Fieldwork Connections: The Fabric of Ethnographic Collaboration in China and America

13. The Last Time I Led the Horse, 1994

13 THE L AST TIME I LED THE HORSE, 1994 ma lunzy I n October of 1994, Harrell came to Xichang again, and we all went to the station to meet him. The two of us were delighted to see each other, and shook both hands tightly. I took him to a hotel to get settled , and told him about the arrangements. Because I had work responsibilities—one of them editing Liangshan Minzu Yanjiu (Liangshan Ethnic Studies) and another editing the Liangshan Minzu Zhi, (Record of Minzu in Liangshan)—I wouldn’t be able to get away to do fieldwork with him. He was very disappointed, and I did all I could to find someone among the younger personnel of the Institute to accompany him, but he always gave the impression that he was dissatisfied with my choice. We were beginning to feel hopeless. The two of us were at my house, just getting ready to put some beef into the pot, when we got a phone call from the Bamo sisters—Ayi and Qubumo—asking me to bring Harrell with me to a little restaurant across from the Liangshan Hotel. The two of us put down our cooking utensils and rushed over. Ayi and Qubumo were both members of the Yi elite, so naturally I wanted to “hide by the hearthstones and chew the meat” (galu nboda shefu xie), a Nuosu proverb meaning “to take a little advantage of guests or famous people.” This was the first time the Bamo sisters and Muga had ever met, and the subject of their conver178 sation was serious and purposeful; they talked about various famous people’s viewpoints, the diªerences between Eastern and Western culture , and things like that, giving the occasion the flavor of a little “cultural dinner.” Naturally, occasional witticisms emerged from the mouth of someone like me, who was incapable of putting on the airs of high culture, and it stopped everybody with delight. There wasn’t a lot of direct interaction between Ayi and Qubumo and me. I had read with admiration many of their articles, and I particularly liked Qubumo’s fluid and sensitive writing style. They brought up a few articles of mine, and in fact mentioned some fine points in my articles that I myself had forgotten ; one could say that they were not ashamed to inquire of someone of lesser knowledge. During the meal, Harrell brought up the matter of his not being able to go to Zhaojue to do research (there was a cholera epidemic there), and Ayi suggested that he start out in Manshuiwan and Xide and that she would like to go along. Harrell was very happy, and I was relieved. The Manshuiwan research was a success; afterwards, when I received an article written by Harrell and translated by Ayi, “One Way of Being Ethnic in Southwest China: The Yi of Manshuiwan in the Middle of a Han area,” I felt I had eaten their dust and would never be able to catch up. Even though the writing and analysis had been done by Harrell, still, between the lines one could see the help and cooperation that Ayi and her relatives had aªorded him. When Harrell came back to Xichang, he told me that this trip had been very successful, that Ayi had really put her energy into it, that she was an untiring worker—the only problem was that he didn’t have as much energy as she did, and felt ashamed. After a day of rest in Xichang, Nuobu Huojy of our institute accompanied Harrell and Ayi to Mishi in Xide to conduct research. Even though I had gone over the matter of trying to control the slaughter of animals for entertaining with Huojy, when he took charge, he didn’t listen to my suggestions, and treated Harrell and Ayi just as a Nuosu person would; he used the web of kin connections woven by himself and Ayi and, intentionally or unintentionally, quietly motivated the people in Mishi to kill animals for hospitality. For a Nuosu person, this is proper behavior; people call it ssoshe jishe, “looking for relatives to slaughter the last time i led the horse 179 animals for hospitality.” I knew that Huojy’s quiet taking charge of these matters had taken control of the two of them. When Huojy came back to the institute, the first thing he said to me...