The captive guest: spider webs of hospitality among the Nuosu of Southwest China

Abstract

An unstable mode of hospitality underpins an important ethnographic finding among the Nuosu of Southwest China: namely the notion that each person ‘hosts’ his or her own soul, which takes the form of a ‘soul‐spider’ residing on the outer surface of the human body. Famous for their slaveholding practices, which were disbanded by the Chinese in 1956‐7, the Nuosu nowadays take ‘captive guests’, to underscore lineage rankings within their spidery cosmology. Exploring the captive position of outsiders – including anthropologists – to the Nuosu home, the paper gives a case study of an ‘inhospitable’ dispute between a shaman and his employer at an ethnological institute. Showing why every host wishes to prevent the captive guest from ever reciprocating his or her hospitality, the paper introduces the Nuosu ‘spider‐slave complex’, which entails gathering the fullness of life through attachments to the lineage, captive guests, and the person's own soul‐spider. Résumé Les matériaux ethnographiques recueillis auprès des Nuosu du Sud‐ouest de la Chine font apparaître un mode d’hospitalité instable : l’idée que chaque personne « héberge » son âme, sous la forme d’une « araignée de l’âme » résidant sur la surface externe du corps humain. Connus pour leurs pratiques esclavagistes abolies par les Chinois en 1956‐57, les Nuosu prennent aujourd’hui des « invités captifs » pour souligner les positions des lignages dans leur cosmologie arachnide. En réfléchissant à la captivité des étrangers, y compris les anthropologues, dans la maison nuosu, l’article présente le cas d’une controverse « inhospitalière » entre un chaman et son employeur dans un institut d’ethnologie. En montrant pourquoi les hôtes veulent toujours empêcher leurs invités captifs de leur rendre leur hospitalité, l’auteure décrit le « complexe esclave‐araignée » des Nuosu, qui implique que la plénitude de la vie s’obtient par des rattachements à son lignage, aux invités captifs, et à sa propre araignée de l’âme.

Fame, Fate-Fortune, and Tokens of Value among the nuosu of Southwest China

“…In cases like this, Nuosu hospitality can become generous to a fault, encouraging guests to contribute to the household's fame and fate-fortune much like the slaves and serfs of the recent past. Elsewhere I describe my experience of this ongoing hospitality, when Fijy and other Nuosu made efforts to prevent me from leaving their village (Swancutt 2012b). Note, though, that Nuosu hospitality increases both personal fame and the fame of lineages that offer the support structures for acquiring it.…”

“…Yet for Nuosu people, ghosts and invisible forces such as fate-fortune are all vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the world and the extractive motives of others. I have given an in-depth description of the soul-spider in two different articles, discussing its central role in Nuosu cosmology, which entails the notion that every person has the capacity for 'spiderhood' (Swancutt 2012b(Swancutt , 2012c. Here I give just a brief background to this notion to show how Nuosu use spider-like, extractive tactics to draw fate-fortune, material prosperity, and fame into the home.…”

Religion through the Looking Glass: Fieldwork, Biography, and Authorship in Southwest China and Beyond

“…yinyou 引诱) good things to them (Swancutt 2012a(Swancutt , 2012b(Swancutt , 2015(Swancutt , 2016b. Nuosu, for instance, lure back their lost souls in soul-calling rituals, just as they once lured slaves away from rival masters before their slavery was disbanded in the Democratic Reforms (Ch.…”

“…This prestige can be built up and extended across time, including across the career of the visiting anthropologist, which Nuosu can shape and direct in ways that benefit them. For instance, Nuosu sometimes integrate guests into the home through name-changing ceremonies that make them formally part of their lineage (Swancutt 2012a:S110-S111). As I have experienced firsthand and explained elsewhere, name-changing ceremonies can put the guest into the position of being claimed as a cultural ambassador for the Nuosu to the wider world -which is no mean feat, considering that before the Democratic Reforms most outsiders would have needed to take special care that they were not captured as slaves, who were always ethnic others (Swancutt 2012a:S110).…”

“…Another part of the answer, though, can be found in the dynamics of how the Nuosu and I spend time, both during and outside of my fieldwork, as well as in how we conceptualise my purpose(s) in visiting them. Nuosu are exceptionally gracious hosts, who can demand quite a lot from guests, especially when it comes to attracting prestige to themselves and their lineages (Swancutt 2012a). This prestige can be built up and extended across time, including across the career of the visiting anthropologist, which Nuosu can shape and direct in ways that benefit them.…”