A French missionary named Savina suggested that they may have spent some time in Siberia, as some rituals contain references to such a place, but others argue that Savina's translations were incorrect or that the songs referred to the land of the dead. CHAPTER ONE The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures The doctors were used to this diet, some noting its fragrant aroma and others complaining of its stink, the comments reflecting their general opinions of the Hmong. (The name "Hmong," on the other hand, has been variously translated as "free men" or, simply, "the people.") Find out what happens in our Chapter 1 summary for The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. The writing also comes to life through the use of quotes from primary sources. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. While the majority remained in China (numbering around five million there today), about half a million Hmong migrated by foot to the highlands of Vietnam, Laos, and later Thailand. Perhaps the starkest delineation between these two belief systems can be seen in the differing attitudes toward the placenta: the Hmong covet it as valuable to their spiritual journeys, whereas Americans quickly discard it for sanitary reasons. If Lia Lee had been born in the highlands of northwest Laos, where her parents and twelve of her brothers and sisters were born, her mother would have squatted on the floor of the house that her father had built from ax-hewn planks thatched with bamboo and grass. They faced additional problems of depleted soil, epidemics, and rising taxes. While Fadiman is a member of the majority white culture, she serves as an ambassador for the reader and has clearly spent a lot of time learning about the Hmong culture and worldview. He also buried the placenta, under the bed if the baby was a girl and near the base of the central pillar of the house if it were a boy. In this vein, Fadiman begins her story of Lia Lee by recounting the history of the Hmong, staring a few hundred generations ago. She was born in the Merced Community Medical Center in California's Central Valley, where the Lees have relocated, along with many other Hmong forced to leave their country after the communist takeover in 1975. Part of the problem may be that Fadiman is drawing from historical sources written from a Chinese point of view, sources which reflect prejudices about other cultures. These chapters establish Foua and Nao Kao's unwillingness to compromise as a cultural trait that has enabled the Hmong to survive over hundreds of years of domination. A pregnant woman could ensure her child's health by respecting her food cravings, lest the child be born with an extra finger or toe, a lumpy head, or some other deformity. Lia Lee was born on July 19, 1982 as the 14th child of Foua and Nao Kao, Hmong immigrants now residing in Merced, California. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. The Question and Answer section for The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a great Archives. Nao Kao sacrificed a pig to invite the soul of one of Lia's ancestors to be reborn in her body. Tweet Pin Email Print Yummly LinkedIn Like Share. 13-14 Chapter 13: Code X Despite everything they had been through in Laos, Foua and Nao Kao considered the worst time in their lives to be after Lia had her big seizure. Chapter Summary for Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chapter 1 summary. Quag dab peg, which means “the spirit catches you and you fall down”, describes the Lia’s affliction in Hmong culture. Lia's birth was very different. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. (including. ... Chapter … LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. While looking at culture in this way sets up an engaging narrative with an unstoppable tragic trajectory, it also establishes "Hmong culture" as an unchangeable entity and removes agency from individuals to create their own history. Teachers and parents! The ceremony was very well attended. Lia weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was a healthy child. Those trying to control the Hmong have abhorred these traits, but many scholars and missionaries have developed a great fondness for them and respect for their courage, integrity, self-sufficiency, and resiliency. 2017-10-01 22:27 “The Hmong never had any interest in ruling over the Chinese or anyone else; they wanted merely to be left alone, which, as their later history was also to illustrate, may be the most difficult request any minority can make of … Book Review #1- “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” Chapters 1-3 Explain why Foua Yang’s birthdate may have been different in various locations in the medical charts? She falls into a vegetative state ("exactly the same fate that had befallen Lia") and dies three days later (17.4). This kingdom survived for 500 years before being crushed by the Chinese, at which point most Hmong migrated west and engaged in frequent, violent insurrections. Once more, Fadiman underlines the drastically different beliefs surrounding childbirth in Hmong and American culture. Because they were Hmong, the residents were treated as traitors and abused by the occupying forces. Find a summary of this and each chapter of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down! A good portion of the book is spent recounting Hmong history. Fadiman also helps us to understand the Hmong people through the use of metaphors. The soul-caller brushed Lia's hands with short white strings to sweep away sickness, and Lia's parents and the elders each tied a string around one of Lia's wrists to bind her soul to her body. Although she acknowledges that the Chinese were negatively biased towards the Hmong, she uncritically reiterates Chinese sources claiming that the Hmong are resistant to change. Around 400 AD, the Hmong established an independent kingdom in southern China. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. In 1920 the French in Laos acknowledged that the best way to deal with the Hmong was to leave them alone and granted them special administrative status, at which point they settled down to peacefully farm rice and opium in the mountains. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Culturesby Anne Fadiman She then washed each baby with water she had carried from the stream. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down study guide contains a biography of Anne Fadiman, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Home The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Q & A A WordPress Commenter on Hello world! She often gave different dates when asked for her birthday, knowing only that it was in October, since her parents told her she was born in the season when the opium fields are weeded for the second time. The fiercely independent Hmong refused. She quotes a professor who proclaimed that "fish soup… [is] the essence of the Hmong" (12), referring to the 45-minute presentation which, rather than sticking to the point, showed how one topic is related to many others. Kings were chosen from among a former king's sons in an election by all arms-bearing men in the kingdom; since kings had a large number of wives, the choice was almost democratic. The Chinese name for the Hmong is Miao or Meo, an insult that means something like barbarian. The fact that the Lees’ souls will have to travel such a long way to retrieve the placenta calls attention to the difficulties they face as refugees—it seems that even after death they will face complications related to their immigration. View MW - The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down from BIOLOGY bio 122 at Essex County College. Suduiko, Aaron ed. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 9 List all the alternative methods the Lees use to treat Lia’s epilepsy. The Chinese were offended at the fact that the Hmong preferred to keep isolated and maintain their own customs rather than assimilating. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Hmong had had enough of the Chinese. Written by Jennie. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. Lia's placenta was incinerated, as doctors generally fear that allowing the Hmong to take the placenta home may result in its consumption by mothers or in the possible spread of hepatitis B, and in any case, nobody at the birth spoke English. Describe how the history of the Hmong people as discussed in chapter two may have influenced Foua and Nao Kao’s perception of the physicians and nurses who appear to be in charge of their daughter’s care? The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down study guide contains a biography of Anne Fadiman, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. This history reveals many characteristics about the Hmong: they don't like to take orders or to surrender; they are not easily intimated by greater numbers; they rarely believe the customs of other cultures to be superior; and they can get very angry. Fadiman draws the reader in by starting many chapters with a highly descriptive and fascinating anecdote: in the first chapter detailing what Lia's birth would have been like had she been born in Laos, and in the second chapter describing a Hmong student's oral presentation about fish soup. Cultural Values, Spirituality, and Medicine . This free study guide is stuffed with the juicy details and important facts you need to know. Describe how the history of the Hmong people as discussed in chapter two may have influenced Foua and Nao Kao’s perception of the physicians and nurses […] The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Questions and Answers The Question and Answer sections of our study guides are a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss literature. The soul calling ceremony allows parents to utilize a number of ploys to keep their babies' souls safe, such as placing them in cloth carriers embroidered with soul-protecting motifs, giving them silver necklaces with soul-retaining locks, or calling souls of children on an outing to be sure none remain behind. “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is Fadiman’s haunting account, written over a nine-year period, of one very sick girl in Merced, California…What happens to Lia Lee is both enlightening and deeply disturbing.” —Kristin Van Ogtrop, Vogue “Fadiman gives us a narrative as compelling as any thriller, a work The Vietnamese would kill them for minor offences such as stealing food, and they took away the majority of what they harvested. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." When the French took over Indochina in the 1890s and began extorting the population through taxation, the Hmong violently revolted. The Hmong believe that the most common source of illness is soul loss, and that the life-souls of newborn babies are particularly susceptible to becoming separated from their bodies. In this section, Fadiman further establishes the importance of the soul in the Hmong’s spiritual conception. The burning of Lia’s placenta by ignorant doctors foreshadows the intense struggle the Lees must face later in life when the American medical system fails to accommodate or understand their spiritual beliefs. Most of these conflicts took place in China, to which their prehistoric ancestors were thought to have migrated from Eurasia. Chapter. This concerns Lia Lee, a child with severe epilepsy whose parents were refugees from Laos in the USA during the early 1980s, and describes the conflict between the Western medicine of the local hospital and shamanistic culture of Lia’s family and community. She then washed each baby with water she had carried from the stream. The Hmong rebelled and the Chinese cracked down, leading to the Hmong's eventual retreat to higher elevations in the south. Sherwood, Kristin. Chapter Summaries Chart. Foua gave birth on a steel table, unaccompanied by family members, her amniotic sac artificially ruptured to speed the birth. The chickens were then killed, prepared, partially boiled, and examined to see if their skulls were translucent and their tongues curled upwards, signs that Lia's new soul was happy to reside in her body and that the name was a good one. In one probably mythical story dated around 2700 BC, a Chinese emperor named Hoang-ti determined that the Hmong, due to their barbaric nature, would have a special criminal code, whereby instead of merely being imprisoned they would be either executed or have their ears, noses, or testicles cut off. Chapter 1: Birth. A clashing of two cultures and the ethical questions which arise - here I am discussing Anne Fadiman's incredible work of literary journalism! That the Lees had to wait to perform this important ceremony underlines the extent to which they were subject to the various economic strains related to immigration. Find a summary of this and each chapter of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down! The narrator—Anne—reflects on her … 1-2 Summary and Analysis". These stories engage the emotions so that we are somewhat invested in learning the historical facts that come next. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. (Their revolt was initially successful, but the men were all eventually killed or captured.). She could avoid becoming infertile in the first place by respecting certain taboos, such as avoiding caves, where evil spirits called dabs might dwell and make a victim sterile by having sexual intercourse with her. After reading chapter one from our reading, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, one of the Hmong customs that stood out to me the most was the sacrifice of an animal to cure infertility. All but one of their other children had been born in Laos, where the birthing traditions were very different than in the United States. Chapter Summary for Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, chapter 6 summary. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. She was taken to the central nursery to receive an injection of Vitamin K and two drops of silver nitrate solution in each eye, and to be bathed with soap. They're only accessible on tablets, laptops, or desktop computers, so … Although some Hmong in Merced have given their children American names, the Lees chose a Hmong name, Lia, for their daughter. Looks like you're viewing this page on a mobile device. In the United States, the hu plig often occurs later, as the baby might still be in the hospital after three days. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 1: Birth Summary & Analysis | LitCharts. We learn, too, that the Hmong are a fiercely independent people who have maintained their unique customs over thousands of years, despite living as a minority culture dominated by the Chinese and later the French. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Study Questions Chapter 1 1. In Laos, this ceremony took place on the third day after the baby's birth, and the baby isn't considered fully human until the ceremony occurs. By relating how Lia. Instant downloads of all 1423 LitChart PDFs This free study guide is stuffed with the juicy details and important facts you need to … By Guest 9 Comments. Describe how the history of the Hmong people as discussed in chapter two may have influenced Foua and Nao Kao’s perception of the physicians and nurses who appear to be in charge of their daughter’s care? What are the beliefs and Furthermore, the fact that doctors in Merced assumed that the Hmong ate placentas is a testament to the naïve bigotry these immigrants and refugees were up against when dealing with Americans who had no interest in actually learning about their culture. – At the end of Chapter Eighteen, Sukey Waller asks, Which is more important, the life or the soul? Inventing birthdays is common among the Hmong and rarely questioned by officials, even when the dates are highly improbable, as when a cousin stated that each of his nine children were born on July 15. Review: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. However horrible death, starvation, violence, and exile were, they were known tragedies. She could ease a hard labor by drinking water that had been boiled with a key, having her family chant prayers over bowls of sacred water, or, if the problem stemmed came from having treated an elder without enough respect, by washing the relative's fingertips and apologizing profusely until forgiven. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 7: Government Property Summary & Analysis | LitCharts. Recent Comments. I don't recall that the names of grandparents are given. While Lia's birthday was a known fact, her mother's was not. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Summary There are two different stories happening in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. The spirit catches you and you fall down by anne fadiman. I thought this was interesting because of the believe that you have to kill a living thing in order to give life to something else. A WordPress Commenter on Hello world! The spirit catches you and you fall down by anne fadiman English and Literature , Undergraduate 0 Answer these questions – At the end of Chapter Eighteen, Sukey Waller asks, Which is more important, the life or the soul? Beginning the book in this way highlights the importance of understanding the Hmong culture in order to comprehend the tragedy that befalls the Lee family. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down study guide contains a biography of Anne Fadiman, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Foua found the birth experience peculiar, but she had few complaints. Foua's signature is likewise variable, as she has never learned to read or write. Struggling with distance learning? LitCharts Teacher Editions. – What do you think of Neil and Peggy? In the sixteenth century, the Ming dynasty constructed the Hmong Wall, 100 miles long and 10 feet tall, manned by armed guards. 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