Some customs of the Lisu

Extended by the most inaccessible regions of a vast territory, there exist big differences between the form of life of a few areas yotras.

Where more they concentrate, in the Autonomous Prefecture of Nujiang de los Lisu and the Gnu, most isolated they still realize agriculture of groove and fire, and preserve the communal property of the grounds. In the places more easily accessible his culture has transformed very much.

Earlier there were comparing and selling slaves, who once acquired were integrating into the family. But there are already no slaves between them.

His original society, as it survives in the isolated areas or where the influence of the states has been a minor, is an egalitarian society, in whom chiefs do not exist not occasional not permenentes, where men and women enjoy the same rights and obligations. Nevertheless, where there came the influence of the Chinese world, his society changed quickly. Although they remained organized in clans, which were living of compact form in the territory of a village, there happened to be directed by an elder, who was presiding at the political and religious ceremonies, he was declaring the war, he was arranging the internal disputes and even was gathering taxes on behalf of the emperor. In Thailand, these chiefs, are met between the people like "chiefs of Thailand" emphasizing his role foreign to the traditional culture Lisu.

Possibly the figure of these chiefs has been inspired by the shamans than by the traditional society, which were turning into intermediaries between the world of the persons and that of the gods.

To the death of the elders a special mourning of 2 is celebrated ó 3 days without working. Then they are buried by his arches and knives.

The villages of the Lisu are in the hillside of the mountain. They do not seem to show a special distribution, the houses are not aligned, do not form streets between them, but they seem constructed in the territory without following any reason. More above of the village, there is usually three or four altarcillos under a leafy tree, surrounded by a fence, where his religious activities concentrate.

They live in wooden houses or bamboo, generally constructed on piles to avoid the inconveniences of the animals. Behind every house there is usually an altar of the ancestors. In many areas they already construct houses of Chinese style, of adobe or brick, according to the economic possibilities.

They have a calendar of 10 months, which are named according to the activities that must be realized, like that the year it begins with:

Month that the flowers open.

They continue for this order:

Month that the birds sing.

Month that the sun burns the mountains.

Month of the famine.

Month of meeting.

Month of the harvest.

Month of doing wine.

Month of the hunting.

Month of the year happens.

Month of raising the houses.

Earlier they had a type of courts, which before the crimes were resorting to the "God's judgments", with oil or with blood of chicken.

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