Classification

All ethnic minorities have their own name for themselves, which may not be the name they are known by today. Early Chinese writers tended to lump Yunnan's tribes into three groups: the Qiang, the Wu-man and the Bai-man. The Qiang today are a recognised separate nationality, but in ancient times the term covered a number of western mountain tribes who were neither Han nor Tibetan, The Wu-man were the darker ethnic groups, today identified with Yi groups, Hani, Lisu or Lahu, while the lighter-skinned Bai-man were the Dai and Zhuang, and perhaps the Bai. As Chinese writers became more familiar with the non-Han peoples of the southwest, these broader classifications broke down into specific, separate names. As time went on and more isolated peoples were discovered, the list of names grew longer and more complicated.

After the establishment of the People's Republic the government undertook the task of reclassifying the minorities. Peoples were grouped together as members of an individual minority nationality on the basis of origin and history, language, culture and religion. The Hui, who are Chinese Muslims, are the only minority classified strictly on the basis of religion. Common origins. linguistic affinities and culture have been the main factors in determining whether ethnic groups were a separate nationality or a branch of one. Thus, for example. the people of Xaoliangshan who call themselves Nosu, a semi-pastoral group who also raise potatoes and buck wheat as staples, were grouped together with the terrace builders of Ailaoshan who call themselves Nisu, Alu or Blan. All are branches of the Yi because of roughly the same origin myths, basic cultural similarities like the role of bimaw, or ritual specialist, and languages that were recognised as dialects of the same tongue.

Sometimes one factor outweighed the others in the reckoning process. The Mosuo of Lugu Lake and Ninglang County, for example, are officially a branch of the Naxi, although they are matrilineal and lamaist, unlike the Naxi. and their dialect differs not only in nearly all the vocabulary, but also in grammatical elements, such as the interrogative form. Yet because they are both descended from a people to the northwest who divided into two streams, one to Yongning, one to Lijiang, they are both classified as Naxi.

A few of the smaller ethnic groups were not immediately recognised as separate nationalities. The Pumi achieved official recognition only in 1962, the Mongolians and Jinuo in 1979. Some never got it, like the Kami of Mengla County, who look and live like the Dai. Others were classified as a sub-group of a recognised minority, like the Kucong of Jinping and southeastern Mengla, who are officially a branch of the Lahu, though the nearest Lahu are a few hundred kilometres away.

For two generations now the classification and official naming of the ethnic minorities has held without change, other than additions of late recognition. It has been accepted by the minorities themselves, who use the names themselves, especially when talking to outsiders. The Xishuangbanna Hani branch call themselves Akha. Their language is Akha do. Their traditional rules of behaviour are called Akhazang. But Chinese classifiers gave them the name Aini because Akha sounded too similar to a derogatory word in local Dai. With each other they use the word Akha, but with outsiders refer to themselves as Aini.

The De'ang used to be known as Benglong, but contemporary De'ang don't use that name anymore. Nor do any but the elderly Mosuo refer to themselves as Hlikhi, as they all did a generation ago. For centuries people knew the Yi of the northwest as the Lolo. But that term also has derogatory connotations, so Yi was bestowed. The Yi in northwest Chuxiong Prefecture, however, still call themselves Lolopo. The Pumi were known as Hsifan, and are still called that by some of their neighbours, but not by the Pumi themselves.