The Meo of North-West Thailand: a problem of integration

Abstract

The Meo of North West Thailand are a hill tribe who are members of isolated village communities of a few hundred people, and at the same time, are part of a larger society of Meo people scattered throughout much of the uplands of southern Yunnan and South East Asia. In North West Thailand as in other South, and South East Asian states, there are a number of hill tribes, each distinguishable by peculiarities of dress, housing styles, and the like. See G. Young, "The Hill Tribes of North Thailand", Siam Society, Bangkok, 1962, for a full description of the various hill tribes. They are extremely conservative. Each of them speaks a separate language, and they are generally unable to communicate either with each other, or with the major national groups, who cultivate wet rice on the lowlands below them.