CONTEXTUAL HIERARCHY: THE PRAGMATICS OF SPATIAL SIGNS AMONG THE AKHA

By Deborah E. Tooker

I propose to complete a book manuscript on the topic of spatial symbolism
among the Loimi Akha of the Thai-Burma upland border area. Spatial symbols
among the Akha are inherently linked to symbols of power. However, their
usages (and thus the power relations they reflect) shift contextually. This
leads to a critique of previous approaches which explains spatial/political
symbolism in Southeast Asia in a decontextualized manner, a manner which
implicitly reflects the perspective of the lowland elite power centers. In my
critique and reformulation, I draw on theories of pragmatics meaning in
linguistics and semiotics, and a discussion on the implicit links between
spatial practices and power relations in society.

Deborah. E. Tooker (1953) studied Anthropology at Harvard University. In 1988
she received her PhD for a thesis entitled:' Inside and Outside: Schematic
Replication at the Levels of Village, Household and Person among the Akha of
Northern Thailand'. She was lecturer in Social Studies and Anthropology at
Harvard University. From 1991 to 1992 she was Rockefeller Resident Fellow in
the Humanities at Cornell University and presently she is assistant Professor
of Anthropology at Le Moyne College. She conducted field research in Chiang
Mai Province in Thailand from 1982 to 1985.