The Hmong 1987 1995

The Hmong are a mountain-dwelling subgroup of the Miao of southwest China. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they began migrating southeast to Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In the second half of the twentieth century, mainly because of their participation in the Second Indochina War (1954-1975), the Hmong began migrating to the West. Today the Hmong are one of the fastest-growing ethnic populations in the United States, increasing from about 94,000 in the 1990 census to approximately 190,000 in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005 American Community Survey. With this rapid expansion, there has been a substantially increased interest in Hmong-related written works; multimedia materials; and websites among students, scholars, service professionals, and the general public. To help meet this interest, Mark Edward Pfeifer has compiled Hmong-Related Works, 1996-2006. An Annotated Bibliography, which includes full reference information (including Internet links to articles) and descriptive summaries for more than 600 Hmong-related works. Book jacket.

This anthology wrestles with Hmong Americans’ inclusion into and contributions to Asian American studies, as well as to American history and culture and refugee, immigrant, and diasporic trajectories. It negotiates both Hmong American political and cultural citizenship, meticulously rewriting the established view of the Hmong as “new” Asian neighbors—an approach articulated, Hollywood style, in Clint Eastwood’s film Gran Torino. The collection boldly moves Hmong American studies away from its usual groove of refugee recapitulation that entrenches Hmong Americans points-of-origin and acculturation studies rather than propelling the field into other exciting academic avenues. Following a summary of more than three decades’ of Hmong American experience and a demographic overview, chapters investigate the causes of and solutions to socioeconomic immobility in the Hmong American community and political and civic activism, including Hmong American electoral participation and its affects on policymaking. The influence of Hmong culture on young men is examined, followed by profiles of female Hmong leaders who discuss the challenges they face and interviews with aging Hmong Americans. A section on arts and literature looks at the continuing relevance of oral tradition to Hmong Americans’ successful navigation in the diaspora, similarities between rap and kwv txhiaj (unrehearsed, sung poetry), and Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir, The Latehomecomer. The final chapter addresses the lay of the land in Hmong American studies, constituting a comprehensive literature review. Diversity in Diaspora showcases the desire to shape new contours of Hmong American studies as Hmong American scholars themselves address new issues. It represents an essential step in carving out space for Hmong Americans as primary actors in their own right and in placing Hmong American studies within the purview of Asian American studies.

This work provides access to information on the rich and often little known legacy of anthropological scholarship preserved in a diversity of archives, libraries and museums. Selected anthropological manuscripts, papers, fieldnotes, site reports, photographs and sound recordings in more than 150 repositories are described. Coverage of resources in North American repositories is extensive while Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Australia and certain other countries are more selectively represented. Entries are arranged by repository location and most contributors draw upon a special knowledge of the resources described. Contributors include James R. Glenn (National Anthropological Archives), Elizabeth Edwards and Veronica Lawrence (Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford), Francisco Demetrio, S.J. (Museum and Archives, Xavier University, Philippines) and many others. The guide covers selected documentation in social and cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, archaeology and folklore. Some major area studies collections (such as the Asia Collections, Cornell University Libraries, and the Melanesian Archive at the University of California, San Diego) are also represented. Web URLs have been cited when available and personal, and ethnic name indexes are provided.

America's healthcare system in the twenty-first century faces a variety of pressures and challenges, not the least of which is that posed by the increasingly multicultural nature of American society itself. Large numbers among the Hmong, immigrants from the landlocked Asian nation of Laos, continue to prefer their own ancient medical traditions. That these Hmong Americans should continue to adhere to a tradition of folk medicine, rather than embrace the modern healthcare system of America, poses questions that must be answered. This book takes up the task of examining Hmong American concepts of health, illness and healing, and looks at the Hmong American experience with conventional medicine. In so doing, it identifies factors that either obstruct or enable healthcare delivery to the Hmong, specifically a target sample of Hmong Americans resident in Colorado. Drawing upon scientific methods of data collection, the research reveals attitudes currently held by a group of American citizens toward health and medicine which run the gamut from the very modern to those which have prevailed in the highlands of Southeast Asia for centuries.

America's healthcare system in the twenty-first century faces a variety of pressures and challenges, not the least of which is that posed by the increasingly multicultural nature of American society itself. Large numbers among the Hmong, immigrants from the landlocked Asian nation of Laos, continue to prefer their own ancient medical traditions. That these Hmong Americans should continue to adhere to a tradition of folk medicine, rather than embrace the modern healthcare system of America, poses questions that must be answered. This book takes up the task of examining Hmong American concepts of health, illness and healing, and looks at the Hmong American experience with conventional medicine. In so doing, it identifies factors that either obstruct or enable healthcare delivery to the Hmong, specifically a target sample of Hmong Americans resident in Colorado. Drawing upon scientific methods of data collection, the research reveals attitudes currently held by a group of American citizens toward health and medicine which run the gamut from the very modern to those which have prevailed in the highlands of Southeast Asia for centuries.