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The Hani Nationality Name: Hani, Haoni, Aini, Akha Population: 2,500,000 Localization:
In China, Yunnan Province, Honghe and Xishuangbanna prefectures.
Also in Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. |
The Hani/Akha are a group of culturally and linguistic related peoples that inhabit the southern part of Yunnan province and neighboring countries. Divided in many ethnic branches with some important differences, the most known of them is the known as Akha out of China (Aini in China).
Introductory
Articles in Ethnic China
Introducing the
Hani nationality: They inhabit mountain areas with
warm climate and abundant rains.
Hani's ancient
society: Hani Apeicongpopo is a poem of that relates
their migrations from the land of their ancestors, until their current
territory in the south of Yunnan.
Outline
of Hani History: It is possible that during the years
between the fall of Nanzhao and the Mongol conquest of Yunnan, the Hani
formed a unified and independent political entity
Hani nationality
Main Gods: They worship their ancestors and the forces
of nature. They think that every natural object of the nature has its
spirit.
Hani nationality
Daily Life: Their terraced fields follow the contour
of the mountains in one of the most impressive landscapes created by human
work.
Sexual life
and marriage of the Hani nationality: In the past young
Hani young enjoyed sexual freedom before marriage. They met usually in
musical gatherings.
Main festivals
of the Hani: The Hani have many spiritual ceremonies
to be carried out along the year.
Amatu festival
of the Hani: The Amatu Festival is one of the most
important for the Hani. It is a kind of homage to the village's goddess.
The religion of the Hani Yeche: They believe that people are eminently spiritual beings that have twelve souls. After death the soul of people becomes a spirit.
Traditional marriage of the Aini - Akha: when the boys reached puberty age, they usually moved to live in a small hut near their parents' home that was called the "Flowers' Room"
Wedding
song of the Aini - Akha: The singers express in this
long song their best whishes to the newlyweds; with their hope that the
new formed couple will be auspicious they transmit also a detailed account
of the traditional way of life
Scholars Researches available in the Web
Jean Baffie.- Highlanders as Portrayed in Thai Penny horribles
As a result of the success of khon phu khao many more films of the same type were made, and in partieular Phaitun Ratanon's ido, 1984, which offered an even more stereotyped vision of the same Akha people.
Bai Bibo.- Hani Language Preservation and Maintenance — Hani Language and Literacy
Through the Hani literacy project, we have obtained some exciting achievements: Firstly, some Hanis have changed their attitude toward their own language and culture. They have witnessed some practical activities and cultural events they organized for themselves, in which they have realized their own nationality responsibilities and prides.
Kayoko Ishii.- Akha as cheap labor: Minority and touristic stage.
This
study examines whether ethnic tourism positively affects the ethnic minorities,
both from the economic and social perspectives.
Leo A. von Geusau.- Akha/Yunnanese Chinese symbiosis and strategic identity in the Southeast Asian mountainous border areas.
Historical relations between the Hani/Akha, and the Chinese in Yunnan, are complex. Both the Hani, and the closely related Zanyi or Akha people, consider themselves as having been marginalized into the mountainous parts of the Southern Yunnanese border areas by Tai warrior types of people.
Leo
A. von Geusau.- General
Introduction: The Akha/Zaqnyiq Archaic Oerzar text on The Life-Cycle of
People, Animals and Plants.
In this volume the reader will find a transcription of the orally transmitted archaic Akha/Zaqnyiq text, called oerzar, literally meaning “old words of wisdom”. The text deals with the life cycle of people, animals and plants.
Leo A. von Geusau.- A comparative field-study between two Akha Tourist villages: Tsjaw Pakha Kao and Saen Chareon Kao Akha
In the last 10-15 years an increasing number of ethnic minority mountain villages, Including Akha, have tried to open up for tourists, hoping to gain some income from Tourism, including handicraft sales. As for the Akha, this is in sharp contrast with the past, when they were reluctant to show their sophisticated ¡°internal life, ceremonies and knowledge¡± to the outsider, fearing to be abused.
Brian Hayden and Ralana Maneeprasert.- Feasting Among the Akha: The 1996 Report
Feasting is frequently viewed as extremely important in emic perceptions. And feasting can be viewed as having roots extending far back into primate origins where food sharing is often used as a means to establish sexual relationships or acknowledge dominance relationships. Our purpose in this analysis is to try to place a particular culture’s feasting behavior in the context of cultural ecology.
Cornelia Ann Kammerer.- Territorial Imperatives: Akha Ethnie Identity and Thailand's National Integration
1 attempt to formulate an analytical approach towards ethnie identity that 1 hope will illuminate the current confrontation of mountain minorities and the consolidating nation-states of continental South-East Asia.
Matthew McDaniel.- Human, cultural and community property rights : A basis for social justice. The Akha and how they are affected in Thailand
This paper describes the pressures on the Akha ethnic minority in Thailand, proposing that lack of political and community property rights is detrimental to their well-being and the environment, which their culture has adapted to over the centuries.
Toyota Mika.- Urban Migration and Cross-Border Networks: A Deconstruction of the Akha Identity in Chiang Mai
Over
the last twenty years, owing to the dramatic improvement in road transport
it has become
much easier for the Akha to access lowland areas. .. A third, urban-based
generation has already emerged who have grown up in the city, and they
have few opportunities or need to go up to the mountains. The number of
the younger generation (between the ages of 15 and 25) who have no experience
of working in the rice fields is increasing rapidly
Higashide Noriko.- Activity to Record and Pass On the Oral Traditions of the Akha and Hani Peoples.
The
illiterate Akha and Hani peoples have preserved their identities through
worship of their ancestors and strict common laws. Their ceremonies and
festivals offer glimpses of their practices and Taoist philosophy toward
well-balanced coexistence between people and nature and of their ancestor
worship.
Duangta Seewuthiwong.- Weddings, Wealth, Pigs and Coca Cola: fareng Tourists in an Akha Village
This is a preferred isolation in which we live. The road has been sabotaged to make it difficult for police in search of people engaged in activities like smoking opium, distilling alcohol and so on. This way the residents are more likely to be left in peace. The village headman also supports this isolationist policy.
Janet C. Sturgeon.- Forest Creators, Forest Destroyers: Akha Land Use in Xishuangbanna
This paper focuses on Akha strategies for land use and livelihood in this upland, forested region. Akha engage in a mix of activities to bring in sufficient food and income, and to cover their bets should one activity not pan out.
Janet
C. Sturgeon.- Post-socialist
Property Rights for Akha in China: What is at Stake?
This article describes resource access conflicts in south-western China
as a socialist regime was legislated away in favour of a socialist market
economy.. The discussion is framed around two contradictions and one inconsistency.
Janet
C. Sturgeon.- Quality
Control and the Loss of the Commons.
This
paper examines the local village elections held in 2000 in Mengsong, a
Hani (Akha)
administrative village in China. The elections are a focal point for exploring
the converging effects of a number of current national policies and representations
of people and the environment.
Books
and references
Basic
Bibliography of the Hani
Paul W. Lewis.- Akha Oral Literature. White Lotus. Bangkok. 2002
Stories and Legends, occupying half of the book, is the most interesting. It provides fine examples of a tradition of story telling closely related to that of other peoples linguistically related.
Chinese Bibliography of the Hani nationality
Free books about the Hani
Paul W. Lewis.- Ethnographic notes on the Akhas of Burma. 1969
To Akhas, religion involves about everything that has to do with ancestors, rice and spirits. they use the term for ancestors (a poe a pi) and ‘God’ ( a poe mi yeh) almost synonymously. When carefully questioned they will differentiate, but in practice there is a thin, if not at times almost invisible line dividing them.
Free Thesis and dissertations about the Hani
Michael J. Clarke.- Feasting among the Akha of Northern Thailand: An Ethnoarchaeological case study. Simon Fraser University. 1998
My research is on the feasting of the Akha of Thailand, in the villages of Mae Salep and Sam Soong. My methodology consisted of participant observation and household interview
Deena Rubuliak.- Seeing the people through the trees: Community based ecotourism in Northern Thailand. Simon Fraser University. 2000
In contrast to popular conventional trekking tours that dominate the Northern Thai tourist industry, this thesis explores community based ecotourism, one of the alternative strategies currently being used among highlang minority groups.
Comparatively Dai people cultivate more intensive on paddy land than the other two ethnic groups, Hani and Jinuo villagers produce more subsistence crops on upland than Dai; and deforestation is most serious in the Hani village than in those of Dai and Jinuo. The evidence shows that the great differences in traditional land use among Dai, Jinuo and Hani have gradually disappeared.
Photo Exhibitions
Ethnic
China photo exhibitions 
Hard
working women of the Aini:
the Aini or Akha live in the mountains of the tropical
region of Xishuangbanna. As in many agricultural societies the women perform
most of the works
Photo
exhibitions about the Akha/Hani: Some of the best photo
exhibitions in Chinese webpages.
Music
Hani
nationality music
Films and Video
Documentary Films about the Hani/Akha nationality: Some films produced in the last years that try to show Akha society and the challenges it will face in the future.
-
Soul of the
Corn- Documentary film: The film depicts the last places
where the Hani people still cultivate fallow lands with the traditional
slash and burn method. The director, himself a Hani and a painter started
painting all the process of the slash and burn cycle.
Fiction films about the Hani/Akha: After 1949 revolution, there are some films shoot in the People's Republic of China focused in the life and culture of the Hani nationality.
Available
dvds and vcds about the Hani nationality
Image of the the Hani nationality in the cinema
Art and Handicrafts
The
Hani nationality in the art
Art Exhibitions
Travel
Travel
to Hani nationality lands
Wiki Ethnic China
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