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In 1992, Ms. Dia Cha – then a graduate student in anthropology at Northern Arizona University – traveled to Chieng Kham Refugee and Napho Repatriation Camps in Thailand, and the village of Ban KM 52, in Vientiane Province, Laos, to research issues concerning the repatriation to Laos of Lao Lum and Hmong women refugees. This article, originally written upon the return from these travels and in partial fulfillment of the requirements for her Master of Arts degree in Applied Anthropology, considers the findings made and the insights achieved on this journey of discovery. In particular, the work discusses changes and continuity in the lives of Lao Lum and Hmong refugee women in the camps. Also addressed in considerable detail is the impact of the author’s status as an educated Hmong-American woman and former refugee on her interactions with female and male informants residing in the two refugee camps. Ms. Cha, who spent much of her early life in such refugee camps as are herein described, has, in the intervening period, become Dr. Dia Cha, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA. The research project she describes was funded by the United Nations Development Fund for Women and executed by the American Friends Service Committee (The Quaker Services). Ms. Jacquelyn Chagnon joined Ms. Cha during the second phrase of the research, in Napho Repatriation Center, and later in Laos; however, the following article, produced originally in 1992, was written solely by Ms. Cha.

Many Hmong continue to believe in the efficacy, and commission the practice by shamans of, some of the more important traditional rituals, such as marriage rites (kab tshoob kev kos), "soul calling" (hu plig), healing rites (ua neeb or khaw koob), worshipping the "house spirit" (teev xwm kab), and funeral rites (kev ploj tuag). Certainly, however, there are those Hmong, especially among younger generations, who either choose not to participate in such rituals, or who participate in them without any clear comprehension of the deeper meaning or details; indeed, without any strongly held beliefs regarding the cosmological system which is the ritual's foundation, underpinning and supporting the call for the many actions, gestures, offerings and recitations which, in the final analysis, constitute the bulk of any such performance. This philosophical ambivalence on the part of modern celebrants renders the position of ritual in Hmong society somewhat problematic. In addition, the various Hmong clans have, in the past, of necessity resided in divergent geographical locales, and, as a result of this and other factors, have often espoused divergent, philosophically and culturally heterogeneous, beliefs. This, taken together with the fact that Hmong customs have been orally transmitted down the generations, has had the result that there may be several versions of the meaning, and method of performance, of any given ritual.

This paper examines the role of Lao and Hmong women in two Thai refugee camps. It looks specifically at the participation of women within the administrative structure of the camps, in camp service and training programs, and in the relocation process. While no refugees wield real power in the camps, the paper demonstrates how the absence of women in camp leadership and their consistent representation by men effectively muffles whatever little input they might have into camp policies, programs, or their own futures within the relocation process. This is a result, not of callous administrators nor insensitive servic agencies, but rather of the unexamined assumptions of development planning.

The article relates on the author's experience about the discrimination she felt as an Hmong woman when she migrated in the U.S. With neither the ability to speak English nor any formal education, she encountered frequent discrimination and continuous racial harassment from the Americans. By that, she enrolled herself and studied harder to pursue the career that she selected inorder to achieve her goal to create a generalized and positive influence through social action.