Ethnonyms (the names of ethnic groups) in their socially situated ling
uistic use, can offer insights into indigenous conceptions of the soci
ocultural universe. Here I examine the complex ethnonymic system of th
e Kmhmu of northern Laos and neighboring regions. Kmhmu is both an eth
nonym and a common noun meaning ''person'' or ''human''; I consider ho
w the term is understood during the ongoing communicative work of the
community. Kmhmu ethnonymic usage also reveals two indigenous models o
f ethnicity, models that coexist unproblematically despite their mutua
lly contradictory appearance. One model corresponds to scholarly conce
ptions of ethnicity as situational, the other to conceptions of ethnic
ity as primordial.