*I represent and speak for the Gansu Panda Tribe, an indigenous group in China living in the southern part of the Gansu province with a rich cultural history. I am the only college educated member of the tribe, educated for the purpose of mitigating any conflicts with the world outside our tribe. The Gansu Panda Tribe consists currently of 150 people, about 45% of which are women. Our environment is mountainous with fair vegetation, harsh and cold winters, and warm summers that bring the majority of the year's rains. In order to survive and subsist, members of our tribe typically work as agricultural laborers seasonally, helping to harvest crops such as wheat, barley, and sweet potatoes. Our tribe at one time relied on horticulture, but now members participate in the larger agro-indusrial complex, returning to the tribe's elders (who remain behind) with material goods to distribute to the tribe. Other members often work in sweatshops seasonally or for a short duration of time, returning to the tribe and then sending another member to work-there is a rotation of seasonal and part time labor that exists to fulfill the tribe's material needs but still retain our cultural heritage. There are other strategies for gaining material necessities as well.
*Our tribe's cultural history begins with our most intriguing and widely-told origin mythology. Hundreds of years ago(the true date is unknown), our tribe was on the verge of tribal warfare with a neighboring tribe over control of our land and resources, but as the leader of the tribe came up into the mountains with a band of warriors to attack our isolated settlement, our ancestors watched as the leader and his warriors encountered a panda that viciously mauled the opposing tribe leader. Upon seeing their tribe leader mauled by this panda, the band of warriors ran away and both tribes viewed the violent intervention of the panda as a symbol of protection from the gods. Because of this symbol of divine favor, the Gansu Panda Tribe has adopted the panda as a symbol of divine protection, and many rituals involving the native(but increasingly endangered)panda bears exist.
*For our tribe, there are several important institutions that have shaped our cultural heritage and subsequent beliefs. One is the previously mentioned totemistic inclusion of the panda as a symbol to praise our Gods. We praise several deities-the Gods of the Forest, the Stream, and the Sky, but consequentially pandas also protect from the evil Demons of the Mountains, who were said to have possessed hostile neighboring tribes.
*Family is another important institution-population is controlled in the same fashion as the pandas, with some limitations. As pandas reproduce every two years, so do members of our tribe-postpartum sex taboos exist, and after age thirty women stop bearing children. Families often never have more than four children, and the number of members in our tribe often stay to around 150 because many members choose to leave and join traditional Chinese society, which is allowed and not condemned. Members of our tribe often marry and reproduce exogamously, and often with members of traditional Chinese/Gansu society who are often later integrated into our tribe through a system that accepts both matrilineal and patrilineal descent.
*Our tribe is governed by the four oldest tribe members, man or woman. Decisions are made and then discussed among the younger tribe members, whose opinions are taken into consideration. Several laws have always been in place-if any member commits rape, murder,incest, theft, or commits abuse to their spouse they will be banished from life in our tribe.
*As previously discussed, our tribe was at once horticultural, but now must participate in a rotation of labor utilizing the opportunities for any wealth available in modern China. Some members additionally sell art in close towns, and back in our village in the mountains there is an egalitarian division of labor where both men and women fish(our primary means of nourishment), plant in gardens, and childcare is performed by both parents as seasonally only one parent may be present.


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