Lisu occult roles

Abstract

The Lisu are a Tibeto-Burman people who dwell in the uplands of Thailand Burma, and Southern China (Dessaint 1971a). They are swidden agriculturalists who produce rice for subsistence and opium for a cash crop (Dessaint 1972). Their villages are scattered among those of other ethnic groups and each Lisu village is independent of all others (Dessaint 1971b). In the view of these people the world is populated not only by visible human beings but also by invisible spirits. Since Lisu cosmology posits a set of occult beings, there are also various ways of relating to them. In this paper I shall explore the ways Lisu define these relationships with their spirits. All Lisu relate to spirits in one way or another ? spirits cause people to be sick or suffer other misfortunes, they protect people, demand offerings from people, and accept offerings from them. Some individuals interact with the spirits in more well defined ways, ways that are set apart from the general interaction with spirits, and labeled by the people. That these ways of interacting with spirits are labeled is not significant, but that they are set apart from other ways of interacting with spirits is. This indicates that there is a set of categories with criteria for membership.