Introduction

In the village chapter we have seen how the Akha separate and valuate uplanders (themselves) and lowlanders (others). Through spatial and other forms of totalization, the Akha village becomes a microcosmic totality that accesses cosmic forces of the universe. Being hierarchical in nature, this totality can be viewed as a political technology, supplying ranked positions both within Akha society and between the Akha and outsiders. In a sense the autonomy and superiority of the Akha way of life over that of outsiders rests on an insider collaboration: those within must follow the hierarchical patterns laid down by the ancestors.

As we have seen in the household chapter, these spatial patterns also exist at the level of the household, which itself can become a totality that can access cosmic power on its own. Here the insider/outsider distinction can at times refer to household members vs. non-household village members, and Akha semiotic practices can express tensions between the village and household domains.

In this chapter, we look at a set of ritual practices called ‘spirit chanting of the inside and outside’. These ceremonies concern themselves with spirits of the inside and spirits of the outside (see also my discussion in Tooker 1988). We will find that ‘inside-ness’ is prototypically associated with the household (and its ancestral and reproductive spirits) in its capacity as a productive and reproductive unit, although the village can represent a relative degree of insideness. In addition, household and village autonomy and tensions are reflected in, and created through, these ceremonies. We will also find that the dangerous spirits of the ‘outside’ are placed in a similar structural position to human out siders (non-Akha, especially lowlanders). Essentially this is a construction that makes a ‘peripheral’ group ‘central’ by giving it access to forces of life (potency) and the ability to ward off evil outside draining influences. Thus it developed in an intergroup context.