Overview

By retaining their orally based culture through to the present day, the Kammu of northern Laos and adjacent parts of Vietnam, Thailand and China have long been recognised as a repository for much that has been lost or ignored in the literate cultures of their lowland neighbours. Many studies of Kammu folklore, music and society have been published as a result. Arguably, its crowning achievement is finally to appear. Ostensibly, this is a dictionary of the Yuan dialect of Kammu but the reality is far more: a vast, encyclopaedic reference work that details not only some 13,000 words but also describes all aspects of Kammu life, including rites and ceremonies, implements, plants and animals. The richness of this detail is largely based on author Kam Raw's personal knowledge and experience as a Kammu hunter, swidden farmer and shaman. The result is an essential reference work that not only details the life, language and culture of the Kammu but also offers a rich insight into the worlds of minority peoples elsewhere in upland Southeast Asia and southern China.

Full Product Details

9788776941161

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Kam Raw (1938-2011) grew up in a Kammu village in northern Laos. He came to Sweden in 1974 to work in Kristina Lindell's Kammu project. Under his Lao name Damrong Tayanin, he was the author or co-author of several books on Kammu folktales and the traditional Kammu lifestyle. Jan-Olof Svantesson is a professor of Linguistics at Lund University, Sweden. Kristina Lindell (1928-2005) was Senior Lecturer in Chinese at Lund University, where she started the Kammu project (including work on this dictionary) in 1972. Hakan Lundstrom is Dean of the Malmo Faculty of Fine and Performing Arts, Lund University. His research specialization is in ethnomusicology and he has written about song, music and music terminology among the Kammu.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available