MCINTOSH - the 6th ASEAN Traditional Textiles Symposium .docx (original) (raw)
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Costume, 2013
The Mainland South-east Asian country of Laos is renowned for its traditional costume composed of intricate hand-woven textiles. The woven material that is the focus of exhibits and publications are primarily produced by the politically dominant Lao and related groups, which together make up a small percentage of the sixty-eight ethnic groups recognized in Laos. The traditional textiles and dress of the people making up the minority groups, especially groups living in the southern region, are often overlooked. Information about the clothing and textiles of the Katang and Mankhong, two minority groups living in upland areas in southern Laos, has been limited. Field research conducted by the author revealed that Katang and Mankhong women, as the primary producers of cloth, have mastered weaving and other adorning techniques to decorate cloth with patterning. The weavers have utilized embroidery, supplementary weft, weft ikat, and supplementary warp techniques to develop distinctive textiles used as costume and ceremonial items. Over the last ten years, regional trade has developed rapidly in the area inhabited by the Katang and Mankhong due to Asian Development Bank sponsorship of such projects as the East-West Economic Corridor in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The distinctive heritage of these minority groups is at risk, but projects encouraging the production of their traditional attire may assist the Katang, Mankhong, and related groups in preserving their culture.
The connectivity of ethnic displays: new codes for identity in northern Laos
Asian Ethnicity, 2017
In Laos, cultural festivals and other forms of ethnic display communicate locality and ethnicity to external agencies, in particular the nation state. This article documents strategies of identity-making in a small festival that was staged spontaneously in a Rmeet (Lamet) village. The chosen representations were conventional: dance, music, clothing. The Rmeet thereby employed a festival code used by numerous minorities worldwide. But these recently invented traditions are continuous with earlier representations that addressed various categories of strangers, including historic states and nonstate groups. What has changed is the connectivity of the representations. Dance or costume used to represent external relationships in the past, but have been recoded for present use. Moreover, Rmeet have appropriated a New Year’s festival invented by the neighboring Khmu. Thus, ethnic displays appear as the most recent way of communicatingdifference in a code that connects them with the state, neighboring ethnicities, and a global language of locality.
The Ongoing Invention of a Multi-Ethnic Heritage in Laos
Journal of Lao Studies, 2, pp. 34-53., 2015
The multi-ethnic nature of Laos has long been part of its official discourse. However, when referring to a national culture, it seemed until recently that Lao historical heritage was considered its only foundation. Local folklore, mostly song and dance, was showcased, but many aspects of ethnic minority social organization and belief were regarded as backward and superstitious. By contrast, Lao PDR currently pays special attention to "the fine cultures and traditions of all ethnic groups," with the clear objective of satisfying the desire for authenticity sought by tourists. About five hundred villages across the country have been awarded the status of "cultural villages," and several provincial museums devoted to local culture have been recently created. The article is concerned with this official exhibition of ethnic diversity, which is paradoxically taking place against a background of accelerated standardization of social and cultural diversity due to administrative pressures and resettlement processes. It discusses how the so-called ethnic cultures tend to be a negotiated mix of the villagers' self-presentation (with some ethnic groups better prepared for this than others), provincial cultural inventions and borrowed Lao norms which were strongly encouraged by state officials. 6
Journal of Positive School Psychology, 2022
"Tai" refers to people who speak Tai language, and share similarity on culture and beliefs, Tais settle down in Southern China, Southeast Asia, and Northeast India. In this paper tries to study the textile of Tai Lue and Tai Aiton. Tai Textile reflects the ethnic identity among both of Tai groups through its motif and its color. This study uses participant observation and group interview for collecting the data. The study shows that both Tai groups use their dresses as the ethnic identity. Gender role plays an important role in textile activities, while the women have to know the process of weaving and men have to help in making weaving instrument. Both Tai groups still maintain the norm that women have to know how to weave that defines as a good woman. Thus, Textile is not only the tool of showing ethnic identity, but it reflects the socialization and the division of labor in the community.
Ethnic Belonging in Laos: A Politico-Historical Perspective
The 6 million people forming the Laotian population are officially divided into 49 ethnic groups. How can we explain this huge diversity of people ? How do they live together ? How does the State manage this diversity ? Based on the existing literature and on personal field research, I am presenting in this paper a general and synthetic perspective of the ethnic question in Laos. In doing so, I defend the idea that ethnicity should be conceived not as a given, but as a product resulting from a particular process that I will clarify here. This analysis will allow me to propose a socio-political perspective on ethnic and cultural issues.
Nation/Representation: Ethnic Classification and Mapping Nationhood in Contemporary Laos
In this article, I analyse ethnic classi cations in contemporary Laos, starting with a brief review of previous policies. I rst look at the ideologies that have in uenced the Lao ethnic classi cation, namely those of the former Soviet Union, China and Vietnam. Through an analysis of the construction of the latest of cial census (August 2000), I suggest a close relationship between ethnic categorisation and the government's nationalist discourse, still strongly in uenced by guidelines on the concept of the nation disseminated by Kaysone Phomvihane—the rst President of the Lao PDR, now deceased but celebrated at present in Laos as the inspirational gure of the regime. My intention is thus to demonstrate how one technology of power in particular—the Lao population census based on ethnic criteria—attempts to map the nation's 'invisible' ethnicity through a dual process, namely the objecti cation of the Other ethnic groups' arbitrarily de ned cultural features on the one hand, and the erasure of the dominant ethnic group's ethnicity (the ethnicity of the ethnic Lao) on the other. But this technology of power is limited, as the names and the lists of ethnic groups have remained subject to alteration every few years. Twenty years after Kaysone Phomvihane urged for a change in ethnic terminology and classi cation, the regime has yet to legitimise de nitively the total number of ethnic groups in the Lao PDR.
The Thai Lao -Thailand's Largest Unrecognized Transboundary National Ethnicity
Nations and Nationalism, 2019
In 1900, the Lao ethnonym, and thus the Lao, 'officially' disappeared from Siam. However, Lao culture and identity persisted at local, regional, and national levels. As Keyes (1967) discovered, "a Northeast Thailand-based ethno-regionalism", emerged post-World War II. This regionalism, which we re-term 'Thai Lao' and specify to the majority ethnic community, exists in a contested relationship with both 'Thai' and 'Lao' identity. The survival of the Lao ethnic community's cultural identity occurred despite the best efforts of the Royal Thai Government (RTG) to eradicate aspects of Lao culture. These aspects included Lao language, religion, and history, using the school system, the Lao Buddhist Sangha (order of monks), and the bureaucracy. Beginning in the 1990s, buoyed by a multitude of factors, the Lao ethnic community reappeared as the 'Thai Lao' or 'Lao Isan'. This reappearance was noted in the RTG's Thailand 2011 Country Report (RTG 2011) to the UN Committee responsible for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. For nearly four decades now, Laoism has recurred in Thai academia, the media, the public sphere, popular traditions, and even Lao apocalyptic millenarianism. Following Smith (1986, 1991, 1999) this paper utilizes a historical ethno-symbolist approach to this recurrence.