Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps, Tables, Figures and Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Akha Transcription, Akha Pronunciation Guide, and CAW Comparison chart
- 1 Bearings
- 2 Moving Through History
- 3 Space and the Flow of Life
- 4 Spatializing the Upland Village Polity and its Alter, the Lowland Muang
- 5 Space and Fertility in House and Field
- 6 Chanting to Produce the Inside and Outside
- 7 Rethinking the Cosmic Polity
- 8 Space, Life, and Identity
- Appendix A Spirit Chanting of the Inside: Types of Ceremonies
- Appendix B Spirit Chanting of the Outside: Types of Ceremonies
- Akha Glossary
- Notes
- List of References
- English Language Index
- Akha Language Index
- Biographical Note about the Author
- Publications Series
Appendix A - Spirit Chanting of the Inside: Types of Ceremonies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps, Tables, Figures and Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Akha Transcription, Akha Pronunciation Guide, and CAW Comparison chart
- 1 Bearings
- 2 Moving Through History
- 3 Space and the Flow of Life
- 4 Spatializing the Upland Village Polity and its Alter, the Lowland Muang
- 5 Space and Fertility in House and Field
- 6 Chanting to Produce the Inside and Outside
- 7 Rethinking the Cosmic Polity
- 8 Space, Life, and Identity
- Appendix A Spirit Chanting of the Inside: Types of Ceremonies
- Appendix B Spirit Chanting of the Outside: Types of Ceremonies
- Akha Glossary
- Notes
- List of References
- English Language Index
- Akha Language Index
- Biographical Note about the Author
- Publications Series
Summary
Inside only:
1. njḿ dàn dàn í-ə, nὲq tó tó-ə, ‘chanting for the establishment of a separate house’
– This specifically refers to the case where a man and his family break away from the household and ancestral section to which they have previously been attached, and establish a new ancestral section. The family must conduct a spirit chanting ritual one cycle (12 months) later in order to establish fully their relationship with the new ancestral section.
2. pɔq lɔq tó djɔ, ‘chanting for the ancestral section’
– Done for situations that specifically involve the ancestral section itself such as if it is physically broken, or if a house is blown apart by the wind.
3. ýkhὲdjὲq-ə, ‘clearing the irrigation ditch’
– Done to increase the household's gỳlàn, particularly as it relates to the fertility of its people, livestock and crops (see my previous discussion of the irrigation ditch in the household chapter). This ceremony may be done for positive purposes or to undo serious damage done to the ancestral section (àpø pɔq lɔq bàn-ə) which affects the fertility of the household (and thus the household's spiritual irrigation ditch), such as in the case of adultery.
4. pí ghoq pan-ə, ‘opening the píma’s door’
– And related versions of the same ceremony
– Done to postpone a spiritual ‘calling’
Can be combined with outside ceremony:
5. làqkhǿ ḿ -ə, ‘doing the inside’
(see below for various forms of this ceremony)
– Both adult and child versions
– Done for illness and affliction
6. làqkhǿ ḿ sjɔ sjɔ-ə, ‘making the inside pure’
– Done to rectify situations of ritual impurity including previous violations of ritual procedures (called àpø pɔq lɔq bàn-ə, ‘to violate the ancestral section’), forbidden sexual relations within a household (such as that among guests), unusually lengthy menstruation in a woman of the household, the presence of maggots in a rice ‘package’, and physical violations of the ancestral section itself such as having been gnawed on by rats.
7. zədzḿ tsoq-ə, ‘building a ladder to the origin place of children (i.e. a mythical lake)’
– Done when one desires to have children born. In this case, it is assumed that one's ‘ladder’ to the origin place is broken (zə dzḿ tsɛq í-ə) and must be restored.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Space and the Production of Cultural Difference among the Akha Prior to GlobalizationChanneling the Flow of Life, pp. 245 - 248Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2012