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AbstractWhile we know much about the beginnings of houses, we rarely know about their endings. Yet, to understand the temporality of houses and the entanglement of the biographies of houses and their residents, the analysis of their endings is particularly relevant. The case of Khmu houses is especially suggestive here, for it shows that the end of a house is not an exceptional phenomenon, nor a symptom of crisis, but an inevitable and intended part of its life cycle. Unintended ends, on the other hand, may continue to be animated. While bamboo houses can be assumed to have reached their end due to the widespread use of timber and, increasingly, of concrete. However, bamboo as a building material still appears convenient for fulfilling certain ends, which means that it may resurface even in novel ways.

Kinship among Khmu villagers of northern Laos is usually presented in anthropology as patrilineal. However, the ritual of a 'small marriage' can confirm a child's belonging to the mothers' house. The affirmation of the child's maternal belonging is simultaneously about separation and exclusion from paternal ties and requires for its success careful measurements of kinship. During the ritual, quantities of food, gifts, and money become indicators of belonging. Human measurements are accompanied by spirit measurements that are unknowable but can have fatal consequences. Even though rituals are meant to achieve closure and establish belonging, ambiguities remain as a result of diverging measurements of kinship.

Drawing on a brief ethnographic encounter in north-western Laos, this paper argues that fleeting encounters in the field can bring unforeseen topics and phenomena to the fieldworker's attention - in this case rumours circulating about an antidote to the impending coronavirus disease. The paper explores the resonances of this rumour with experiences from previous fieldwork and discusses a variety of local reactions, including mockery and self-deprecating gestures. Reflecting on narrative choices in ethnographic writing, the paper argues that the inclusion of contingent encounters in ethnographic writing, how they unfolded in the field and were grounded in sociality, can allow the illumination of how ethnographic knowledge is produced. Finally, this contribution argues that sensitivity to contingency and irony allows for ethnographic writing that challenges epistemic closure.

A general conundrum for the Khmu of northern Laos is the persistent unknowability of spirits. The locals gauge the potency of spirits by keeping track of spirit stories. Spirit narratives can be conceived of as transient traces of intangible spirit phenomena, as will be exemplified by the story of a young man's spirit affliction. Sharing and silencing spirit stories are a means of determining the strength of spirits, as well as an efficacious way to evoke them. Using works that embark from the fragmentary and experiential character of animist cosmologies, it will be shown that approaching spirit stories as traces of spirits will be a suitable way to address the perspectives of those who navigate a world that is not inhabited by humans alone.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- On Being a Parent in the Field -- Positionality, Similarity and Difference -- Rethinking the Ethnographer -- Unexpected Resonances -- Circulating Family Images -- Returning to the Field as a Mother -- Producing Ethnographic Knowledge -- Entangled Family -- Falling in and out of Sync in Upland Laos -- "We Will Go on Vacation, while You Work" -- Bringing My Wife and Children to the Field -- Constructing the Field -- On Being a Father in the Field -- Whisky, Kids and Sleepless Nights -- Capturing Sounds -- Shared Field, Divided Field -- From Tightrope Walks to Entangled Families -- Authors.