The Livelihood and Cultural Change of the Highland Miao People in Yunnan

Abstract

Culture is the core expression and reflection of ethnicity. As a south-east Asian ethnic group, the ethnicity of the Yunnan Miao most notably appears in their highland migration culture. However, their highland migration culture is the result of their shifting cultivation livelihoods rather than state effect, and was widely penetrated in their language, architecture, clothing, ceremony and religious perception. Shifting cultivation, including slash-and-burn cultivation, gathering and hunting, and exchanges with surrounding ethnic groups, together shaped the features of mobility, limits and mutual benefits of highland migration culture of Miao people in Yunnan. Nowadays, the highland migration culture is constantly changing.