Mountainous Minority Research Articles

Study on the mechanism of livelihood behavior decision of rural residents in ethnic tourism villages in Western Sichuan

In recent years, tourism has flourished in ethnic areas of China as an important tool for rural revitalization and has become an important stimulus to promote the transformation of rural residents’ livelihood. However, rural residents in tourist villages in ethnic areas still face various livelihood risks, and academic literature has paid little attention to the mechanism’s substrate these household livelihood decision-making behaviors, and the differences in adaptive capacity and decision-making behaviors between mountainous minority villages and non-tourist villages are not sufficiently clear. Based on survey data of 284 rural residents in tourist and non-tourist villages in ethnic areas of western Sichuan, this study analyzed the adaptive capacity and differences of rural households using the comprehensive index method and Kruskal-Wallis test, and constructed a disordered multi-classification logistic regression model to explore the mechanism of rural residents’ livelihood behavior decisions. The results indicate that: (1) The adaptive capacity of rural residents in tourist villages in western Sichuan ethnic areas is slightly higher than that of non-tourist villages. (2) Tibetan households have the strongest adaptive capacity, and there is a significant difference between the adaptive capacity of Tibetan households and the rest of the minority households except Han Chinese. (3) The households with tourism-oriented livelihood strategy have the highest adaptive capacity, followed by households with tourism expansion livelihood strategy, while households with other types of livelihood strategies had the lowest livelihood adaptive capacity.(4) Compared to other types of livelihood strategies, when the policies are favorable and the ethnic culture is more primitive, rural residents are more inclined to choose tourism-oriented livelihood strategies, followed by tourism expansion livelihood strategies. When rural residents have higher adaptive capacity and more advantages in the market economy, they prefer tourism expansion strategies, followed by tourism-oriented strategies.

Statement and Self-Management Analysis in Mountain Minorities Southeast Chinese Elderly with Chronic Pain

Chronic pain (CP) is a very common problem in elders, due to bodily degenerations, worldwide. Studies carried out in various countries have shown that CP is associated with the elders’ quality of life, significantly limiting their activities and hampering them to maintain an independence lifestyle. What’s worse, elderly suffering from CP mostly also experience mental problems. Yet, there have been only a few such research done and reported on this topic, concerning the elderly ethnic montagnards in the rural southwest Guangxi of China. This study aimed to explore the statement and self-management of rural dwelling elders with CP. First, cross-sectional surveys were conducted and then interviews were carried out. 150 elder people experiencing CP -- pain suffered at least 4 to 5 days a week during the past 3 months, according to the criteria of the international Association for the study of Pain (IASP) -- were enrolled in this study by convenience sampling. They were asked to fill in 3 questionnaires; the first related to participants’ mental status, the second related to participants’ perception of pain intensity, and the third related to pain’s impact on participants’ daily life. Following the completion of questionnaires, individual interviews were conducted, with the help of some students who are fluent in local native languages as well as in Chinese. The results show that CP significantly affected participants’ quality of life. The prevalence of suffering from multifocal CP was 90%. In the management of CP, 64% people mainly relied on paregoric means; a wide range self-management techniques were mentioned such as hot compress application for which some plant material was used, collected from the surrounding environment; only a few people went to seek professional treatment. Moreover, most of them said that they had reconciled to the pain or consider it as part of their fate. Encourage older people to seek different ways to manage their pain, not just traditional but complementary and professional approaches. In such severely lacking professional high-level medical resource environment, the elder people should change their cognition of CP and choose pertinence approaches and instruments based on their own condition.

Research on Traditional Stone Buildings in West Hunan Rural Areas

Stone buildings have long history in west Hunan, stone is one of the most important building material that has been widely used in traditional building, village and town constructions especially in rural mountainous minority areas where rock resource is abundant. Stone is natural and compatible with the environment. Buildings built with local natural stone material in west Hunan minority areas are worth studying considering sustainable development and culture protection. Stone slab masonry in the south with grey limestone slabs and rubble masonry in the north with brown rubbles are two different types. Stone dominates the exterior, while the interior and main structures are built of wood like most of the traditional Chinese buildings. Traditional building techniques are passed on in the stone buildings while they also form the unique culture image of west Hunan rural areas.

Research on Traditional Stone Buildings in West Hunan Rural Areas

Stone buildings have long history in west Hunan, stone is one of the most important building material that has been widely used in traditional building, village and town constructions especially in rural mountainous minority areas where rock resource is abundant. Stone is natural and compatible with the environment. Buildings built with local natural stone material in west Hunan minority areas are worth studying considering sustainable development and culture protection. Stone slab masonry in the south with grey limestone slabs and rubble masonry in the north with brown rubbles are two different types. Stone dominates the exterior, while the interior and main structures are built of wood like most of the traditional Chinese buildings. Traditional building techniques are passed on in the stone buildings while they also form the unique culture image of west Hunan rural areas.

Handling mountain minorities in China, Vietnam and Laos: from history to current concerns

This paper is an overview of issues pertaining to highland minorities in the three socialist countries sharing portions of the Southeast Asian Massif, namely China, Vietnam and Laos. It presents the historical complexity of highland minority policy in these countries. The paper thus depicts prevalent state strategies that aimed, and largely still aim, to handle highland minorities in the most effective and economical way, to ensure that the nation will progress steadily forward. The six current issues of borders and transnationality, taxonomy, indigenous peoples' status, customary land tenure, tourism and environmental issues are then explored critically.

Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the Southeast Asian Massif:Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the Southeast Asian Massif.

Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the Southeast Asian Massif. Jean Michaud. ed. Richmond, UK: Curazon Press, 2000. 255 pp.

Book Review: Transforming the Indonesian uplands, Turbulent times and enduring peoples: mountain minorities in the South-East Asian massif

Book Review: Transforming the Indonesian uplands, Turbulent times and enduring peoples: mountain minorities in the South-East Asian massif

Jean Michaud, s. dir., Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples. Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian Massif

Jean Michaud, s. dir., Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples. Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian Massif

BOOK REVIEW

Anthropology and historyAlter, Joseph S. Gandhi’s body: sex, diet, and the politics of nationalismBoone, Elizabeth Hill and Tom Cummins (eds). Native traditions in the post‐conquest worldGeary, Christraud M. and Virginia‐Lee Webb (eds). Delivering views: distant cultures in early postcardsJulien, Catherine. Reading Inca history.Mignolo, Walter D. Local histories/global designs: coloniality, subaltern knowledges, and border thinking.Ridington, Robin and Dennis Hastings. Blessing for a long time: the sacred pole of the Omaha tribe.Rodman, Margaret Critchlow. Houses far from home: British colonial space in the New Hebrides.Roth, Michael S. and Charles G. Salas (eds). Disturbing remains: memory, history, and crisis in the twentieth century.Van der Veer, Peter. Imperial encounters: religion and modernity in India and Britain.Applied anthropologyBarume, Albert Kwokwo. Heading towards extinction? Indigenous rights in Africa: the case of the Twa of the Kahuzi‐Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo.Ellen, Roy, Peter Parkes and Alan Bicker (eds). Indigenous environmental knowledge and its transformations: critical anthropological perspectives.Goldman, Laurence R. (ed.). Social impact analysis: an applied anthropology manual.ArchaeologyBinford, Lewis R. Constructing frames of reference: an analytical method for archaeological theory building using ethnographic and environmental data sets.Ikram, Salima and Aidan Dodson. The mummy in ancient Egypt: equipping the dead for eternityPerry, Warren R. Landscape, transformations and the archaeology of impact: social disruption and state formation in southern AfricaBiological anthropologyCrawford, Michael H. The origins of Native Americans: evidence from anthropological geneticsMcMichael, Tony. Human frontiers, environments, and disease: past patterns, uncertain futuresGenderBourdieu, Pierre (transl. Richard Nice). Masculine domination.Cassell, Joan. The woman in the surgeon’s body.Feinberg, Richard. Oral traditions of Anuta: a Polynesian outlier in the Solomon Islands.Gilmore, David D. Misogyny: the male malady.Hirsch, Susan F. Pronouncing and persevering: gender and discourses of disputing in an African Islamic court.Sobo, Elisa J. and Sandra Bell (eds). Celibacy, culture, and society: the anthropology of sexual abstinence.GeneralAuyero, Javier. Poor people’s politics: Peronist survival networks and the legacy of Evita.Bender, Barbara and Margot Winer (eds). Contested landscapes: movement, exile and place.Blum, Susan D. Portraits of ‘primitives’: ordering human kinds in the Chinese nation.Chambers, Keith and Anne Chambers. Unity of heart: culture and change in a Polynesian atoll societyChaudenson, Robert with Salikoko S. Mufwene. Creolization of language and cultureHaviland, John B. and Roger Hart. Old Man Fog and the last Aborigines of Barrow PointMcVeigh, Brian J. Wearing ideology: state, schooling and self‐presentation in Japan.Michaud, Jean (ed.). Turbulent times and enduring peoples: mountain minorities in the South‐east Asian massifNelson, John K. Enduring identities: the guise of Shinto in contemporary JapanRosenberger, Nancy. Gambling with virtue: Japanese women and the search for self in a changing nationSusser, Ida and Thomas C. Patterson (eds). Cultural diversity in the United States: a critical readerYoust, Lionel. She’s tricky like Coyote: Annie Miner Peterson, an Oregon Coast Indian womanMethod and theoryAllen, N.J. Categories and classifications: Maussian reflections on the socialBowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star. Sorting things out: classification and its consequencesHerzfeld, Michael. Anthropology: theoretical practice in culture and societyKurin, Richard. Reflections of a culture broker: a view from the SmithsonianLincoln, Bruce. Theorizing myth: narrative, ideology, and scholarship.Nelson, Robert S. (ed.). Visuality before and beyond the Renaissance.Watson, C.W. Multiculturalism.Social anthropologyBates, Crispin (ed.). Community, empire and migration: South Asians in diaspora.Eves, Richard. The magical body: power, fame and meaning in a Melanesian society.Gudeman, Stephen. The anthropology of economy: community, market and culture.Harris, Mark. Life on the Amazon: the anthropology of a Brazilian peasant village.Harris, Olivia. To make the earth bear fruit: fertility, work, gender in Highland Bolivia.Helleiner, Jane. Irish Travellers: racism and the politics of culture.Ramirez, Philippe. De la disparition des chefs: une anthropologie politique népalaise.Vincent, Jeanne‐Françoise. Femmes Beti entre deux mondes: entretiens dans la forêt du Cameroun

Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian Massif

Scattered across the South-East Asian massif, a few dozen ethnic groups (numbering around 50 million) maintain highly original cultural identities and political and economic traditions, against pressure from national majorities. They face the same challenges. The means by which social change has been imposed by the lowlanders are similar from country to country, and the results are comparable. The originality of this book lies in the combination of multi-disciplinary mixing of social anthropology, history and human geography; multi-culturality grouping together several cultural contexts; trans-nationality straddling five countries and bridging the traditional divide between South China and Mainland South-East Asia; and history reaching back 300 years.

Southeast Asia. Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian Massif. Edited by JEAN MICHAUD. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. Pp. xiii, 255. Maps, Tables, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Southeast Asia. Turbulent Times and Enduring Peoples: Mountain Minorities in the South-East Asian Massif. Edited by JEAN MICHAUD. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000. Pp. xiii, 255. Maps, Tables, Notes, Bibliography, Index. - Volume 32 Issue 3

Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples

Preview of
 Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples
 by JD Ives
 Routledge, London and New York
 To be published in August 2004
 
 Himalayan Perspectives returns to the enormously popular development paradigm that Ives dubbed the ‘Theory of Himalayan Degradation’. According to this seductive construct, poverty and overpopulation in the Himalayas was leading to degradation of highland forests, erosion, and downstream flooding. In the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’, Ives and Messerli exposed this “Theory” as a dangerous collection of assumptions and misrepresentations. While most scholars in the field promptly conceded Ives and Messerli’s points, the Theory has somehow survived as the guiding myth of development planners and many government agencies. In his new book, Ives returns to drive a stake through the heart of this revenant. His book not only reviews the research that, over the past 15 years, has confirmed the arguments of the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’; it also takes a close look at all those destructive factors that were overlooked by the conveniently simplistic ‘Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation’: government mismanagement, oppression of mountain minorities, armed conflict, and inappropriate tourism development. 
 
 Himalayan Journal of Sciences 2(3): 17-19, 2004
 
 The full text is of this article is available at the Himalayan Journal of Sciences website