L48 Anthro 3283 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Vang Pao, Hmong Language, Cash Crop
Fadiman Ch. 10 (p. 119-139)
• Hmong are mountain people
o Have many different words to describe mountains, and their different shapes and
slopes
o Rarely visited the plains; called the “land of the leeches” because of the greater
incidence of tropical diseases there
• In the Hmong language there are hundreds of lyrical 2-word expressions that describe
various sounds
• Hmong were farmers; everyone did the same work; no one was more important than the
other – egalitarian society
o No one knew how to read, so no one felt deprived or inconvenienced by the lack
of literacy
o Just needed to know how to do the cultural and survival things
• Master opium growers; opium reserved for ceremonial trances of the txiv neeb, to dull
pain, fevers, bites, aches and discomforts of old age; grew it as a slash-and-burn crop
o Mostly the chronically ill and the old people were addicts
o If you were young (most were male), you would be shamed; stigmatized by
diminishing ability to work; had hard time finding a bride, and even their brothers
and cousins would too
o It was their only cash crop; only kept 10%, sold the rest; perfect for mountain
transport; did not accept paper currency, only silver bars and piasters
o Opium production equaled wealth
• Practice of swidden farming is intertwined with the migrant identity of the Hmong
o If village got overcrowded, or if the accumulation of garbage and feces started to
make people sick, then they would move
o Always moved in groups, rather than individuals, their clan structure, religion,
and cultural identity accompanied them wherever they went, making a sense of
“home” that inoculated them against perpetual homesickness
• Geneva Accords of 1954 – signed after the French lost a battle; recognized 3 independent
states: Laos, Cambodia, Thailand
• Wanted Laos to remain neutral, but it didn’t for long
• 1965 – the problem of Laos is the refusal of communist forces to honor the Geneva
Accords
• Hmong guerilla during WWII; referred to as “Meo”
o Savage, didn’t hesitate to kill
o Defended the Royal Lao government
• Hmong soldiers had lower standards than American soldiers; paid less, worse food
o Died at a rate 10x as high of American soldiers in Vietnam
• Vang Pao – colonel, – highest rank a Hmong had ever obtained; a “charismatic,
passionate, committed man without a country”; served as a godfather and surrogate to
any widows and orphans; modern reformer who encouraged education, criticized slash-
and-burn farming, urged Hmong to assimilate to Hmong society
• In the U.S. the conflict in Laos was called the “Quiet War” as opposed to the noisy one in
Vietnam
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