The Akha

 

 The Akha people are a true hill tribe and they almost always live in relatively high altitudes.

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They live on marginal land and find it difficult to eke out a living through their slash and burn method of agriculture. Pigs, chicken ducks, goats, cattle and water buffalo are raised. Fishing is done with traps and nets. Many Akha still hunt.  In order to supplement their income, many Akha are now selling handicrafts, employing the traditional skills used in making their own clothing and cultural items.

 

The ladies’ costume in Myanmar consists of a headdress, a short jacket with colourful embroidery and a short. gathered skirt and embroidered leggings of cotton and wool. The headdresses are of two types: the shorter has a rounded back to the cap made of silver while the longer one has a square piece of flat silver standing up at the back. The ladies’ headdresses are made of tightly sewn rows of beads. embellished in the front with silver coins. Akha babies sometimes wear embroidered skull caps decorated with coins and red pompons.

 

Akha religion is best described as animism combined with ancestor worship. Ancestors provide blessings in the forms of good health, abundant harvests, fat animals and fertility. People and rice have souls that must be kept happy. If they depart they can cause disease.

The Akha also believe that disease is tied to certain spirits and can be controlled through sacrifices and magic oriented towards those spirits. Their religion “zahv” is focused on their bond with their land and with the natural order of things. The Akha believe that anyone who follows their belief system is automatically Akha, no matter their genetic heritage. Both Protestant and Catholic missionaries have been very active in Akha villages. A large number of Akha have converted to Christianity. In many cases entire villages converted and they have forsaken many of the traditionally religious beliefs.

 

Upon getting married a woman leaves her family and joins the family of her husband. The couple generally lives with the groom’s parents or his older older brother. After the newlyweds have children, they move into their own house and establish their own household with its own ancestor altar. In an Akha family, the organization is patrilineal. The father has total authority until his death; it is then transmitted to the eldest son.

Akha men often choose to have many wives, however 4 spouses seem to be the maximum.

 

The division of labor between men and women is enshrined in the Akha religion. Men have traditionally done heavy work such as plowing, slashing and burning, and hunting. They often do the cooking, especially for feasts. Women do household chores, weave, dye cloth, sew, harvest, carry stuff, process crops, gather wild herbs and cooking rice. Both the mother and father and older siblings help out in child rearing.