According to the traditional Akha legend, no matter what, the
men should be superior to the women. Women are the ones who take care
of things. For example, agriculture is done to support the family. Any
excess products will be sold. The primary Akha occupation is
cultivation. They prepare fields for agriculture that are situated at
least 3 to 5 kilometers away from the community. The community's forest
will not be used for agriculture. However, if anyone grows their plants
nearby the community and those plants are destroyed by animals, then
the animals' owner have to pay no reimbursement for the damage. This is
a rule in the community. The way to choose were plants should be grown,
is based on the beliefs of the village. There are corn, rice and
different kinds of beans and vegetables in the fields. The Akha have
their own techniques for growing plants by mixing all the seeds up with
rice. The seeds will all be planted in the same area. They make use of
the same area as much as possible. They like to grow vegetable, chili,
beans next to the river or their fences. The reason that they grow
these kinds of plants near their houses is because it is hard to walk
2-3 kilometers to get vegetables. Therefore, they grow the plants close
to where they live. When they are going to the fields in the evening,
they will pick some vegetables back home as well. The Akha men do the
work in the fields and they also go for hunting when they have free
time to supply their diet. The women take care of the housework such as
cooking and gardening.
They occupations which the Akha usually do are:
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• Growing rice; they plant for themselves because they are living in a
big family. Therefore, they have to grow enough rice for everybody to
eat.
• Growing corn; this is almost the same as rice, because they grow it for themselves and as food for animals.
• Growing ginger, they plant it for selling. Besides, it is used as a
herb for the family to eat. There are both rice and vegetables in the
same area. However, they plant more rice than vegetables. Many kinds of
vegetables are grown in the same area.
•
Hunting is another occupation that the Akha like to do. They will go
hunting in a group when they have free time. If they get a big animal
such as wild boar, deer or tiger and the like, they will share it in
the village. The hunter who killed the animal will have the biggest
piece of meat, and hunters in the same group will get the bigger pieces
of meat than others. |
•
Breeding animals. The Akha breed the animals for consumption and for
use in religious ceremonies. Thus, they have to breed lots of animals.
Most animals are pigs, horses, cows, buffaloes, goats, chicken and
dogs. They grow corn for feeding the animal. Those animals that are not
used for religious ceremonies or consumption are taken for selling or
exchanging with goods in other villages or in the same village.
•
General works for making money. At present the Akha do not have enough
land to earn their living. It leads them to look for employment in the
cities. They take jobs as doing general work in town in order to get
money, or they work with forestry for the Forestry Department.
•
Looking for things from the forest is a secondary job from growing
plants in the fields. After all work is done, the Akha go to the forest
and look for valuable things there. People from outside the village
comes to buy the items from them and they may keep some of the
collected items for eating themselves. Most things that they get from
the forest are bamboo shoots, mushrooms, bamboo worms and a kind of
plants for making brooms, and so on. This is an important occupation
for the hill tribe people who live on the top of the mountains. They
know all the seasons and what they can collect in a particular season.
The
Akha's habit of moving residence is the reason why they today do not
have enough land to make a living. Even the houses they build are only
meant to be temporary residences. |
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