Gender ideology constitutes an integral, or even the central, part of the dominant worldview of a culture. The Lahu ideology of gender unity is deeply rooted in the dyadic worldview that is expressed by the common saying, “Everything comes in pairs; aloneness does not exist” (laiq ceol-laiq yal awl cie feuf, awl tif mad cawl). In this chapter, I first examine the Lahu indigenous concept of “pair” (awl cie)—a single entity that is made up of two similar yet distinguishable components. I then explore the ideal pairs in Lahu mythology, which suggest a cosmological order of male-female dyads. After...

Definitions of personhood throughout the life cycle serve as overarching expressions of cultural ideals and norms for male and female, elaborating dominant gender ideologies that are often implicitly embedded in mythologies and general worldviews. In many patriarchal societies, the oppositions between the two sexes are encoded in childhood socialization, highlighted by puberty rites and masculine-versus-feminine ideals, institutionalized by assigning prestigious social roles and positions exclusively to men, and finalized in the spiritual realm by worshiping only male ancestors. In contrast, gender-egalitarian societies tend to highlight the motif of gender unity, or that of complementarity, in their own culture-specific mappings of...

In the last two chapters, I discussed the ways in which the motif of gender dyads prevails in Lahu mythology and life-cycle symbolism, generating as a by-product an ideology that fosters equality between men and women. While the ideal may sound as appealing as many other gender-egalitarian visions, some readers may have begun to question how such an ideology can be applied to social practices in which men and women are usually divided by the roles they play. As I will show in this and the following two chapters, by defining a married couple as a dyadic team, the ideology...

Beyond expecting married couples to join their efforts to feed the household and raise children, indigenous Lahu ideologies also promote joint leadership of husband-wife dyads. Conforming to the cosmological power structures represented in mythology, Lahu principle (awl lid) suggests that households and villages are manageable only when “a pair of male-female masters rules together” (shief phad shief ma qha cir qawr kuad xad). In this chapter, I first discuss the institution of yiel shief phad-yiel shief ma (‘male-female masters of the household’), focusing on the joint authority and responsibility of household co-heads in making consensus decisions. Then, in the historical...

The last four chapters discussed the dyadic ideology and the application of such ideals in gender roles. In the chapters in part 3, I explore the dyadic principles underlying social structures and the tensions and conflicts within such structures. In this chapter, I examine gender unity in social structures by exploring how married couples serve as building blocks for kinship relations and interhousehold networks. I first examine the ways in which Lahu kinship terminology calculates kin relations from the perspective of a married couple (dyadic ego), which parallel the reference point of an individual ego. Then I discuss how kinship...

While the preeminence of the Lahu dyadic worldview in social institutions and practice effectively promotes symbiotic and symmetrical relations between males and females, it has by no means created a paradise. In this chapter, I focus on the gaps between the dyadic gender ideal and social practice, especially the dysfunction and collapse of marriages. I first discuss the major personal and social factors that are recognized by Lahu villagers as severe threats to marital quality and stability. I then examine some typical causes of the break-up of a marriage—decisions that shatter even the minimal requirements of the gender-dyadic principle—...