Making Aspirations Concrete? ʻGood Houses' and Mockery in Upland Laos

作者：Rosalie Stolz · 发表于：Ethnos · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1080/00141844.2019.1696864 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Geography

ABSTRACT In the hills of northern Laos, dotted with more or less circular arrangements of wooden and bamboo houses, concrete houses have recently been appearing. The physical but also imaginary emergence of concrete houses has triggered local re-examinations of what good houses entail. With this change in vernacular architecture being hitherto unprecedented, house building projects have become a salient topic of talk among the Khmu, upland dwellers of northern Laos. This article uses the case of the first semi-concrete house erection and instances of mockery to show, firstly, that the adoption of new building materials displays the builder’s aspirations and independence, which are eventually outweighed by the conflicting desire to establish a socially secure house; secondly, attention will be given to a more elusive reaction, the resonance of possible upcoming socio-economic difference in ironical remarks that can be understood as an engagement with upland futures, characterised by both hope and uncertainty.