LAOS

Description/Abstract: This panel explores female archaeologists involved in research in Southeast Asia in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, to the present time. The panel also invites papers on museum practitioners operating in the region in the same period. Earlier examples involving female geologists would also be welcome. Comparative analyses are also welcome between female archaeologists in Southeast Asia and their female counterparts outside this region. Papers should explore perceptions, treatment, working conditions but also advantages and disadvantages of early and contemporary female diggers. Instances of seemingly incongruous behaviour would also make for interesting presentations. For example, how to rationalise the intrepid Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), pioneer of Iraqi archaeology and skilled political officer, with her role as honorary secretary of the British Women's Anti-Suffrage League? Proposals on other perceptions of females on fieldwork in Southeast Asia will also be considered. Interested parties should submit an Abstract (100-300 words) online for Session 03:

On 23 July 2018, up to five million cubic meters of water plummeted from the reservoir of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam, causing the biggest catastrophic event ever to occur in Laos related to a hydropower dam. But even before the dam broke it was already causing considerable social and environmental impacts, ones that constitute slow violence. Catastrophic and slow violence are, however, not simply separate entities. Rather, catastrophic violence can variously shift into becoming slow violence. This indicates the importance of temporality, and the need to be increasingly vigilant in addressing problems associated with certain types of projects.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to strengthen disability-related health information. This study analysed the health information system in Lao PDR and sought evidence of interventions to improve disability-related health information. The study was based on a literature review and key informant interviews (N = 17) informed by the Health Metrics Network's Framework and Standards and the Performance of Routine Information System Management framework. The Lao health information system is in an embryonic stage with health data often incomplete, inaccurate and poorly used. Indicators related to disability or functioning are not included, and capacity to diagnose the health condition of disability is limited. No studies of health information interventions were found. As a State Party to the CRPD, the Lao PDR has a legal obligation to collect health-related information on people with disabilities. Given the nascent stage of development of...

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides an opportunity to strengthen disability-related health information. This study analysed the health information system in Lao PDR and sought evidence of interventions to improve disability-related health information. The study was based on a literature review and key informant interviews (N = 17) informed by the Health Metrics Network's Framework and Standards and the Performance of Routine Information System Management framework. The Lao health information system is in an embryonic stage with health data often incomplete, inaccurate and poorly used. Indicators related to disability or functioning are not included, and capacity to diagnose the health condition of disability is limited. No studies of health information interventions were found. As a State Party to the CRPD, the Lao PDR has a legal obligation to collect health-related information on people with disabilities. Given the nascent stage of development of...

The vast majority of people living along the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC) are involved in the agricultural sector. A dependency on subsistence agriculture using traditional farming methods that rely on expensive pesticides has caused many households to be economically impoverished. Farmers often lack knowledge about alternative farming techniques that use less expensive inputs and farming techniques. At the same time, most households are unaware of markets beyond their immediate surroundings, and have little or no knowledge about broader national or international market opportunities. There is also a lack of pricing information, technologies, certification, branding, and linkages along the value chain for processing, packaging and marketing.

The value chain approach is an effective way to better understand the wider context of primary agricultural activities. Its application to organic vegetable production can help farmers connect to markets by showing how downstream linkages and different types of interventions can add value to their production activities.

This booklet provides a practitioner’s guide to the organic vegetables value chain, with particular emphasis on its application in the EWEC. It offers an integrated approach to what is now the fastest growing segment of agriculture, namely, organic vegetables. Its application to the EWEC can take advantage of the areas’ agricultural resource-based activities and the Corridor’s time and cost-effective way of moving products to markets.

Few people who have not visited Laos know where “Champassak” is located. Even fewer are aware of the Champassak Royal House. This is not surprising, as Champassak is not included as one of Southeast Asia’s nation states, and thus is not prominently identified on any world maps. Nor is the Champassak Royal House legally recognized anywhere in the world. One could characterize Champassak as a loser of European colonial expansion in Southeast Asia, and the subsequent period when the region was divided into countries, as it was never elevated to modern statehood. Yet the Champassak Royal House persists amongst politically exiled members of the family who fled Laos when it was taken over by communists in 1975. Indeed, in 2013 family members celebrated the 300th year anniversary of the Champassak Royal House—not in Champassak itself, the space that originally constituted it—but in Paris, France, where much of the Na Champassak royal family now reside. Here we examine how Champassak royalty is positioned in France, both socially and spatially, as ‘non-state royals’—royalty in foreign exile. That includes considering the politics of rank and recognition, and varying forms of performativity amongst Champassak royals of different generations and positionalities.

THIS IS YOUR CUE: TIME TO TAKE ACTION
Call upon the community or general public, parents and youths, mental health professionals, physicians and nurses, educators, Facebook and other internet social media, religious groups, athletes, celebrities, secular and SBNR, school administrators, news media, Hollywood, academia, scientists, employers and employees, business owners and managers, private individuals and public officials, to join their talents, opportunities, and influence to support student mental health and end school shootings. Sharing this article is one way you can help https://www.academia.edu/35809557

BiblioNewsChiangMai is a monthly newsletter produced as a hobby by Louis Gabaude in partnership with the École française d'Extrême-Orient library in Chiang Mai. It aims to spread informations on old and recent publications dealing with human and social sciences exploring the research domains of the EFEO (see below). These publications can be found either at the EFEO library in Chiang Mai, or at the editor's personal library, or on the Net.

A native of Bruges (now part of Belgium), Jacques de Coutre was a gem trader who spent nearly a decade in Southeast Asia in the early 17th century. In addition to a substantial autobiography written in Spanish and preserved in the National Library of Spain in Madrid, he wrote a series of memorials to the united crown of Spain and Portugal that contain recommendations designed to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the Iberian powers in Southeast Asia, particularly against the backdrop of early Dutch political and commercial penetration into the region. Translated into English for the first time, these materials provide a valuable first-hand account of the bigger issues confronting the early colonial powers in Southeast Asia, and deep insights into the societies De Coutre encountered in the territory that today makes up Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Lao-ization is a relevant concept to describe the various evolutions of minority languages in modern-day Laos. If one takes the example of the Saek language, prominent features of the Lao language, such as the absence of consonant clusters, the merging of the initial consonant /r/ with /l/ or /h/, or the merging of the final consonant /l/ with /n/, were a part of "linguistic predictions" concerning Saek (Gedney 1993; Wilaiwan Khanittanan 1976, 2008).
Agreeing with the assessment formulated by Wilaiwan Khanittanan, according to whom "it appears that Saek is not going to be extinct in the near future” (Wilaiwan Khanittanan 2008), the presenter will refer to both data collected from informants speaking the Saek of Ban Buek (Nakai district, Khammouane province) - in 1993 (by Michel Ferlus), then in 2015 (by the presenter) - and to two corpuses of Saek which are included in a collection belonging to the École française d'Extrême-Orient's library (Maison de l'Asie, Paris) called "manuscrits européens" (henceforward ME) - and which have so far never been mentioned in the literature concerning Saek. Both documents (ME 398-399 and ME 406) give a significant amount of Saek language items, which were collected in the early years of the 20th century (the precise date of ME 398-399 is 1903) and contain a presentation of the Saek language which was already enhancing Siamese and Lao influences on Saek and even predicting its rapid extinction!
The more comprehensive of these two compilations is the corpus collected by Antonin Baudenne (ME 406), who is better known as one of the two authors of a French novel about colonial Laos Sao Tiampa, épouse laotienne (1912). A civil servant of the colonial regime based in Laos from 1901 (he was a "commis des services civils de l’Indochine"), he is also the author of a detailed travel guide about the country, À travers le Laos: Guide à l'usage des voyageurs.

Keywords: Saek language; Contact-induced language changes; Linguistic questionnaires; Language documentation

Abstract
The proposed presentation will first mention two lexicons of Saek compiled by Paul Macey and Antonin Baudenne, at the time of that language’s discovery by French administrators in the early years of the 20th century. These lexicons, both included in a collection belonging to the École française d'Extrême-Orient (henceforward EFEO)'s library, the “manuscrits européens” (ME), have never been mentioned in the literature concerning Saek. Could André-Georges Haudricourt, who made an extensive use of EFEO’s linguistic questionnaires and various word lists in his research about the languages of Mainland Southeast Asia, have possibly missed Baudenne’s corpus in the ME collection (ME 406 in EFEO 's library)? And, if Haudricourt (1960: 168) refers to Macey’s 1905 and 1907 articles, he never mentions his lexicon and notes in the ME collection (ME 398-399, ME 402, ME 405, ME 405A-405B), which are undoubtedly their preparatory documents.
On the basis of their lexical features, the Saek varieties represented in Macey and Baudenne’s lexicons can be ascribed to the Saek dialect documented by William J. Gedney (Hudak 1993, and 2010), as it is the case for all Saek corpuses made available so far by linguists as well as non-linguists. When it comes to other Saek dialects, the only distinct Saek dialect identified so far is “the dialect of Khamkeut”, which “emanates from the village of Na Kadok in the Subdistrict of Nam Veo” (Chamberlain 1998: 32). James R. Chamberlain is the first who mentioned the existence of that dialect, but has not provided “any phonological descriptions” for it (Hudak 2010: 252).
This presentation, based upon the researcher’s interactions with speakers of the Saek spoken in Ban Na Kadok, will propose a tone system of that dialect and discuss, among various phonological, lexical and syntactic particularities, initial consonants in cognates shared by the two main dialects.

References
Chamberlain, James R. (1998). The origin of Sek: implications for Tai and Vietnamese history. Journal of the Siam Society. 86.1&2: 27-48.
Haudricourt, André-G. (1960). V. Note sur les dialectes de la région de Moncay. Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient. Tome 50. 1: 161-177.
Hudak, Thomas John. (2010). William J. Gedney's Concise Saek-English, English-Saek Lexicon. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press (Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications No. 37).

Despite the recent blossoms of gifted education policies and practices in ASEAN, little is still known in terms of literature and cooperation within the region, which aims to create an ASEAN Community by 2015. This paper will review Gifted Education policies and practices in Vietnam and ASEAN countries.  It follows the suggestion of the regional cooperation models, in adaptation from and connection to international examples, such as NAGC – an interstate association (US), TalentDay – a regional movement (Europe) and GERRIC – a research and application center (Australia).

Following an overview of the Franco-Hmong relationship that developed during the first half of the twentieth century and laid the groundwork for future alignments, the main body of this paper focuses on the formative years of the multi-faceted Hmong-American alliance that evolved between 1949 and 1962. Chronologically summarized, this period encompasses wide-ranging and often tumultuous events that ultimately put Laos in what has been described as the cockpit of the Cold War and placed the Hmong on the front lines. When the colonial French withdrew from Laos following the First Indochina War, the United States stepped in to fill the vacuum left behind in the politically unstable country, Washington's objective being to neutralize Laos and block Communist infiltration from North Vietnam through northeastern Laos—the homeland of the Hmong—and into the Mekong valley, the heartland of the politically dominant Lao, and neighboring Thailand. Trapped in the middle were the Hmong, a multi-clan ethnic minority originally from China that was held in contempt by the governing Lao. The Hmong resettled mainly in Xieng Khouang, a province bordering Tonkin in Vietnam, a country whose hegemony the Hmong historically resisted. The pro-West paramount leaders of the Hmong, Touby Lyfoung and his successor Vang Pao, served as mediators between clan leaders and were mindful of the expectations of their people and their aspiration for freedom. Recognizing that the threat posed by the Vietnamese placed their homeland and livelihoods in jeopardy, they negotiated the support of powerful foreign patrons—the French and later the Americans—and served as intermediaries between the Hmong clan leaders, their foreign patrons, and successive Lao governments. As the showdown leading to the so-called " Secret War " edged forward, the political agendas of the key players were frequently readjusted in the volatile environment. This paper describes the resulting uncertainties that emerged as mutual commitments were made, the outcomes of which often took unexpected turns. As time passed, the Hmong became the principal instrument of a continued Royal Lao Government presence in northeastern Laos.

The 6 million people forming the Laotian population are officially divided into 49 ethnic groups. How can we explain this huge diversity of people ? How do they live together ? How does the State manage this diversity ? Based on the existing literature and on personal field research, I am presenting in this paper a general and synthetic perspective of the ethnic question in Laos. In doing so, I defend the idea that ethnicity should be conceived not as a given, but as a product resulting from a particular process that I will clarify here. This analysis will allow me to propose a socio-political perspective on ethnic and cultural issues.

The present study maps the organic vegetables value chain in the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC). It covers horizontal and vertical linkages, information and support services, price differentials, and packaging, branding and certification processes in an effort to identify strengths and challenges for an action plan in the value chain. In so doing, it supports the transformation of the EWEC from a transport and logistics corridor into a full-fledged economic corridor. After more than a decade in the making, the EWEC now offers time and cost-efficient transport linkages between major commercial centers and gateways to markets within and outside the corridor. By broadening the scope of the EWEC into value chains whose activities extend across districts, provinces, subregions and global markets, the economic corridor will enable households and enterprises of all sizes to better link their actions with value-adding downstream activities.

In 1929, a series of events steered the École française d’Extrême-Orient
(EFEO) to the study of Indochina’s prehistory and the Plain of Jars in
Laos. The EFEO was founded in December 1898 when Paul Doumer,
Governor General of Indochina, decided to establish a permanent
archaeological mission in Saigon. By his order, the Geological Survey
of Indochina (GSI) was also formed in Hanoi during his governorship.
For the next three decades, research at the EFEO centred on the study
and documentation of Asia’s languages and cultures, attracting talented
linguists and art historians, mostly from Metropolitan France. In the
late 1920s, Louis Finot, Victor Goloubew, P.V. van Stein Callenfels
and George Coedès each played a role in the transition to the study of
Indochina’s prehistory and the Plain of Jars of Laos, with Madeleine
Colani as a key player. This chapter recounts the EFEO’s involvement
in researching the prehistory of Indochina and the first archaeological
exploration to the Plain of Jars.

Recently concerns have been raised regarding the potential for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) framework to recentralize forests, potentially setting back efforts to institute localized and decentralized forms of natural resource management. Here, I apply a political ecology approach to consider access and exclusion to land and natural resources in the contexts of three emerging REDD projects in Cambodia and Laos. I argue that each represents either a partial, incomplete, or so far unfulfilled—but nevertheless useful—example of efforts to use REDD to strengthen local resource tenure. Thus, it is possible to
envision how REDD could be utilized to leverage decentralized forest tenure, even if such a reality seems far away at present.

Interrelated holy men millenarian movements destabilized southern Laos and North East Siam (Isan) at the turn of the twentieth century. In contrast to those who have interpreted these uprisings as purely anti-state, the author presents evidence to suggest that Champassak royals played crucial roles in supporting the revolts, even to the extent of masterminding rebellions against both the French and the Siamese in order to enhance their own power. The findings of this research illustrate the varying power structures that existed within lowland states in mainland South East Asia at the beginning of the twentieth century, a point that has implications with regard to James Scott’s (2009) arguments in The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia.

Title. Factors affecting the utilization of antenatal care in developing countries: systematic review of the literature.Aim.  This paper is a report of a systematic review to identify and analyse the main factors affecting the utilization of antenatal care in developing countries.Background.  Antenatal care is a key strategy for reducing maternal mortality, but millions of women in developing countries do not receive it.Data sources.  A range of electronic databases was searched for studies conducted in developing countries and published between 1990 and 2006. English-language publications were searched using relevant keywords, and reference lists were hand-searched.Review methods.  A systematic review was carried out and both quantitative and qualitative studies were included.Results.  Twenty-eight papers were included in the review. Studies most commonly identified the following factors affecting antenatal care uptake: maternal education, husband’s education, marital status, availability, cost, household income, women’s employment, media exposure and having a history of obstetric complications. Cultural beliefs and ideas about pregnancy also had an influence on antenatal care use. Parity had a statistically significant negative effect on adequate attendance. Whilst women of higher parity tend to use antenatal care less, there is interaction with women’s age and religion. Only one study examined the effect of the quality of antenatal services on utilization. None identified an association between the utilization of such services and satisfaction with them.Conclusion.  More qualitative research is required to explore the effect of women’s satisfaction, autonomy and gender role in the decision-making process. Adequate utilization of antenatal care cannot be achieved merely by establishing health centres; women’s overall (social, political and economic) status needs to be considered.