Fatherless children and listening spirits

• Verfasst von: Stolz, Rosalie [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Fatherless children and listening spirits
• Titelzusatz: measuring kinship in ritual in northern Laos
• Verf.angabe: Rosalie Stolz
• E-Jahr: 2021
• Jahr: 01 Dec 2021
• Umfang: 19 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 31.05.2022
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Social analysis
• Ort Quelle: New York, NY : Berghahn, 1979
• Jahr Quelle: 2021
• Band/Heft Quelle: 65(2021), 4, Seite 151-169
• ISSN Quelle: 1558-5727
• DOI: doi:10.3167/sa.2021.650408
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1801179107

Abstract

Kinship among Khmu villagers of northern Laos is usually presented in anthropology as patrilineal. However, the ritual of a ‘small marriage’ can confirm a child’s belonging to the mothers’ house. The affirmation of the child’s maternal belonging is simultaneously about separation and exclusion from paternal ties and requires for its success careful measurements of kinship. During the ritual, quantities of food, gifts, and money become indicators of belonging. Human measurements are accompanied by spirit measurements that are unknowable but can have fatal consequences. Even though rituals are meant to achieve closure and establish belonging, ambiguities remain as a result of diverging measurements of kinship.