litres]  of grain, and half a sai-yin [5
litres] of red millet. Wo-niu Zhai sent 2 dou [20 litres] of grain and
1.5 dou [15 litres] of rice for brewing spirits and Xiao-xin Zhai sent
half a dou [5 litres] of grain and half a dou [5 litres] of rice for
brewing spirits.
	The entire village can only build one long-house each year; to
construct more is considered unlucky. In 1957, Da-ma-san comprised 28
households living in small houses, including the abattoir. The small
house of the Ai-kun family is typical and will serve as an example: On
the eve of house-building, the children of the house call out through
the village: 'Carry grass or bamboo for our family because tomorrow we
will build a house. Please come to eat and drink.' That evening rice
is ground in front of the house and the old grass is pulled down from
the roof late that night. On the morning when the new house is to be
built, the family take the bag for the human head to the small room
housing the wooden village drum and beat the drum for several minutes.
Over thirty people come to help when the house frame is erected. Only
the original bamboo wall beside the main cooking stove is left
standing a while longer. Three oxen and a pig are slaughtered. At this
point, the relatives of the host offer weak wine, rice and pickled
meat. All those present can obtain a large piece of meat.
	That evening several Mo-ba worship the house ghost. They place
three cooked mice, some fresh ginger, salt and small portions of the
tips of pig ears, pork belly skin, the pig-tail, stomach and
intestines on a banana leaf. The Mo-ba  surround this and chant to
worship the ghost. Then the old women of the village divide the food
for everyone to eat. A suckling pig is slaughtered inside the house to
worship the ghost and a divination is made. The Mo-ba  then goes to
the wooden-drum room to exorcise the ghost and invite the human head
bag into the new house. That day the foundations of the new house are
built. Next morning, the Mo-ba  sacrifice a chicken to worship the
ghosts. Ai-kun divides the beef among the relatives, friends and
helpers. On the third day, the host undertakes some small matters. On
the fourth, everything inside and outside the house is arranged and in
the evening four Mo-ba  are invited, and ten mice are cooked for the
house ghost. Those who helped construct the house also come to eat and
drink. The cost of constructing Ai-kun's house was three water
buffalo, two pigs, four chickens, sixteen mice, and 16 dou [160
litres] of grain and red millet used in making alcohol. The eleven
Mo-ba  received 10 jin [5 kg] of salt and 11 bundles of thread.

Decoration of the Long-house:
	After entering the ghost-door one sees several small bamboo
tubes stuck in the left-hand wall of the first room. These are
provided for the heavenly spirit, the earth spirit and the ancestors.
Further on are hanging hides and bones from the hunt. If an ox has
just been killed, its skull is also displayed there. In the corner
beside the ox-skull there are usually one or two torn hessian
back-sacks containing baskets woven from bamboo with an egg inside.
This is the ghost of the human head.  If the household were once head
hunters, then the knife used for decapitation is also stored there.
	In addition to the Wo-lang-liu, the chiefs and Zhu-mi54 can
also construct long-houses, but all must first offer respect to the
spirits, drag over the wooden-drum and hold ceremonies every second
year for the old sow ghost, the boar ghost and the cutting of the
ox-tail...only then can the long-house be constructed. On the walls of
the long-house are drawn some images of humans and beasts. Most houses
are repaired in the first ten days of the twelfth month.

Wa-zu She-hui Li-shi Diao-cha [Investigations of Wa Society and
History] pp. 146-8.


BREWING AND BETEL-NUT PREPARATION
BY THE WA MINORITY OF DA-MA-SAN ZHAI,
XI-MENG COUNTY

By Li Yang-song (March, 1957)

Distilling spirits:

	The Wa of Da-ma-san55 consider that 'without wine there is no
ceremony' and if guests or relatives meet without toasting this shows
a 'bad-heart'. Drunkenness among rich and poor is common following the
autumn harvest and during winter. Alcohol is consumed while squatting
on the ground. The host passes the wine to his guests with his right
hand and guests receive the wine with their right hands. Then they
pour a little onto the ground or dip a finger into the wine and
sprinkle some as an offering to the ancestors. Only then do they
drink.

	The Da-ma-san Wa say they learnt the art of distilling spirits
from the Han five or six hundred years ago. The spirits are distilled
in the following manner: A bamboo pole is placed near the brewing-wok
(see Fig. 1) and a banana leaf is stuck on top; this is known as
'exorcising the ghost'. Then the fermented grain is emptied into a
wooden pail which has been positioned in the wok. The pail is made by
hollowing out a section of tree-trunk. There is a hole high in the
side of the pail through which the handle of a wooden ladle protrudes.
This handle is joined to a bamboo tube. A fire is lit beneath the iron
wok and the steam which rises from the grain condenses on the
under-side of a copper basin containing cold water which is placed
over the top of the pail. This condensed alcohol collects in the
wooden ladle and is drawn  off through the bamboo tube into a jug. One
dou  [10 litres] of grain will produce 11-12 jin [5-6 kg] of spirits.

Preparing betel nuts:

	The Wa pick the teak tree [ma-li  ] leaves in the mountains
and boil them in a pot of water for 2-3 hours to decoct the sap. In
the process, the water turns purplish. The leaves are scooped out and
the remaining liquid is boiled for another hour until reduced and
thickened. Quick-lime is added slowly while the liquid is stirred
constantly and a sticky solution forms. This becomes firm when removed
from the pot and is areca.56 Another method involves removing the
boiled leaves and pulping them in a mortar and shaping the substance
into cakes which are dried. The dried pieces are dipped in quick-lime
and chewed. Tobacco, quick-lime or reeds are often added when the
betel nut is eaten. Lime is collected from river valleys in the
mountains and brought back for boiling and baking in the family stove
or black-smith's forge; there is no special utensil for preparing the
quick-lime. Baking is used primarily as a method of making quick-lime.

 











Fig. 1: A Wa Still

Betel-nut chewing is a common practice in Ma-san and the resulting
red-stained lips and blackened teeth are considered beautiful. Young
women may give their male companions a betel-nut as an expression of
interest. In Weng-ga-ke the custom of chewing betel-nut is
comparatively rare.

Wa-zu She-hui Li-shi Diao-cha [Investigations of Wa Society and
History] Vol. 2 pp. 99, 148-9.

* * *

news and correspondence

Geoff Wade, Hong Kong, has provided us with details of the following
publications in Chinese.

ZHUANG-DONG PROVERBS

Zhuang-Dong Yu-zu Yan-yu (Proverbs of the Zhuang-Dong Language Group)
Published by the Central Nationalities Institute Press. Dec
1987:138pp.

	This work collects together 1,600 sayings and proverbs from
peoples who speak those languages which come under the language phylum
referred to in the PRC as 'Zhuang-Dong' languages - the Zhuang, the
Bu-yi, the Lin-gao, the Xi-shuang-ban-na Dai, the De-hong Dai, the
Dong, the Mu-lao, the Shui, the Mao-nan, the Li and the La-jia Yao.
	A section is devoted to each language and at the beginning of
each section a list of initials, finals and tones of the language is
provided.  This is followed by the sayings/proverbs which have been
collected, listed under topical categories such as 'Society', 'Life',
'Study', 'Frugality', 'Marriage' and so on.  The entries comprise: 1.
a romanized rendering of the saying/proverb;  2.  a literal Chinese
rendering of each of the original morphemes;  3.  a formal translation
of the saying/proverb in Chinese.
	The book concludes with an afterword, giving details of the
persons responsible for the collection and translation of the
sayings/proverbs of each language.

*
ANCIENT CHINESE BRONZE DRUMS

Zhong-guo Gu-dai Tong-gu (Ancient Chinese Bronze Drums) Published by
'Cultural Relics' (Wen-wu) Publishing House. Oct 1988: 332pp. & 124
plates.

	The Chinese Association for the Study of Ancient Bronze Drums
was founded, and the first conference held in April 1980.  In 1982 it
published a collection of papers from this conference.  The second
conference was held in December 1983 and the collected papers from
that conference were published in 1986.  Now, all the information from
those papers together with new information has been collated, revised
and published in this new volume.  The nine chapters commence with an
overview of research into bronze drums and proceed to detail the
origins, types and evolution of the drums, the ethnic groups with
which they were associated, their decorations, the technologies with
which they were produced and their significance to historical
research.  All chapters are well-illustrated and statistical tables
include metallurgical analyses for 100 drums and a casting technology
analysis of a similar number of drums.
	The appendices provide much information not previously
published.  Appendix 1 lists discoveries of 236 bronze drums as
recorded in Chinese historical texts.  Appendix 2 lists approximately
250 drums which have been unearthed/discovered over the last 30 years
in the PRC.  For each drum, typanum diameter, drum height and base
diameter are given.  Appendix 3 provides a listing of bronze drums
held in China.  The number of drums detailed in this Appendix is well
over 1,000 and, for each drum, the following information is provided:
i.  a drum number, in many different series, assigned apparently at
time of excavation or acquisition;  ii.  the unit where the drum is
held;  iii.  the manner in which the drum was obtained;  iv.  the same
type of measurements as provided in Appendix 2.  Finally, four colour
plates and 120 b/w plates are appended, illustrating over 250 bronze
drums and several cowrie containers.  The quality of the photographs
is excellent.
	It is notable that in this work the Heger classification
system is rejected and an eight-type classification, with names taken
from Chinese excavation sites, is adopted.  The types are detailed on
pp.29-105 and noted briefly in an English summary on pp.330-332.
	It is, of course, up to readers to assess the validity of the
term 'Chinese Bronze Drums' when used to refer to drums produced by
essentially non-Chinese cultures, and to evaluate the claim made by
Shi Zhong-jian, the president of the Association, in his foreword,
that 'bronze drums are magnificent creations of the ancient cultural
treasure-house of the Chinese nation'.  However, for anyone interested
in such bronze drums, this is an indispensable work of reference.

* * *

The Lanna-Thai Dictionary Project

	It is a great pleasure to read regularly the Newsletter of the
Lanna-Thai Dictionary Project of which Tawi Swangpanyangkun is the
editor. It has been issued monthly since January and the August issue,
Number 8 is the latest at time of writing. The Newsletter reports on
the progress of the work of the Lanna-Thai Dictionary itself, which is
being produced under the direction of Dr. Udom Roongruangsri with
Acharn Kraisri Nimmanheminda as President, Acharn Nakhorn Phongnoi as
Vice President and the collaboration of forty-six other members of the
Advisory Committee.  The Project has received financial help for the
compilation and publication of the Dictionary from the Mae Fa Luang
(Queen Mother's) Foundation and the Bangkok Bank of Commerce. The
first draft of the Dictionary is complete and comprised between 12 and
18 thousand Lanna words in one thousand three hundred and fourteen
pages. In August the correction of the first draft  had proceeded to
the letter thor thung. It is anticipated that there will be a meeting
to discuss the final corrections in November this year. Acharn Kraisri
Nimmanheminda, an expert on Lanna studies, and President of the
Advisory Committee, has emphasized the great value this Dictionary
will have for the study of the Lanna language.

At the same time there are two other projects concerned with the
publication of Lanna dictionaries.
1. Acharn Pinnarit Chanthima (who is of Tai LŸ ancestry) of the
Education Advisory Unit of the Department of Elementary Education,
Ministry of Education is currently compiling a Dictionary of Tai
LŸ-Lanna-Thai-English.
2. Acharn Aroonrut Wichienkeeo of the Teachers College, Chiangmai has
been designated Head of a project for a Dictionary of Northern Local
Dialects by the Office of the Committee for National Culture. This
Dictionary will bring together northern words found in ancient
documents with pronunciations in internationally recognized phonetic
script.57

In addition, there is news that Associate Professor Dr. Prani
Kullavanichya of Chulalongkorn University has already published a
Dictionary of Chuang-Thai.

Associated with the publication of the Lanna Dictionary there have
been advances in the technology of compilation and printing. It is
reported that Acharn Khachornsak Khanthaphanit of the Chiangmai
Faculty has devised a font and program for the use of Lanna script
with IBM compatible microcomputers in which it is possible to use the
Lanna characters on a standard Thai typewriter keyboard.  This
research team intends extending this program to include other scripts,
such as Tai Khoen, Tai LŸ, Tai Jai (Shan) and Burmese. It is hoped
that this project will be ready for announcement and demonstration at
the International Conference on Thai Studies to be held in Kunming in
May 1990.

* * *
Staff news

Dr. Scott Bamber has taken up an appointment with the Department of
Anthropology. He will be engaged in a study of medical practice in
Xishuangbanna.

Professor Serge Genest of Laval University, QuŽbec, will spend his
sabbatical year as visiting fellow in the Department of Anthropology.
He will commence medical anthropological research in north Thailand
towards the end of 1989.

*

the economic history of southeast asia

	The Research School of Pacific Studies has initiated a major
project in the 'Modern Economic History of Southeast Asia to run for
at least five years from 1989. To quote from the first issue of their
newsletter,
It is premised on the conviction that the contemporary economic
performance of Southeast Asia cannot be understood except in relation
to its past. The study of Southeast Asia's economic history has been
impeded by the diversity of its sources and data series, many of them
in languages no longer accessible to economic researchers. The Project
will endeavour to integrate the economic history of the region between
countries and across the gap created by Worl War II and political
independence.

	The convenors of the project are Professor Anthony Reid and
Dr. Anne Booth.

	In mid-August the project conducted a very succesful workshop
at which prospective authors gave accounts of their projected volumes.
Some of the papers presented to the workshop were:
'Sources of growth, central questions, from a larger perspective' Eric
Jones (La Trobe),

'Problems of coherence in Southeast Asia' Malcolm Falkus (New
England).

'Trade and society before 1800' Anthony Reid

'Government and public administration: colonial and post-colonial
styles' Jamie Mackie

The final session was devoted to 'country studies'.

Jennifer Cushman (see over) was one of the principal organizers of the
project at the time of her death.
	


Dr. Jennifer Cushman
1945-1989

Jennifer completed her PhD at Cornell in 1975 with a thesis entitled
Fields from the sea: Chinese junk trade with Siam during the Late 18th
and Early 19th Centuries. This was translated into Thai by Charnvit
Kasetsri and published in 1985.  She is also the author of a number of
studies on Chinese commercial activity in the region. She came to the
ANU in 1975 and is held in great esteem for her teaching, research and
general activity in the University community.

In 1985 she organized a conference on the 'Changing identities of the
Southeast Asian Chinese since World War II' with Professor Wang Gung
Wu which resulted in a publication by Hong Kong University Press last
year. This has been commended as the most important book on the
subject since the 1950s.

Her major work at the ANU was on the Khaw family of Southern Thailand.
This is soon to be published as Family and State: The Formation of a
Sino-Thai Tin-Mining Dynasty, 1810-1932.

Jennifer died suddenly on 12 July, and on a cold, frosty morning, in a
church in Queanbeyan overflowing with colleagues and friends, we said
farewell.

***

Bibliography and Data Base (B&DB)

In the last issue we referred to Geoff Wade's criticisms of the draft
bibliography. I hope we have now met some of these, though the
improvements are mainly to the computerised B&DB. We had hoped at the
outset to include a facility which would allow a Hypercard sub-stack
to be built from the main one using any keyword. Matthew Ciolek (of
the Coombs Computing Unit), who designed the original stack, has now
added a 'button' as required.

The first input to the data base, as distinct from the bibliography,
is the card index of ethnographic notes and references on Thailand
built by the late Richard Davis.  This is now in the custody of the
Department of Anthropology. When of sufficient size we hope to make
the bibliography and data base available on disk at moderate cost.

Anyone who wishes to see a sample of the B&DB could send us 3.5" disk
formatted for Macintosh Plus or SE and we would be glad to oblige.
Hypercard software is necessary and the use of the stack is quite
straightforward.

***
Distribution of the NEWSLETTER

It is with some reluctance that the Editor brings this message to the
notice of readers.

Our distribution list is now nearly as large as our print run, and new
requests keep coming in steadily.  We must, therefore, prune our list.
We will try to keep on the list those with even a minor interest in
the project and the contents of the newsletter. New numbers will
continue to be free of charge. To enable us to do this please complete
the form below (or write us a brief note) and mail as soon as possible
to
The Editor
Thai-Yunnan Project newsletter
Department of Anthropology, RSPacS
Australian National University
Box 4, GPO
Canberra ACT 2601
Australia

Institutions, including departments and libraries, will not be taken
off the list, but we will appreciate hearing from you.

Back numbers are nearly exhausted and we will now make a charge,
payable in advance, of $10 for each back number requested. These will
now be photocopies. Please feel free to photocopy and distribute your
own copies of back numbers to those who may be interested.


To the editor, Thai-Yunnan Project newsletter:

I wish to be retained on the mailing list.

Name.............................................................

Address..........................................................

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1This is the third extract from a dissertation submitted for a
Master's degree to the University of Melbourne in 1951.
2See below, p.186.
3Jacoby, op.cit., p.134.
4V.Y. Vasilieva, Indo-Kitai, Moscow/Leningrad, 1947, pp.127-137.
5V.Y. Vasilieva, Indo-Kitai, Moscow/Leningrad, 1947, p.148.  Compare
the balanced judgement in Jacaby, op.cit., pp.156-7.
6The sources most extensively quoted by Soviet writers are P. Gourou,
Les Paysans des deltas tonkinoises, Paris, 1936, and I. Henry,
Economie Agricole de l'Indochine, Hanoi, 1932.
7Vasilieva, op.cit., pp.90-121.
8Vasilieva, op.cit., pp.193-292.
9See Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, p.188.
10See Adloff and Thompson, The Left Wing in Southeast Asia, pp.22-29.
11Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, p.187.
12Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, p.189.
13Ibid.
14See Adloff and Thompson, op.cit., p.40.
15See For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy, No. 20, 19 May
1950.
16New Times no. 9, 1950.
17See Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, pp.190-194.  Also New Times nos.
16, 1949, and 34, 1950.
18Pravda, 15 July 1951.
19Pravda, 15 July 1951.
20s.A. Pogorelov, 'Demokratickeskaya Respublika Vietnam', Geografia v
shkol'e, Moscow, no. 2, 1951, p.48.
21Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, p.183.
22Pogorelov, loc.cit.
23Krizis Kolonial'noi sistemy, p.185.
24Pogorelov, op.cit., p.49.
25New Gimes, no. 16, 1949.
26Krizis kolonial'noi sistemy, p.184.
27New Times, no.34, 1950.
28See Milton Sacks, 'The Strategy of Communism in Southeast Asia',
Pacific Affairs, no. 3, 1950.
29Viet-Nam Information, 26 January 1951.
30Viet-Nam Information, 26 January 1951.
31Viet-Nam Information, 28 April 1951.
32See, for example, Viet-Nam Information, 29 November 1951.
33Pravda Izvestia, 25 April 1951.
34For a Lasting Peace, 27 January 1950.
35See Milton Sacks, loc.cit.
36For a Lasting Peace, 11 August 1950.
37Viet-Nam Information, 22 March, 1951.
38See For a Lasting Peace, 30 March 1951.
39Vo Nguyen Giap, 'The Vietnam PLA in the fight fo National
Independence, Democracy and Peace', Viet-NamInformation, 29 November
1951.
40Pravda Izvestia, 24 March 1951.
41Vo Nguyen Giap, loc.cit.
42 Produced under the Chief-editorship of Hu Qiao-mu and published in
1986 by  Zhong-guo Da Bai-ke-quan-shu Chu-ban She (Chinese
Encyclopaedia Publishing Company), Beijing.
43 Morgan Ancient Society 1957:4
44 Engels Communist Manifesto  1888 English edition; Collected Works
of Marx and Engels Vol. 1 p. 251
45Pu-tong Min-zu-xue Gai-lun (An Outline of General Anthropology),
Ke-xue Chu-ban-she (Science Publishing House) pp. 117-9
46Engels, The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State ,
Peoples' Publishing House p. 86. [This last sentence is not at all
clear. The author perhaps wishes to convey that the 'moiety' remains
at the highest level of segmentation, despite the emergence of clans.
Part of the difficulty arises from the inability on the author's part
to distinguish between the purely structural implications of unilineal
descent and the speculative formulations  of theories of social
evolution. Ed.]
47ibid. p. 87
48ibid p. 55
49Yunnan Min-zu Diao-cha-zu  (Yunnan Ethnographic Survey Unit), 1958:
La-gu Zu Diao-cha Bao-gao (Survey Investigation of the La-gu Minority)
printed draft.
50Yunnan Min-zu Diao-cha-zu (Yunnan Ethnographic Survey Unit), 1958:
Du-long Zu Diao-cha Bao-gao (Survey Investigation of the Du-long
Minority) printed draft
51H.H Tebokshalov? and Tebokshalova 1858, On Ethno-historical
Classification of Housing Types and Collected Works on Ethnographic
Problems No. 8 p. 35
52 Nam-mi  is probably more correct. Ed.
53No further details on these two individuals are given.
54Rich households. These are not political leaders but have economic
means which allow them to sacrifice oxen frequently and lend money in
lean times; thereby gaining prestige in the eyes of villagers (p. 60).
55See map on page 22
56There is some confusion in this account because betel nuts from the
areca palm were not an ingredient in the recipe. Perhaps the Wa refer
to the pieces of congealed leaf-solution as betel nuts - trans.
57A preliminary version, entitled Ist Year Report, is in limited
circulation.

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