essay

The community house of the Lamet

Compass for fields afar: essays in social anthropology, by Karl Gustav IzikowitzGöteborg, SwedenPublished In 1985 • Pages: 139-189

By: Izikowitz, Karl Gustav.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Rmeet (Lamet) villages typically include a centrally located communal house in which all men—whether married adults, dependent elders, or young bachelors—are expected to spend a considerable part of their time when not farming. This essay describes the rhythm of daily life in men’s houses. The author raises questions about the origin of institutionalized physical segregation of men and women in Rmeet and other cultures with functionally similar community houses. A favored explanation links the evolution of communal houses not so much to cultural variations in gender-based division of labor as to the degree of public display in ceremonies related to village cults.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Community structure
Settlement patterns
Dwellings
Public structures
Outbuildings
Tillage
Annual cycle
Division of labor by gender
General character of religion
Cult of the dead
Organized ceremonial
Prayers and sacrifices
Sacred objects and places
Avoidance and taboo
Hunting and trapping
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Rmeet
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Asia
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Southeast Asia
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Anthropologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Teferi Abate Adem ; 2018
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
May 1937-January 1938
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1937-1938
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Luang Namtha, Oudômxai, and Bokèo provinces, Laos
NotesAdditional notes
Karl Gustav Izikowitz
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
86162478
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Lamet (Laotian people)