| Abstract: |
This article considers 'clans' as collections of enhanced relationships rather than reified groups, and applies the term to old and new data on the Rmeet (Lamet) of northern Laos. The Rmeet classify persons according to a supralocally acknowledged principle of descent from remote ancestors that are said to come from plant or animal species. This principle, called taa, serves as a model for lines of descent on the village level. While in some villages, taa appear as local groups, the village of Takheung has ritual groups, graveyards and grave clusters, the latter being exogamous patrilines. Regarding asymmetric alliance, marriage decisions are still, just as they were in the past, made at a household level that is not necessarily patrilineal. This produces between patrilineal relations an ongoing tension and may eventually produce groups and dynamics of affinity.
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