ABSTRACT
This chapter describes farmers' adaptation to changing conditions in the highlands within their holistic understanding of environmental causality. Highland farmers in Laos and elsewhere have long been engaged in commercial agriculture and regional trade networks in addition to subsistence rice production. As in most Southeast Asian countries, the government of Laos has implemented policies to eradicate swidden cultivation and 'modernize' upland agriculture. For most swidden cultivators in Southeast Asia, successful harvests are seen as a reciprocal arrangement with the spirits of nature, and ritual animal sacrifices along with 'practical' agronomic practices are considered to be essential for a successful crop. This is part of a wider cosmological perspective that positions people, nature and the spiritual world within one interacting and interrelating system. Farmers in many parts of the world combine practical technical knowledge with practices to appease supernatural forces in order to mediate agricultural risk, and both are considered to be essential for a successful harvest.
