Transcultural Communication and Social Order: Comparisons in Upland Southeast Asia

In mainland Southeast Asia, the center-periphery relation structures both upland and lowland socialities and provides a background on which current ideas of indigeneity unfold. This relation is articulated in rituals, in the structure of settlements, and in myths and other cultural representations. However, there has been little attempt to compare types of center and periphery relations between ethnicities. This article proposes such a comparison between the Rmeet of Laos and the Yao/Iu Mien, an ethnicity that has migrated from southern China across Laos to Thailand. It proposes that at least two types of center-periphery relation can be found among these groups, one characterized by continuity and replication, the other by contrast and boundary maintenance. It also proposes that besides the dominant method of articulating center and periphery in each society, subordinate models exist. This comparison is enabled by a synthetic series of theoretical models that structure analytical terms.