Spirits of the Home: Material Culture and Cultural Maintaince in a Diaspora Community

Following the French victory in the Sino-French war of 1884-85, France would be largely uncontested in its conquest of Indochina. With the French occupation of the Lao kingdoms (fully consolidating French power across the kingdoms in 1893) along came the imposition of Christian ideas and traditions and the subversion of "savage" belief systems. French Catholicism became the institutional religion of Laos (as well as the French Empire as a whole) and was widely promoted across their domain.

Despite Catholic coercion and French other-ization of Lao traditions and norms, some practices of animism found refuge in Buddhist practices which enabled some form of cultural maintenance. Lao people could use their notions of Lao-Buddhism to resist identity change and sustain the old ways of life in the face of colonial powers. This can be seen in how Lao peoples maintain spirits house and attribute divine powers to everyday items of their heritage. For example, pendants and medallions that have the faces of royalty are said to bring good luck and fortune since they are attached to spirit of the king or how items that are attached to particular ancestor possess residual merit and fortune that could be passed from generation to generation (Evans, 1998). While not Buddhist, its historical relationship to Buddhism in Laos, allowed it and other "less-noticeable" practices to slip into the periphery and not be attacked by the colonial regime as more flamboyant practices of animal sacrifice and notions of shamanism.
Practices such as the baci ceremonies (shown in the background image; a pre-Buddhist ceremony that connects the 32 spirits and organs and meant to bring good wealth and good fortune; involves communal string tying to wrists and celebrations) -ceremonies attached to the idea of community and connectivity between people living and passed- and certain traditions attached to other celebrations possess these ancestral practices associated with animism and are enabled to exist in the contemporary world via this hybridization of animism and Buddhism. Another example of this would be the themes of cleansing and renewal associated with the Lao-Thai New Year celebrations and the use of water to cleanse ourselves and others for the year ahead.
Another example of this is how Lao communities still use spirits bells to both draw in protector spirits and to keep bad spirits away, under the guise that its for the children's protection rather than the protection of the community. This shows not only the maintenance of animistic practices but also the evolution of how these practices are perceived by Lao-communities of today (Meunekithirath, 2019). These items and practices that Lao-people have had for millennium are prime examples of material culture that illustrate the evolution of animistic beliefs.

With the movement of peoples and their material culture, these items and places take on new forms to better a situate to their new surroundings. Diaspora hubs, such as Elgin, Illinois, have many sites of cultural relevancy such as grocery stores, Wats, and other structures of Lao identity and behaviorisms. The picture in the background was taken at the Golden Market in Elgin, where not only Lao, but many Southeast Asian peoples come to get food, household, and religious items that harken back to the homeland. Items such as incense, for ceremonies, and structures for spirit houses proliferated the stores aisles and demonstrates how active these beliefs are in the contemporary.
This is not uncommon among diasporic groups and ethnic hubs of other groups, whom also shape their new environments via businesses and places that allow for these groups to participate in cultural maintenance and continue the knowledge of their homelands in these new spaces.

While some of the traditions have been maintained and strong connections between the Lao-people and the rituals of the past have lasted the ages, modernity has had its effect on tradition and possess a great threat for the maintenance of more traditional life-ways. Especially for communities that are in foreign lands, acculturation erodes the efforts of cultural maintenance and the balance between new ways of life and the old play out in both micro- and macro-scales, however Muecke argues that Lao communities possess an unyielding strength and powerful sense of communal bonds that enable it to be more adept at cultural maintenance than other diasporic communities (Muecke, 1987: 287-89).
For the Lao in America, and Elgin in particular, these strong bonds and renewed appreciation for the old ways, illustrate a picture of a strong people continuing their traditions despite adversary and modernity form now and years to come.

While some of the traditions have been maintained and strong connections between the Lao-people and the rituals of the past have lasted the ages, modernity has had its affect on tradition and possess a great threat for the maintenance of more traditional life-ways. Especially for communities that are in foreign lands, acculturation erodes the efforts of cultural maintenance and the balance between new ways of life and the old play out in both micro- and macro-scales, however Muecke agrues that Lao communities posses an unyeilding strength and powerful sense of ciommunal bonds that enable it to be more adept at cultural maintenance than other diasporic communities (Muecke, 1987: 287-89).
For the Lao in America, and Elgin in particular, these strong bonds and renewed appreciation for the old ways, illustrate a picture of a strong people continuing their traditions despite adversary and modernity form now and years to come.

Holt, John Clifford. Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture. University of Hawai'i Press, 2009. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wqx0n

Phetmeuangmay, Thomas J., 2018. 'Moon Over the Mekong: An analysis of the History of the use of Buddhism as a tool for Nationalism in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic.' Paper presented to the NIU 2019 Southeast Asian Studies Student conference, held at Swen Parson Hall on March 29th, 2019.