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7. Ca Fleder to whom they made od the suspecting the Coche policies Coche planned to become The Spirit Catcher and You Full Down Sesight not appreciate hain well, acced on his behalf. On the other hand, the Hmong of some distinction. This Coche so less than the dead chick en forbidding the onlination qualifying impairment by Co boy the Hmong sign that he Hmong pileptis often becomes to be evidence that they have the plecat se s well as facilita rease for their journey into they have been ill themselves giv offering of others and lends u Becoming morbis not escaled when person falls some other illness whose wym pain. An established med may conclude from these sym but not always male) has been me means "per that the sick person cannot will die. In any case, few He shamanism is an arduous call master in order to learn the an enormous amount of soc W he Labour hotel het onder dront door of the Learent Af Lederredo The Land debt wat had hap Decoding the cy, ale che door had been probly frightening that her to be aber body and becomes They recognised the go ich the spirit catches you and you do the spirit referred to in this places in har hitandang meam to fall og wi wiado IH sple po marks the stone as a pers spirit would never choose ut not to be elected to ho of the supramundane, sing In their attitude towane ture of concern and pride with which they treat the ethnographer who banne the 1930 tapice DUE
well, sacrificed on his behalf. The Spirit Catches low and You Fall Down / 21 Hmong leader to whom they made this proposition politely discour- aged them, suspecting that Coelho, who is a Catholic of Portuguese descent, might not appreciate having chickens, and maybe * pig as On the other hand, the Hmong consider gaug dab peg to be an illness of some distinction. This fact might have surprised Tony Coelho no less than the dead chickens would have. Before be entered politics , Coelho planned to become a Jesuit priest, but was barred by canon forbidding the ordination of epileptics. What was considered 1 disqualifying impairment by Coelho's church might have been seen by the Hmong as a sign that he was particularly fit for divine office Hmong epileptics often becomeshaman. Their seizures are thought to be evidence that they have the power to perceive things other peo- ple cannot see, as well as facilitating their entry into trances, a pre- requisite for their journeys into the realm of the unseen. The fact that they have been all themselves gives them an intuitive sympathy for the suffering of others and lends them emotional credibility as healers. Becoming a txis meeb is not a choice, it is a vocation. The calling is revealed when a person falls sick, either with gang dab peg or with some other illness whose symptoms similarly include shivering and pain. An established two need, summoned to diagnose the problem, may conclude from these symptoms that the person who is usually but not always male) has been chosen to be the host of a healing spirit, ameel ( Tech means "person with a healing spint. It is an offer that the sick person cannot rebase, since if he rejects his vocation, he will die. In any cate, few Hmong would choone to decline. Although shamanism is an arduous calling that requires years of training with master in order to learn the ritual techniques and chants, it comes an enormous amount of social status in the community and publicly marks the time as a person of high moral character, since a healing spirit would never choone a no-account host. Even if an epileptic turm out not to be elected to host a meel, his illness, with its thrilling antira of the supramundane, singles him out as a person of consequence In their attitude toward Li's seizures, the Lees reflected this mix ture of concern and pride. The Hmong are known for the gentleness with which they treat their children. Hugo Adolf Beratuk, German ethnographer who lived with the Hmong of Thailand for several year during the 1930s, wrote that the Hmong he had studied regarded a
22/ The Spirit Carches you and You Fall Down w baby was never apart from its mother, sleeping in her arins all 3 child as the most treasured possession a person can have." In La nig and riding on her back all day. Small children were rarely abused; was believed that a deb who witnessed mistreatment might take the child, assuming it was nor wanted. The Hmong who live in the United ducted at the University of Minnesota found Hmong infants in the tnbuted to the fact that the Hmong mothers were, without exception States have continued to be unusually attentive parents. A study.com first month of life to be less irritable and more securely attached their mothers than Caucasian infants, a difference the researcher an more sensitive, more accepting, and more responsive, as well as quisitely attuned" to their children's signals. Another study, conducted their babies far more frequently than Caucasian mothers. In a third study, conducted at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Min. nesota, a group of Hmong mothers of toddlers surpassed a group of Caucasian mothers of similar socioeconomic status in every one of fourteen categories selected from the Egeland Mother-Child Rating Scale, ranging from "Speed of Responsiveness to Fussing and Crying in Portland, Oregon, found that Hmong mothers held and touched to "Delight." Foua and Nao Kao had nurtured Lis in typical Hmong fashion (on the Egeland Scale, they would have scored especially high in Delight), and they were naturally distressed to think that anything might compromise her health and happiness. They therefore hoped, at least most of the time, that the garuga pg could be healed. Ye they also considered the illness an honor. Jeanine Hilt, a social worker who knew the Lees well, told me, "They felt Lia was kind of an anointed one, like a member of royalty. She was a very special person in their culture because she had these spirits in her and she might grow up to be a shaman, and so sometimes their thinking was that this was not so much a medical problem as it was a blessing" (Of the forty or so American doctors, nurses, and Merced County agency em ployees I spoke with who had dealt with Lis and her family, several had a vague idea that "spirits" were samehow involved, but Jeanine Hilt was the only one who had actually asked the Lees what they thought was the cause of their daughter's illness.) Within the Lee family, in one of those unconscious processes
The Spirit Catcher Yound You Fall Do 23 selection that are as mysterious as any other form of falling in love, it was obvious that Lia was her parents favorite, the child they consid- cred the most beautiful, the one who was most extravagantly hugged (embroidered by Foua, wearing dime-store glasses to work her almost microscopic stitches). Whether Lis occupied this position from the moment of her birth, whether it was a result of her spiritually distin- parent feels for a sick child, is not a matter Fous and Nao Kao wish, or are able to analyze. One thing that is clear is that for many years the cost of that extra love was partially borne by her sister Yer. "They blamed Yer for slamming the door," said Jeanine Hilt. "I tried many times to explain that the door had nothing to do with it, but they didn't believe me. Lia's illness made them so sad that I think for a long time they treated Yer differently from their other children." During the next few months of her life, Lia had at least twenty more seizures. On two occasions, Foua and Nao Kao were worried enough to carry her in their arms to the emergency room at Merced Community Medical Center, which was three blocks from their apart- ment. Like most Hmong refugees, they had their doubts about the efficacy of Western medical techniques. However, when they were living in the Mae Jarim refugee camp in Thailand, their only surviving son, Cheng, and three of their six surviving daughters, Ge, May, and True, had been seriously ill. Ge died. They took Cheng, May, and True to the camp hospital; Cheng and May recovered rap- idly, and True was sent to another, larger hospital, where she even- tually recovered as well. (The Lees also concurrently addressed the possible spiritual origins of their children's illnesses by moving to a new hut. A dead person had been buried beneath their old one, and his soul might have wished to harm the new residents. This experi- ence did nothing to shake their faith in traditional Hmong beliefs about the causes and cures of illness, but it did convince them that on some occasions Western doctors could be of additional help, and that it would do no harm to hedge their bets. County hospitals have a reputation for being crowded, dilapidated, and dingy. Merced's county hospital, with which the Lees would be- come all too familiar over the next few years, is none of these. The