Laos: Iu-Mein Culture and Ceremonies
What is Iu-Mein? Not many people have heard of the ethnicity Iu-Mein. It is a dialect from Laos. One of the traditions that Iu-Mein's have are ceremonies. Ceremonies are done with the sacrificing of a pig or chicken. Certain people may call it weird, and animal rights folks would call it animal cruelty, but in our culture, it is for healing and to pay our respects to our ancestors.
The ceremonies are very sacred and are done by a shaman. A shaman in our culture is someone who can speak to spirits like a witch doctor. A pig or chicken is sacrificed depending on whether the ceremony performed is large or small.
The shaman sets up the table with incense, paper made with circle imprints (money for the spirits), and a tea set filled with blessed water. After the pig or chicken is cleaned, it is set on the table and the shaman starts chanting or calling down the spirit. With a chicken, the ceremony usually takes about thirty minutes to an hour; with a pig, it can take an hour to an hour and a half.
Ceremonies in the Iu-Mein culture are part of our lives. They are done as often as they are needed, but at least once a year. There are different kinds of ceremonies done for healing when someone is sick, for good luck for the year, weddings, and for death. Iu-Mein's believe in both good and bad spirits. Whenever someone is sick, we believe it is due to a hungry spirit. Our ceremony with the pig or chicken is meant to please the spirit by feeding them, paying them by burning paper "money," and by giving them water. There are all kinds of spirits that can touch a person to make them sick, like parents, grandparents, or any relatives who have passed away.
There is not much about Iu-Mein culture in our history books, but books have been written about the Iu-Mein people.
Sometimes, those practicing the Aztec religion sacrificed just one person. At other times, hundreds or even thousands of captives were sacrificed at a time. Each Aztec sacrifice, however took place the same way. The captive or captives were taken to a pyramid or temple and placed on an altar. The Aztec priest then made an incision in the ribcage of the captive and removed the living heart. The heart was then burned and ...
In conclusion, the prognosis for infants and children with Tetralogy of Fallow is good with surgical treatment. The benefits to the complete repair help infants to have a virtually normal functioning heart. Even though most children do well for many years after the surgery, there are a small number of children who need subsequent operations. Children with tetralogy of fallow are followed by a cardiologists are many years after the initial diagnosis.
The Eskimo hold an annual Bladder Ceremony which demonstrates all of these things previously mentioned. To explain the complete meaning and symbolism behind this Bladder Ceremony in its entirety, is very difficult because every act that goes into this ceremony is meaningful and of concepts not easily understood. In the Eskimo society, the Kwakiutl men go hunting. To go and kill an animal is to kill the fleshed body of an ancestor's soul that is temporarily occupying it. So it is clear that this source of food (hunting of animals) connect the people to the ancestors or spirits of their pray. Therefore, extra care needs to exist in the approach and killing of the animal because each animal has the soul of an ancestor. The ideology of animals having souls runs much deeper. In fact, these souls are powerful forces in the Eskimo's lives and they determine the future's prosperous gain of game or the lack there of. For that reason, the hunters of Eskimo treat the physical body of these animals with the up most respect in order to keep harmony. The bladder of each hunted animal is hung in the Men's house because it is believed that the souls of these powerful forces are held within them (Gill, Native American Religion, p.122). During the ceremony, the men must become purified.
Rituals are held as a very important part of any society, including ours. They go back to ancient times, or can be as simple as maintaining one’s hygiene. Non-western societies have rituals that may seem very foreign to us, but they have been engrained in their communities and are essential to their social structure. This interpretation will focus on the Great Pilgrimage, a ritual performed by Quechuan communities. We will be looking specifically at a community in the Sonqo area.
The Hmong people, an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam and Laos, greatly value their culture and traditions. The film “The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America” documents the seventeen year journey of the Hmong Shaman, Paja Thao and his family from the mountains of Laos to the heartland of America. This film shows the struggle of Paja Thao to maintain their 5000 year-old shamanic traditions as his children embrace the American culture. Moreover, the film shows that one of the major problems refugees like Paja Thao and his family face upon their arrival to the United States is conflict with the American medical system. Despite the dominant biomedical model of health, the film “The Split Horn” shows that
The poem "My Papa's Waltz" uses imagery by especially appealing to the sense of touch. The sense of touch also helps the reader to better understand the abusive father theme. The third stanza concentrates on the actual act of abuse. The author, Roethke, describes the battle wounds on the father and son that are inflicted by the father. The father's hand "was battered on one knuckle" from hitting his son with a belt (10). This is apparent because the son's "right ear scraped...
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The poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, is about a boy reminiscing about an incidence with his father. From the beginning, this poem states the conflict between a father and son involved in a rambunctious dance, but as it continues, the story suggests the dance may actually be a physical altercation. Within the line, “Such waltzing was not easy,” is the proposal this is not a singular incident, but rather a routine ritual between the boy and his father (Line 4). The speaker is an adult recollecting, to himself as the audience, a childhood memory of an incident with his father. As the poem opens, the child recalls his father engaging in act of the drinking whiskey to the extent that the fumes of his breath made him dizzy or lightheaded, as if the adrenaline coursing through his veins from wrestling or struggling with his father wasn’t enough to make him unsteady. The child is hanging on to his father as a way of protecting himself from the assault being inflicted upon him. When the narrator states within the simile, “But I hung on like death,” death symbolizes a force inescapable and not able to release its grasp (3). As the poem continues, the speaker uses the term “romped” to describe the movement within the waltz. A waltz is an elegant, flowing type of dance and one does not “romp” through a waltz. The two participants are causing such a ruckus, the mother’s pans slide off a shelf in the kitchen. As the mother looks on, she is silent with only a frown as an expression of her disapproval. The speaker states his father’s hand “was battered on one knuckle,” suggesting the hand had been injured possibly from another violent incident in the past (10). As the commotion continues, the child is “waltzed” into his bedroom, the ...
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To understand the practice of human sacrifice one must look at the reasons why the culture did such practices. There are three main ways of examining a cultural practice from an anthropological perspective.
...s a result the has shown respect by offering prayers to gods. Humans worship gods and in return gods watch over the human world. Praying to the gods is called kamwi Nowi in the Ainu language. Kamwi Nomi is used to ask for favors in future events, to give thanks for blessings in the past, and to pray for other purposes. To offer prayers, prayer stick made of wood or niwow are placed at the alter, and sacrid sake is offered to the prayer sticks. Which is said to transmit the prayers to the gods. The Ainu folklore falls into many categories Epics that last for many days and range from sunset till dawn. Another type of folklore is uway picara unlike the other epics they do not have melodies; it has many different stories with complicated plots.
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One of the flaws inside the Ibo culture that eventually leads to their downfall is the social system. The weaker people join the church as a way to gain acceptance. The osu, or outcasts who lived in the Ibo culture want to feel accepted and as a result, follow the Christians. “The two outcasts shaved off their hair, and soon they were the strongest adherents of the new faith” (157). These two outcasts never have the feeling of being a part of the clan. The church welcomes them. The osu cannot cut their hair, marry, or receive a title in the clan. They are “cast out like lepers” (157). The church welcomes the osu and treats them like human beings. This is where the Ibo social system is at fault. An ideal job is to be a farmer and since not everyone can afford seeds and a barn...
... of its history aspect. Historians define history as written records and so to me this ethnography is history. This book offers an insight into a world that a normal school history textbook is not going to offer. It gives a firsthand account of a people group that I had never heard of before. Turnbull mentions the Second World War as one of the reasons for the Ik becoming the ruthless society that they were or are. This interested me because it shows aftermath of that war that I normally would not have thought of. I now have a deeper understanding of the Ik people and everything that they entail. This book is going to be beneficial to me and my future students that I teach. I got to see firsthand how ruthless a society can be whenever basic needs cannot be met. I enjoyed this ethnography to the fullest because I got to look at another society up close and personal.