“Calling in the Soul” (Hu Plig) is the chant the Hmong use to guide the soul of a newborn baby into its body on the third day after birth. Based on extensive original research conducted in the late 1980s in a village in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death and considers the gender relationships evident in these practices. The Hmong (or Miao, as they are called in China, and Meo, in Thailand) have lived on the fringes of powerful Southeast Asian states for centuries. Their social framework is distinctly patrilineal, granting little direct power to women. Yet within the limits of that structure, Hmong women wield considerable influence in the spiritually critical realms of birth and death. Calling in the Soul will be of interest to sociocultural anthropologists, medical anthropologists, Southeast Asianists, and gender specialists. Replaces ISBN 9780295800424

Spirituality has consistently been present in the political and cultural counternarratives of Chicanx literature. Calling the Soul Back focuses on the embodied aspects of a spirituality integrating body, mind, and soul. Centering the relationship between embodiment and literary narrative, Christina Garcia Lopez shows narrative as healing work through which writers and readers ritually call back the soul—one’s unique immaterial essence—into union with the body, counteracting the wounding fragmentation that emerged out of colonization and imperialism. These readings feature both underanalyzed and more popular works by pivotal writers such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, and Rudolfo Anaya, in addition to works by less commonly acknowledged authors. Calling the Soul Back explores the spiritual and ancestral knowledge offered in narratives of bodies in trauma, bodies engaged in ritual, grieving bodies, bodies immersed in and becoming part of nature, and dreaming bodies. Reading across narrative nonfiction, performative monologue, short fiction, fables, illustrated children’s books, and a novel, Garcia Lopez asks how these narratives draw on the embodied intersections of ways of knowing and being to shift readers’ consciousness regarding relationships to space, time, and natural environments. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Calling the Soul Back draws on literary and Chicanx studies scholars as well as those in religious studies, feminist studies, sociology, environmental studies, philosophy, and Indigenous studies, to reveal narrative’s healing potential to bring the soul into balance with the body and mind.

The Call of the Soul presents a new perspective on the quest to find your authentic self. When that quest is successful, you know who you truly are and what your life’s purpose is. This book provides a new way to approach the journey, with a map and effective tools to ease the struggle and assure success. The Call of the Soul shows you how renegotiate the relationship between the ego and the soul so you can step fully into your purpose. Step by step, you will discover inner passion, purpose, peace, prosperity, and love—all by learning how to hear the call of your soul. With a down-to-earth writing style combined with true-life examples, this book offers accessible wisdom to achieve the self-knowledge you are seeking. The Call of the Soul will guide you to: Compassion and appreciation for all of you, including the part that resists change A quick way to release emotions and beliefs that stop you from expressing your true self and purpose A new feeling of ease and confidence in yourself and your purpose Your authentic self

Based on research in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and the gender relationships evident in these practices.

"A gold mine of information for American social scientists. It is a 'must have.'" -Choice "Calling in the Soul" (Hu Plig) is the chant the Hmong use to guide the soul of a newborn baby into its body on the third day after birth. Based on extensive original research conducted in the late 1980s in a village in northern Thailand, this ethnographic study examines Hmong cosmological beliefs about the cycle of life as expressed in practices surrounding birth, marriage, and death, and the gender relationships evident in these practices. The social framework of the Hmong (or Miao, as they are called in China, and Meo, in Thailand), who have lived on the fringes of powerful Southeast Asian states for centuries, is distinctly patrilineal, granting little direct power to women. Yet within the limits of this structure, Hmong women wield considerable influence in the spiritually critical realms of birth and death. Patricia Symonds situates her study within the landscape of northern Thai mountain life and anthropological perspectives on the Hmong, and then focuses on "Flower Village," telling detailed stories of births, marriages, and deaths. Recurring motifs emerge: the complementarity of women's and men's roles in daily life and in the otherworld, and their reversal at critical moments; the importance of the brother-sister relationship; the social and spiritual significance of the ceremonial clothing women create, especially their embroidered "flower cloth" and the ambiguously nuanced sev, or "modesty aprons," they wear; the endlessly cyclical nature of life, from birth to death to birth again; the importance of sound and silence at times of transition; the complex connections between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Hmong women's primary source of power in the patriline is their fecundity, through which they influence key spiritual aspects of the life cycle. This value and power is evident in the division of bride-price into two parts: "milk and care money," which compensates a woman's parents for her upbringing; and payment for the "birth shirt," or placenta, of the child the young wife will produce. Through provision of birth shirts for fetuses and of elaborately embroidered cloth shirts for the dead, women literally clothe the soul through cycles of rebirth. An epilogue and appendixes provide a discussion of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Hmong of Thailand, cultural factors in HIV transmission, and strategies for containment; complete Hmong texts and English translations of "Calling in the Soul," and "Showing the Way," the chant which guides the soul of the deceased through the land of darkness and back to reincarnation in a new body in the land of light; Flower Village demographic information; and an account of a shamanic healing and outline of Hmong health care issues in the United States. Calling in the Soulwill be of interest to sociocultural anthropologists, medical anthropologists, Southeast Asianists, and gender specialists. Patricia V. Symondsis adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Brown University. She is the coauthor (with Brooke G. Schoepf) ofHIV/AIDS: The Global Pandemic and Struggles for Control. "Despite the now quite substantial literature on the Hmong, until now, there has been very little that explores gender issues. . . .Calling in the Soulalso makes a substantial contribution to our knowledge about Hmong death rites and religious beliefs." - Charles Keyes, University of Washington "The volume's strength is its ethnography, . . . in the numerous engaging accounts of particular events - marriages, births, etc." - Nicola Tannebaum, Lehigh University "A fascinating ethnography. Its firm grounding in an ethnic minority village in Thailand provides an interesting setting for thinking about the life cycle." - Hjorleifur Jonsson, Arizona State University

What do you seek? Whatever it is, you have your own name for it--truth, peace, love, happiness, freedom--but something inside you holds to a hope that there is an answer to life's endless twists and turns. Somewhere there is divine sense, a purpose. You just want to know what it is. You have found The Call of Soul. You may be surprised to discover some of your innermost thoughts reflected in these pages. Come along as Harold Klemp takes you on an amazing journey into a world you may dare to dream of--the infinite world of God's love for you. More, he tells how this love translates into every event, relationship, and moment of your life. Do you wonder: * why do bad things happen to good people? * what happens after death? * is there one truth for everyone? Learn the secrets of HU, an ancient, sacred name for God, and open your heart to the answers within you. Where else would God place something so precious? This book includes a CD that gives dream and Soul Travel techniques, as well as a twenty-minute track of thousands of people singing HU. Whether you sing along with it, or just listen, it can elevate your consciousness instantly. In this book, you'll discover the spiritual path of Eckankar--a companion and road map for people all over the world on their journey home to God. Spiritual exercises, dream techniques, Soul Travel explorations--all open wide the door to the most secret part of yourself. You are Soul, a Light of God. Read on--the key to spiritual freedom is in your hands! Eckankar is a modern-day spiritual teaching with ancient roots founded in 1965 by Paul Twitchell. Harold Klemp is the current spiritual leader of Eckankar since 1981.