A Note on phii puu njaa Cult in Northern Thailand ; 北タイ祖霊信仰覚え書

application/pdf ; The cults and beliefs of phii puu njaa (literally translated as ancestoral spirits), which seems to be a unique cultural phenomenon in Northern Thailand, has drawn certain attentions in anthropological literatures on that region.In this article, the author tries to make a preliminary description of that phenomenon in order to show a possibility of its general synthesis.The author scrutinizes the various approaches to the phenomenon in its relations with ancestor worship, matrilineal descent group and myth, which reflect the nature of ancestoral spirits themselves, and gives a tentative concluding remarks.This unconspicuous phenomenon might be understood well by examining the topology of women in one cultural universe and the importance of phii (spirits) in constructing Northern Thai everyday life-world. ; departmental bulletin paper