Reconfigurations of the Past in an Ambiguous Present. Memory discourses, social change, and inter-ethnic relations in Houaphan, Lao PDR

Methodology and research questions

The longue durée of processes of inter-ethnic relationships in the Lao highlands will be explored by linking the research of oral history and local myths with textual research in French colonial archives and Lao libraries. One major challenge will be the study of local history beyond the focus on empires and states (cf. Scott forthc.). Field research will be conducted in a multi-ethnic village community in Houaphan province. The Tai Deng (Red Tai) are one of the dominant groups in the region and shall be considered as a linkage between lowland Lao social structures and the manifold highland socio-cultures. Since they settle on both sides of the Lao-Vietnamese border, it will be useful to do additional research in a Vietnamese Tai village (e.g. in Thanh Hoa province). Central research issues are the transformations of property and exchange relations within the multi-ethnic societies of the Lao-Vietnamese highlands. Moreover, the project considers the nexus of past, present and future in local collective memory, i.e. the constant and contingent interaction processes of present experiences, future expectations, and reconfigurations of the past. Local representations of the past and visions of the future have to be examined vis-à-vis official history politics and socio-political roadmaps that, for example, influence discourses on the ‘Lao multi-ethnic people’ among the different ethnic groups with their diverse experiences of contact with state and global forces.
The following questions arise here: how did the multi-faceted socio-cultural changes of the last century affect the systems of ideas and values among the ethnically heterogeneous population of the Lao highlands? Which transformations occurred within the complex social and economic exchange relations between the different ethnic groups under the impact of colonial and post-colonial state power? How far are socio-cultural changes internalised and now taken for granted? How far do the hardships and solidarity experienced during the years of the ‘anti-imperialist’ struggle constitute a core element of the people’s identity in the region and transcend ethnic boundaries? How do the highlanders make sense of their struggle with regard to the forces of globalised modernity now perceptible even in the remote provinces? By capturing the voices of different groups in the often ethnically heterogeneous villages of Houaphan, this project shall explore the dynamics of constantly re-envisaged and negotiated inter-ethnic constellations between the nation-state and a globalised world. The region is an ideal arena for this research since it represents a number of important tendencies and contradictions of late-socialist Laos (and Vietnam): strict political and ideological control by the ruling Party, emerging counter-discourses of memory, collaboration with Western development and tourism experts, and striving for socio-economic development. Adopting a perspective from the margins shall reveal the rupture lines of state-minorities-relations and the permanent re-negotiations of a multi-ethnic society within the different contexts of colonialism, socialism, and capitalist developmentalism.

References:

Abu Talib, Ahmad & Tan Liok Ee (eds. 2003): New Terrains in Southeast Asian History. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Boutin, André (1937): Monographie de la Province des Houa-Phan. Bulletin des Amis du Laos 1: 69-119.
Evans, Grant (2002): A Short History of Laos. Chiang Mai: Silkworm.
Hann, Chris (2003): The post-socialist agrarian question: property relations and the rural condition. Münster: Lit.
Leach, Edmund (2004 [1959]): Political Systems of Highland Burma. A Study of Kachin Social Structure. London: Berg.
Michaud, Jean (2009): Handling mountain minorities in China, Vietnam and Laos: from history to current concerns. Asian Ethnicity, 10, 1: 25-49.
Pelley, Patricia M. (2002): Postcolonial Vietnam. New Histories of the National Past. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pholsena, Vatthana (2006): Post-war Laos: The Politics of Culture, History, and Identity. Singapore: ISEAS.
Photisane, Souneth (1996): The Nidan Khun Borom: annotated translation and analysis. PhD dissertation, University of Queensland.
Sadan, Mandy & Robinne, Francois (eds. 2007): Social Dynamics in the Highlands of South East Asia: Reconsidering 'Political Systems of Highland Burma' by E. R. Leach. Leiden: Brill.
Scott, James G. (forthc.): The Art of Not Being Governed. An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. London: Yale University Press.
Tagliacozzo, Eric (2002): Amphora, Whisper, Text: Ways of Writing Southeast Asian History. Crossroads, 16,1: 128-158.
Tappe, Oliver (2008): Geschichte, Nationsbildung und Legitimationspolitik in Laos. Münster: Lit.
Wimmer, Andreas (2008): The Making and Unmaking of Ethnic Boundaries: A Multilevel Process Theory. American Journal of Sociology, 113, 4: 970-1022.