The Second International Conference on Hani/Akha Culture

The South-East Asian Mountain Peoples' Culture and Development: Research, Documentation and Information Programmes - Thailand (SEAMP), and the International Institute for Asian Studies - the Netherlands (IIAS), are acting as secretariat for the Conference, with the cooperation of Hani/Akha organizations and the Tribal Research Institute, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The objectives of the Conference are: to encourage research, including 'action research', on Hani/Akha culture and traditional knowledge. This includes research regarding the Hani- Akha relationships to their majority neighbours in the so-called Mae Khong River Quadrangle area including S. China, N.Thailand, N.E. Burma, N. Laos and N. Vietnam.
The Conference will be conceived as a working Conference by and for Hani/Akha and related researchers.
Since the Conference is now only 8 months away, the secretariat welcomes the proposal of paper topics to be presented to the Conference. Research papers on topics relating to the Hani/Akha peoples of China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam will be considered, with a priority for papers related in some way to the main themes mentioned below. Those who wish to present a paper at the Conference are asked to submit a paper abstract in English (of no more than one page) as soon as possible but not later than 15 November 1995. Please submit in duplicate to both SEAMP and IIAS (addresses listed below).

Themes and topics:
- Traditional Hani/Akha ecological knowledge and bio-diversity conservation
- Traditional Hani/Akha medical knowledge and shamanism
- The traditional non-formal Hani/Akha educational system
- Hani/Akha genealogical and kinship-systems in modern times
- The role of the Hani/Akha women in past and present
- Hani/Akha networking, relationships, and future cooperation

Orality and literacy will be discussed in relation to all these themes. These themes will be introduced during the opening day of the Conference, after which the Conference will split into 5 or 6 working groups, which will work on these themes in or near Akha villages in the Chiang Rai province, Thailand.
The organizing committee sincerely hopes that many of our distinguished colleagues throughout the world will respond to this call for papers, and that they will join us in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in May 1996

For abstracts, and further information:
Dr. Leo Alting von Geusau SEAMP-Thailand 137/3 Nantharam Rd. Chiangmai 50100, Thailand
Fax: +66-53-274947 Tel: +66-53-276194
Dr Deborah Tooker
IIAS
P.O. Box 9515
2300 RA Leiden
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-71-5272227
Fax: +31-71-5274162
Email: IIAS@let.leidenuniv.nl