Un dimanche à Évry autour de l'« âme » de Tswv Pheej

Abstract

A Sunday in Evry around the "Soul" of Tswv Pheej. A Hmong Christening: the Transformations of a Simple Ritual in France by Jean-Pierre Hassoun The paper deals with hmong birth rituals observed in Évry (Essonne) in May 1991. These Hmongs arrived in France from Laos at the end of the seventies. The child name giving ritual is limited to a Sunday: a soul-call, early in the morning, then, around twelve o'clock, a ritual named "bind the hands", and until mid afternoon, a lunch for the males where politeness and mutuality rituals are stressed, alcohol being their central tool. Remarkable by their simple performance, however, these ritual operations have an internal logic, and by the setting of separations and frames contribute to integrate the new-born child, but also the whole group, in a symbolic order. They contribute also to promote norms and practices which reflect Hmong social ethos.