Cultural Accommodations in Southwest China: The "Han Miao" and Problems in the Ethnography of the Hmong

Abstract

The Hmong of southern China define themselves as an unmarked category in relation to two significant others: the Chinese and the Yi. Using data from fieldwork in Sichuan, the A. examines some problems of Hmong ethnography, inquiring why color terms were used for some groups of Hmong, as well as subdivisions of them. He attempts to consider the Hmong not only in terms of their relationships with the Han, but also with the Yi. However, the weight of historical evidence is against this; the Hmong were a very isolated group. Many Hmong subdivisions did arise through intermarriage with Chinese, but if culture is often transmitted maternally, how were Confucian values disseminated to minority populations through intermarriages with Chinese males? The official classification of Hmong (together with other groups) as Miao posits a fierce opposition between Han and Miao, yet the Hmong have stories of how Hmong and Han were originally two brothers worshipping at the same paternal grave, whose descendants lost touch with each other. This sort of genealogical model (variety out of unity) shows how idioms of patrilineality may overlap with diffusionist culturalist notions of assimilation to a greater Chinese identity. The genealogical model contrasts with a more existentialist and constructivist model that emphasizes the way identity may emerge from, or be imposed on, cultural differences. In fact both are mutually constitutive.