Politics over Hosting

Case Study of Feast in Hani, Yunnan, China

Abstract

This paper explores the contested yet inevitable entanglement between the local manner of guest-catering and self-interest over the feast of Hani mountain peasants in the southern part of Yunnan province, China. Especially in the last ten years, these people have spent enormous amounts of energy, time and valuable property including livestock to hold ritual feasts through which the host households can find a good opportunity to receive neighbors as guests. As both hosting ritual feast and being a guest properly are mentioned as "man's business," a recognized way to maintain social relations, it seems that there is a rational calculation of profits and losses or a mode of reciprocity underlying the welcoming practice. However, on some occasions such as funeral feasts where hundreds of people participate, the material or emotional interactions among hosts, guests, and co-hosts are so complicated that no one can estimate them. The case study shows how the hospitality that emerges in Hani villagers' feast is connected with physical and social conditions.