Kinship at the intersection of lineage and linguistics: a study of Hmong relatedness in Western contexts

Abstract

For social scientists, kinship has traditionally meant genealogical relations as defined by procreation, separating those who are genealogically related to each other from those who aren't. Today, anthropologists are interested in understanding specific local and indigenous conceptions of human relatedness Á how the biological and social converge to make different constructions and experiences of kinship. This paper extends that examination to the contemporary Hmong who came as refugees to Texas and Gammertingen, Germany, examining the ways connections and disconnections of relatedness have come to be understood not only in terms of blood and clan, but also in terms of dialect. This paper theoretically situates the Hmong idea of kinship in these two localities as a reintegration of the more descent-centered Freedmanian model and one of the more modern models that include dialect variation in lineage.Fü r Sozialwissenschaftler, hat Verwandtschaft traditionell genealogischen Beziehungen als durch Zeugung festgelegt gemeint, trennt diejenigen, die genealogisch miteinander von denen, die nicht verwandt sind. Heute sind Anthropologen interessierten Verständnis spezifischen lokalen und indigenen Vorstellungen von menschlicher Verbundenheit Á wie die biologische und soziale Konvergenz zu verschiedenen Konstruktionen und Erfahrungen der Verwandtschaft zu machen. Dieser Artikel erweitert, dass die Prü fung der zeitgenö ssischen Hmong, die als Flü chtlinge nach Texas kam und Gammertingen Deutschland prü ft die Möglichkeiten Verbindungen und Trennungen der Verwandtschaft kommen, um nicht nur in Bezug auf Blut und Clans verstanden werden, aber auch in Bezug auf Dialekt. Dieser Artikel theoretisch verortet die Hmong Idee der Verwandtschaft in diesen beiden Ortschaften als Wiedereingliederung der mehr Abstiegs-centered Freedmanian Modell und ein von modernen Modellen, die Dialekt Variante sind in der Abstammung.

“One man, one life, one marriage”: A qualitative analysis of Hmong women's divorce experiences

“…First, marriage is central to the way of life in the Hmong community. For instance, children in the Hmong culture are socialized at a young age to fulfill the role of a daughter‐in‐law or a son‐in‐law (Nibbs, 2013). Thus, life without marriage is considered incomplete or living without a life ( tsis muaj neej ).…”

“…This familial bond created through marriage ties people in the Hmong community to each other. The Hmong called this familial bond kwv tij, neej tsa (Nibbs, 2013). As such, when divorce occurs, it has a ripple effect to this bond.…”

“…Traditionally, Hmong culture placed great value on family and having a sense of community (Nibbs, 2013). Like East Asian cultures based on Confucian values and beliefs, saving face and shame are additional elements that are present in the Hmong community (Vang, 2010), where it is commonplace to value the family or clan over the individual needs or wants of a person (Kaiser, 2004).…”

The sociolinguistics of exogamy: Dialect acquisition in a Zhuang village

“…Traditionally, when these Hmong subdivisions come into contact through marriage, there are strong social expectations that in‐marrying wives will assimilate to the dialect and customs of the husband's subdivision (Keown‐Bomar : 46; Thao : 37–40). But in Hmong households in Texas (Stanford ; Nibbs ), some in‐married women are actively involved in a ‘tussle over signs’ as they make agentive choices between their original dialect and the husband's dialect (Coupland ; Le Page and Tabouret‐Keller ; Mesthrie and Deumert : 336). Such women have told interviewers that they now have ‘American Freedom of Speech’, and therefore they choose to retain their original dialects (Stanford ).…”