¹ Weber, M., “Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen”, Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie 1 (1922-1923)Google Scholar ; Tylor, E., Primitive Culture (London, 1871)Google Scholar.

² The Hmong form two distinct branches of the much wider linguistic, cultural and historical category of ‘Miao’ peoples. Although the term ‘Miao’ should not be used to refer to the Hmong of Southeast Asia, since it has strongly pejorative associations, within China the term includes a much wider group who are related linguistically, culturally and historically, and it is in this sense that it is retained here.

³ Fieldwork for a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, was conducted in North Thailand from April 1981 to October 1982, with the assistance of the Social Science Research Council and the Central Research Fund of the University of London. Two return visits have been made since then, for periods of three months in 1984 and 1985, partly funded respectively by the British Institute in Southeast Asia and the Walter Vella Foundation. Two research visits to Hmong communities in the United States were made in March and September 1983, in addition to various visits to Hmong communities in France. In China research was conducted in August 1985 with the help of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Kunming, in June 1986 under the auspices of the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and with the assistance of the Guangdong National Minorities Affairs Commission and National Minorities Research Institute, and of the provincial governments of the Autonomous Counties of Ruyuen and Liannan in Shaoguan, and in July 1986 as Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Kunming. I should like to thank all these agencies for their assistance.

⁴ I use the Romanized Phonetic Alphabet (R.P. A.) transcription for Hmong, in which doubled vowels indicate final nasalization and final consonants are not pronounced, but instead indicate tone values. One peculiarity of this system which should be remembered is that x=s, and s=sh.

⁵ Papers of S. Pollard (Mss. Boxes 639–40), London, School of Oriental and African Studies.

⁶ Wingate, A., A Cavalier in China (London: Grayson & Grayson, 1940)Google Scholar ; Anderson, J., The Journey of A.R. Margary from Shanghai to Bhamo and back to Manwyne (London: MacMilland & Co., 1876).Google Scholar Cf. also N. Tapp, “The Relevance of Telephone Directories to a Lineage-based Society: A Consideration of Some Messianic Myths among the Hmong”, Journal of the Siam Society 70, 1 (1982).

⁷ Pollard, S., The Story of the Miao (London: Henry Hook, 1919), p. 47Google Scholar; cf. Tapp (op.cit., 1982) and “Christianity in China Today”, Anthropology Today 2, 2 (1986)Google Scholar.

⁸ S. Pollard (1919), p. 47; cf. Tapp (1982).

⁹ Hudspeth, W., Stone Gateway and the Flowery Miao (London: The Cargate Press, 1937).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Hayes, E., Sam Pollard of Yunnan (London: The Pilgrim Press, 1928).Google Scholar

¹¹ Pollard, W., The Life of Sam Pollard of China (Edinburgh: Seeley, Service & Co., 1928).Google Scholar

¹² Derrida, D., Of Grammatology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1974).Google Scholar

¹³ Feuchtwang, S., “Investigating Religion”, Marxist Analyses and Social Anthropology, ed. Bloch, M. (London: Malaby Press, 1975)Google Scholar ; Goody, J., The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967)Google Scholar ; Levi-Strauss, C., Structural Anthropology II (London: Allen Lane, 1977)Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Gesau, Von and Alting, Leo, “The Dialectics of Akhazan”, Highlanders of Thailand, ed. McKinnon, J. & Bhrukrasri, W. (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

¹⁵ BMalinowski, ., Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays (Illinois: Glencoe, 1948)Google Scholar; Von Gesau (1983).

¹⁶ Terms in parentheses refer to self-appelations. Gilhodes, Viz. C., “Mythologie et Religion des Katchins (Birmanie)”, Anthropos IV (1909)Google Scholar; Graham, D.C., Songs and Stories of the Chuan Miao (Washington D.C: Smithsonian Misc. Coll., No. 123, 1954).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Keyes, C., The Golden Peninsula: Culture and Adaptation in Mainland Southeast Asia (London and New York: MacMillan, 1977).Google Scholar Cf. also Stern, T., “Ariya and the Golden Book”, Journal of Asian Studies 27 (1986)Google Scholar and Keyes, C. (ed.), Ethnic Adaptation and Identity: The Karen on the Thai Frontier with Burma (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1979)Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Burridge, N., New Heaven, New Earth (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971) et al.Google Scholar

¹⁹ W. Hudspeth (1937).

²⁰ Cf. Gilhodes, op.cit. (1909) on the Kachin, where a similar version appears, as in some of the Karen accounts.

²¹ S. Pollard (1919), p. 76. One should compare this to Pollard's accounts elsewhere of a Miao couple who suddenly became deranged and began to sing and dance about the mission house, and the ‘mad Miao woman’ who claimed to be Jesus’ sister (Pollard, S., Tight Corners in China (London: Andrew Crombie, 1921), p. 45.Google ScholarKendall, R., Eyes of the Earth: The Diary of Samuel Pollard (London: The Cargate Press, 1954)Google Scholar.

²³ Thus in the earliest mention of the ‘Miao’ in the Chinese annals, we find the term used to refer to a rebellion against the semi-legendary Huang Ti, or ‘Yellow Emperor’. Moreover, the personage respected by the Hmong of China as their first ancestor, and also reported by Savina, F.M. (Histoire des Miao, Hong Kong, Societe des Missions Etrangeres de Paris, 1930Google Scholar) for the Hmong of Vietnam, was a legendary rebel against the Yellow Emperor.

²⁴ Yaj, T.T., “Rog Paj Cai” (mimeo., Y. Bertrais, Sayaboury, 1972).Google Scholar

²⁵ F.M. Savina (1930), p. 258.

²⁶ Cf. Savina, F.M., “Consideration sur la Revolte des Miao”, L'Eveil Economique de I'Indochine, No. 373 (1924)Google Scholar.

²⁷ Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, Vol. VI (1919).Google Scholar

²⁸ Smalley, W., “The Gospel and the Cultures of Laos”, Readings in Missionary Anthropology 3:3 (1956)Google Scholar; Barney, G.L., “Christianity and Innovation in Meo Culture: A Case Study in Missionization” (M.A. diss., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1957)Google Scholar.

²⁹ G.L. Barney (1957).

³⁰ Halpern, J., Government, Politics and Social Structure of Laos (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964).Google Scholar

³¹ Garrett, W., “The Hmong of Laos”, National Geographic Magazine CXLV (June 1974).Google Scholar

³² Lemoine, J., “Les Ecritures du Hmong”, Bulletin des Amis du Royaume Lao 6–7 (1972).Google Scholar

³³ Tapp, N., “Categories of Change and Continuity among the White Hmong (Hmoob Dawb) of North Thailand” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, London, 1985).Google Scholar

³⁴ Heimbach, M., At Any Cost (London: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1964; 1976).Google Scholar Cf. Kuhn, I., Ascent to the Tribes (London: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1956)Google Scholar and Scheuzger, O., The New Trail (London: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1966)Google Scholar for other instances of messianic Christianity among the Hmong of Thailand.

³⁵ Douglas, M., Natural Symbols (Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970), p. 24.Google Scholar

³⁶ Cf. Bilmes, J., Discourse and Behaviour (New York: Plenum Press, 1986), p. 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁷ Hudson, J., The Marxist Philosophy of Ernst Bloch (London: MacMillan, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁸ N. Tapp (1982).

³⁹ J. Hudson (1982), p. 160.

⁴⁰ Cf. Kuhn, I., Nests above the Abyss (London: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1980).Google Scholar

⁴¹ Tapp, N., “Notes from an Unfinished Journal”, Khaawsaan Suun Wicaj Chaawkhaw 6, 3 (1982b).Google Scholar

⁴² Tapp, N., “How to Stop Opium Farming?”, Royal Anthropological Institute Newsletter 48 (1982c).Google Scholar

⁴³ Cooper, R., Resource Scarcity and the Hmong Response: Patterns of Settlement and Economy in Transition (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1984).Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Detailed records of the activities of these missionaries can be found in the annals of the Laos News (Chiangmai: Payap College Theological Archives, Payap University).

⁴⁵ Cf. Young, D., Confucianism and Christianity (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1983).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ The results of this questionnaire can be found in Tapp (1985), pp. 472–84.

⁴⁷ Kunstadter, P., “Highland Populations in North Thailand”, McKinnon, J. and Bhrukrasri, W. (1983).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ `Worsley, P., The Trumpet Shall Sound (London: MacGibbon and Kee, 1968).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Tapp, N., “The Reformation of Culture: Hmong Refugee from Laos”, Refugee Issues 1, 5 (1985b).Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Garrett, W., “Refugee from Terror”, National Geographic Magazine (May 1980).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Personal communication, Vam Nrhuag Vaj, Chicago (19 March 1983).

⁵² Lee, G., “Culture and Adaptation: Hmong Refugees in Australia”, The Hmong in Transition, ed. Deinard, A., Downing, B. and Hendricks, G. (New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York Inc. and the Southeast Asian Refugee Studies Programme of the University of Minnesota, 1986).Google Scholar

⁵³ N. Tapp (1986).

⁵⁴ Ting, K., “Retrospect and Prospects: Open address before the Third Chinese National Christian Conference, Nanjing, 6–13 October 1982”,Google ScholarChinese Christians Speak Out (Beijing: New World Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ South China Morning Post (4–5 July 1986).

⁵⁶ Andrew, Viz., Brother, God's Smuggler (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1967)Google Scholar; Wallis, A., China Miracle (London: Kingsway Publications, 1985)Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Tian Feng China Study Project Bulletin (27 April 1985).

⁵⁸ Fei, Hsiao-Tung, Towards a Peoples’ Anthropology (Beijing: New World Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Hsieh, J., “China's Nationalities Policy: Its Development and Problems”, Anthropos 81 (1986)Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Lemoine, Viz. J., “Ethnologues en Chine”, Diogène 133 (January-March 1986).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ The Miao number over 5 million in China. The major groups classified as Miao in China and who are linguistically, culturally and historically related, include those who refer to themselves as Hmo or Hmong, and are known as the Hua, Bai or Qing Miao to the Chinese.