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Susan Stewart (1984; 1993) therefore exaggerated when she said that “Nostalgia is a sadness without an object', although otherwise she well expressed the facticity of nostalgia: 'By the narrative process of nostalgic reconstruction the present is denied and the past takes on an authenticity of being...which...it can achieve only through narrative'; and "Nostalgia is the repetition that mourns the inauthenticity of all repetition and denies the repetition's capacity to form identity'.
The Hmong people with whom I have worked, in Thailand and in Southwest China, express an almost incalculable nostalgia for the past through their death rituals, when the Song of Opening the Way' (Chuab Ke) is sung by a Master of the Way (mo). The soul of the deceased is addressed very gently by the Master, who figuratively takes him by the hand and leads him to collect his placenta from where it was buried beneath the floor of the house at his birth. Then slowly, step by step, the Master leads the dead back through a series of terrifying ordeals which encompass the entirety of historical time itself, back and back until the very point of origin is arrived at, the village of the lineage ancestors (your Mother and Father) from where you will be reborn. Here the soul will at last meet its true Mother and Father - but not those pleasant ones who seem to recognise you. greeting you with open arms and smiles at the door, but those terrifying, tall angry-looking ogres, these are your real Mother and Father..."
*Saub yom yiaj, at daybreak came one walking from the edge of the sky, dressed up in beautiful finery and wearing a splendid turban. I called you once but you did not hear, I called you twice and three times and still you did not listen. I fear that the one dressed in beautiful finery coming along the path is you, come out to play
Saub us uj, listen carefully to what the Master has to say, I bear the crossbow on my back and take the cock under my arm to guide you on your way, you will come upon three roads, do not take the road to the left, for that is the road for the Yi people, do not take the road to the right, for that is the road for the Han people, but take the road in the middle, the little one with the filthy footprints and hoof marks, for that is the road of your ancestors, that is the road where you should go and play
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Susan Stewart (1984; 1993) therefore exaggerated when she said that “Nostalgia is a sadness without an object', although otherwise she well expressed the facticity of nostalgia: 'By the narrative process of nostalgic reconstruction the present is denied and the past takes on an authenticity of being...which...it can achieve only through narrative'; and "Nostalgia is the repetition that mourns the inauthenticity of all repetition and denies the repetition's capacity to form identity'.
The Hmong people with whom I have worked, in Thailand and in Southwest China, express an almost incalculable nostalgia for the past through their death rituals, when the Song of Opening the Way' (Chuab Ke) is sung by a Master of the Way (mo). The soul of the deceased is addressed very gently by the Master, who figuratively takes him by the hand and leads him to collect his placenta from where it was buried beneath the floor of the house at his birth. Then slowly, step by step, the Master leads the dead back through a series of terrifying ordeals which encompass the entirety of historical time itself, back and back until the very point of origin is arrived at, the village of the lineage ancestors (your Mother and Father) from where you will be reborn. Here the soul will at last meet its true Mother and Father - but not those pleasant ones who seem to recognise you. greeting you with open arms and smiles at the door, but those terrifying, tall angry-looking ogres, these are your real Mother and Father..."
*Saub yom yiaj, at daybreak came one walking from the edge of the sky, dressed up in beautiful finery and wearing a splendid turban. I called you once but you did not hear, I called you twice and three times and still you did not listen. I fear that the one dressed in beautiful finery coming along the path is you, come out to play
Saub us uj, listen carefully to what the Master has to say, I bear the crossbow on my back and take the cock under my arm to guide you on your way, you will come upon three roads, do not take the road to the left, for that is the road for the Yi people, do not take the road to the right, for that is the road for the Han people, but take the road in the middle, the little one with the filthy footprints and hoof marks, for that is the road of your ancestors, that is the road where you should go and play
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