Hmong Women's Issues on Freedom of Beliefs

CONTENTS

Discussing: Contemporary Issues

Challenging: Women Issues

Reading: Research Article

Learning: History

Guessing: Proverbs & Riddles

Studying: Literature

Visiting: Photo Gallery

Admiring: Art Gallery

Listening to: Hmong Radios

Enjoying: Tales for Children

Taking: Courses of Cult & Language

Trilingual Website Français English Hmoob Index/Themes Index/Year

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Hmong Women's Issues on Freedom of Beliefs

Kao-Ly Yang Ph.D. Anthropology

                                              Join the Free Discussion Group: "Hmong Women Network"

The following paper has been presented under the title "Where Do Hmong Women's Souls Go After Death?" in the conference "Building on Hmong Women?s Assets: Past, Present, and Future", September 16-17, 2005, St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN
Read the report of the conference, click here

Keywords: women religious status, religious conflicts, religious affiliation, funeral rite, cultural changes, rites of passage, healing rituals, reincarnation, poverty, social pressure.

The arrival of the Hmong people in America has increased their conversions to Christianity, which definitively establishes this Western religion as an accepted religion. However, the traditional beliefs remain the Cult of Ancestors where they honor their ascendants during the specific rites such as the fertility rites or during other events where before the meals, they call the lineage ancestors from the oral genealogies of male names to "feed" them. The belief of origin is "animism": they believe in the existence of vital forms embodying human beings, animals, objects such as stones, and places such as rivers, forests, mountians, etc.
For the Hmong men, the choice of beliefs does not pose, in a very extreme way, religious or social challenges because they are born as heirs of the traditions, core of their identity and given in heritage for the rest of their life. In this patrilineal society, men are the keepers of the traditional beliefs. Men -- and not women--are responsible for performing the "lineage rites" (dab qhuas) to maintain the traditions. The "lineage rites" are constituted of the fertility rites (The rite "Honoring the Spirit of Wealth" (Txi Xwm Kab) taking place during the New Year Celebration, the rite "Feeding the Cow-Spirit" (Ua nyuj dab), the rite "Feeding the Door-Spirit" (Ua npua dab roog), and the wedding rite (Ua tshoob kos) and the funerals rite (Kab ke pam tuag).
But for women, even if they could perform the healing rituals such as "the Soul Calling" (Hu plig) or the shamanistic rite (Ua neeb), they cannot concretely accomplish any of the lineage rites. Women's choice of beliefs constitutes a real social, psychological and religious challenge at the individual's level. The author has observed situations where women without support on behalf of the brothers, faced difficulty to provide appropriate funerals to parents or in-laws. Women who have experienced such situations always feel powerless, incapable or ignorant.
A man has a religious choice, not because he has the right to choose, but he has the right to perform his beliefs. If he chooses to convert to Christianity, he could go back afterwards to his former beliefs. There is no religious taboo.
A woman's choice of beliefs is more complex. She is born in one belief whatever it is, Animistor Christian. After her wedding, she must join, practice, and honor the beliefs of her husband. If he comes to pass away, she won't be able to go back to her lineage of birth, and so to her previous religious affiliation at ease. Indeed, in the Hmong culture, when a woman got married, she must become a member of her husbandlineage. In other words, her body as well as her soul will forever belong to this lineage, in this life and after death. She socially loses her first name. She will be called by the first name of her husband prefixed by her social position such as "sister-in-law", "daughter-in-law", "aut-in-law", etc. Less visible, but still a part of the process of assimilation, she has to annihilate her will and individual's project: she must accept to submit herself to the command of her husband, the mother-in-law and the lineage.
A man does not necessary need another man to start a rite or a social event. He just follows the rules of the rite, whatever it is, depending on the lineage. If his wife comes to die, he could remarry a new wife who will have to accept his beliefs. But he won't change his beliefs for her's.
A woman absolutely needs a man to accomplish the rites. If single, she has to wait for her father or brother to initiate it. If married or widowed, she has to lean on her husband or the religious chef of the lineage. If her husband comes to die, she could remarry another man of whom she has to adhere to the beliefs. She will change her beliefs to his'.

The women's issues on religions beliefs become visible, questioning and critical during the funerals, rite that people pay lot of attention because it is the last rite of passage showing the achievement of one's lifetime, and at the same time, initiating the dead to his/her afterlife. In fact, the Hmong people believe in reincarnation. The accomplishment of the funerals, without any improprieties, will allow the soul to reincarnate. The belief of the reincarnation of the soul implies a tacit and constant preoccupation of the Hmong people to correctly perform the rite. They think that if the funerals were not properly done, the soul wouldn't not find the way back to the village of the Ancestors then to reincarnation. Lost, impossible to revive, the soul would be haunting relatives on earth: it would take the life of somebody else in the household to substitute its place, and this would allow the dead to finally reincarnate. The making of the funerals remains very decisive in the process of reincarning. Thus social prestige, fear, and religious hopes of a better life inhabite Hmong people's funerals practices.
A man's funerals follow the beliefs of his lineage or his household if he is Christian. As for married and widowed women, they will follow their respective lineage rites or the household of their husband's beliefs. Single, non-married persons, dead before married, just have a modest funeral according to the parents' religious orientation.
The religious problem emerges within the cases of death of divorced women. The unmarried divorced women form the group at margin who questions the native theorization of funerals practices. Theoretically, after a divorce, a woman would be reintegrating her lineage of birth, and so when passed away, she would be buried accordingly to the funeral tradition of her lingeage of origin. But, in practice, this reintegration is perceived as a very negative act or return, quite harmful and fatal at the social and spirit level for the well-being of the household. Divorced, she is a "bad luck" to their family. Such a collective fear --and intellectual representation-- is never explicitly told. The fear of not being buried appropriately anchors the hearts of divorcees, which makes pressure on them to find as quickly as possible another man. The status of divorcee may be perceived as transitional; her stay at her parents' house would be a more material necessity of shelter than a spiritual return. For women, getting married means in fact leaving the lineage of origin forever. Divorcing means divorcing the husband, the lineage as well as their beliefs, but not returning to the former religious affiliation.
How do Hmong funeral traditions treat divorcee's death? It depends on the progress of divorcing. If the divorce ended at the time of her death, a fast and costless funeral will be accomplished accordingly to the funeral practices of her lineage of origin. If the divorce is still in progress, there will be problem for the doing of her funerals: the rules are that the husband should take in charge the funerals. However, if the dead woman was still divorcing but did not live with him anymore, the husband might strongly refuse to take care of the corpse.
The divorce poses an unspeakable, indescribable and unresolved issue of spiritual belonging on behalf of Hmong women. Observed situations showed that funerals of divorcees constitute a headache to relatives and lineages. One group would like the other to take care of the funerals. Waiting for a solution, the corpse is exposed outside the houses; no one rapidly took the initiative to properly bury divorced women. In the traditional settings in Southeast Asia, the corpse is left outside in front the door, in the mortuary in the West. These situations generate conflicts and disputes between the two lineages for the present time, and later on, generation after generation between the two lineages in conflict. In the traditional settings where changes did not yet impact the lifestyle, such situations are rare. In Laos for example, the normal path of divorcees will lead them to get remarried so that they could find again a social position, and promising decent funerals. In the West however, there are more and more cases of women who do not get a proper marriage and thus divorce, and this is a new issue that concretely challenge the Hmong community. How does the Hmong community answer this issue? Is there any collective concern?
Life in America proposes more choices and strategies to grow old for all whereas in the traditional environment, a woman only has three options if her husband dies:
1.) Remain widow for the rest of her life in the husband's lineage. She will get a proper funeral.
2.) Get married to a young brother of her late husband, which is a normal rule of levirate the culture. She will also get a proper funeral.
3) Get married to a Hmong of different clan, which will make her lose her male children, but still get a proper funeral.

The second option used to be the most probable in the old days. In a more modern setting, she could have one more option which is getting married to a non-Hmong.   The women, particularly divorcees who refuse to remarry, nowadays experience the no man's land. She will not only lose her social status once she lost her husband, but will be rejected by all. If she has some male children, she may find again an honorable place, and expect appropriate funerals if her sons grow up to become responsible men. If she is widow inside a lineage still practicing the cult of ancestors, she will be living her life as a burden: she will be dependent on her lineage for the performing of all rituals and rites. She will be under a constant constraint; her lineage will remind the weakness of her gender in this patriarchal society where she is considered as a minor incapable to socially and spiritually take in charge her life; she is totally submitted to the lineage of her (late) husband.
As for the increasing number of unmarried divorced women in America, they still live under lot of social pressure because of this need of a proper funeral. One of the current strategies for women to resolve the uncertain religious belonging due to divorce or the dependency of widowhood upon lineage is to convert to Christianity. Some of the divorcees, instead of going back to their lineage of origin, would prefer converting to Christianity. I noticed that these women never consulted parents and closed relatives: they look for a church that shows sympathy, and decides alone to join the church. They do not pay much more attention to the doctrine of the church. When the situation allows, they take their children with them in the new religion. With the help of churches which openly seek people in such a fragile situation, there is an important group of women who integrated churches or married Christian men. My study in the United States from 2000 to 2004 shows that divorcees become aware of this strategy as a unique way for them to find social and spiritual support. They believe that churches offer compassionate solidarity basing more on individual's faith than clan's interested support. The most unspoken aspect of their decision to join the church is the guarantee of a decent funeral.

After about 30 years of exile in America, some women came to be more aware of the cultural determination of their fate before and after death. The new generation needs to question the soundness of the traditional beliefs that decided the practices of funerals. With more critical thinking skills combined with financial independence, women need to question the social pressure related to difference in social and spiritual treatment between man and woman. How could women do to have more freedom of beliefs and of practices of the traditional beliefs in the community? Could women practice funerals, fertility rites? Is there any way to improve social gender iniquity and inequality regarding spiritual needs?
The change of cultural environment has initiated new behaviors among Hmong women who, by contingency, come to invent their culture in a way it could fit their needs of love, of spiritual comfort and of social recognition for their last passage on Earth during their funerals. It appears that Hmong patriarchal ideology that orientates all its social and spiritual practices --even valid in Southeast Asia-- become non-adapted to women's needs of recognition as a whole person responsible of their fate and choices.
Changes definitively appear to be necessary for the survival of Hmong culture and beliefs. And I think women, by their courage to question and to challenge the strength of Hmong culture, help Hmong people to preserve the most meaningful, universal features of its culture to Human Kind for the coming centuries.
However, there is a urgent and fundamental need of awareness that men and women need to develop and enhance: to keep alive each tradition of beliefs dating even before the dawn of the contemporary China, men and leaders should innovate traditional social and religions practices by allowing women to practice them. It is not just a necessity; it is in fact an important survival need for the whole group. We all need to pass from a gender-orientated society to an individual-orientated society where clan does need to give more space of development to a nation of tolerance, of gender equity and of compassion.

                                                                 TOP

                                        wwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Associated story:
A Hmong Women's Reason to Convert into Christianity
or
My Widowed Sister Preferred Getting Married With a Hmong Christian Because She Cannot Perform Hmong Rituals

In addition to this essay on women's issues on beliefs, I also wrote a story where I described the condition of a Hmong widow in America. As a Hmong woman and an anthropologist expert of my own culture, I have shared in dept the fate of so many women lacking joy, love and respect in their marriage. Some of them did finally divorce, but found themselves in a more complicated situation where they experiment a life without social and spiritual recognition.

I hope after reading this essay and the short story, you will understanding better the challenge of an ordinary widowed or divorced woman who could be you, your mother, your aunts or your sisters. You will support their strategies to escape a live without love, full of loneliness, and at the same time, you will second their will and wish to remain inside the Hmong community. Many of the Hmong women, in taking the challenge to individually find happiness, do not know yet that they are renovating Hmong traditions in the West. They only feel suffering and fear of losing her soul in the hall of darkness. Their experiences are making history of cultural changes, a greater destiny. I would like so much they will understand that their fragments of life are indeed full of greatness, and witness beyond heir passing the History of migration to the West.

I really hope this story will raise your awareness on this very sensitive issue on Hmong women's life in America or in France, and then will help you to improve your own life as a Hmong modern woman.

I encourage you all to positive actions.

                                                                 TOP

Fresno, California, 31st December 2003
Updated on 10th March 2006 and 4th December 2007

Copyright © 2003 Kao-Ly Yang
All rights Reserved.

TOPICS OF 2003
Janvier
Kuv phooj ywg tus zoo tshaj
Mon meilleur ami
My Best Friend

February
Neeg no yeej paub tsis tag txog nws tus kheej
Essai: commentaire et analyse du texte d'Alain "L'homme est obscur à lui-meme"
Essay: Comment and analysis of the text of the French Philosopher Alain "Human Being is obscure to itself"

February (Guest Writer: Zhang Xiao)
Hmoob suav thiab Hmoob poob teb chaw puas yog tib pab t ib pawg neeg?
Le fondement et les caractéristiques de l'identité miao et hmong
Common basis and characteristics of the Miao and the overseas Hmong Identity

April
Maiv thawj tug hlub
Le premier amour de May
May's First Love

August
Poj niam kev mus ntseeg ntuj
La raison de conversion des femmes hmong au christianisme
A Hmong Women's Reason to Convert to Christianity

Poj niam kev yeej pheej xaiv coj kev ntseeg
La problématique de la liberté de croyance chez les femmes
Women's Issues on Freedom of Beliefs

September
Kev ntsuas thiab luj khoom
Quelques systèmes de mesure et de pesée
Traditional Systems of Measuring and of Weighing

October
Paj huam hais txog cov neeg laus kev sib hlub
Une histoire d'amour du troisième âge
A Piece of Hmong Elderly Love

November
Niam Nkauj Ntsuab Paj Nra Yaj
Miss Hmong Pada Yang

November
Kev cob qhia poj niam hmoob rov los pab haiv neeg hmoob
Encouragement pour les femmes hmong aux actions collectives
Encouragement for the Hmong Women to Collective Actions

November
Keeb Kwm Tsim txoj cai AB78
Histoire de la proposition de loi AB78
History of the Assembly Bill AB78

November
Kev sib cog lus ua niam txiv sib hlub mus tas ib txhis
Contract de mariage entre Nushilong et Gaojoua
Marriage contract between Nusheelong and Gaojua

Vim licas Saub tsis nrog hmoob nyob?
Pourquoi Shao a t-il abondonné les Hmong?
Why did Shao leave the Hmong people?

November 24
Hmoob cov teeb meem cov loj tshaj rau xyoo 2000
Analyse des problématiques des Hmong Américains-recensement de 2000
Analysis of Hmong American most sensitive issues - Census 2000

December
Kuv kev ntshaw rau peb Hmoob rau lub xyoo tshiab 2004
Mes souhaits de bonne année pour 2004: devenir conscient(e) des besoins d'éduquer une nouvelle génération de Hmong intellectuels
My Wish for 2004: Becoming Aware of the Need to raise a New Generation of Hmong Intellectuals