Trade relationships between Lao valley, mid-slope, and peak communities
The Lao government has divided Lao citizens into three broad ethnic categories: lowland, mid-slope, and peak Lao peoples. Lowland Lao communities tend to be ethnically Lao, while most mid-slope communities are Khmu, and peak communities are usually Hmong. This ethnic division can be misleading, however. Lao villages of different ethnicities have always interacted with one another. Because valley, mid-slope, and peak villages are located in different environmental conditions, conduct different kinds of agriculture, and collect different kinds of plants, trade up and down the mountainside makes economic sense. Villages may maintain closer ties to others up the mountainside, or down in the valley, than they do with more distant villages of the same ethnicity. Although the political categories differ, social and economic relations in Northern Thailand, Shan State in Burma, and Southern Yunnan may operate similarly. I will present a poster on these interactions--particularly trade interactions--up and down Lao mountain slopes.