ABSTRACT Palang is a word used in an ethnic Kantu village in Sekong Province, Lao PDR meaning people of a broadly white appearance. It is similar, in sound and semantic range, to words found in many Asia Pacific languages of indicating the West, Westerners, and things originating in the West. The Kantu palang is furthermore linked to other categories of human difference, including ethnicity, possession, sorcery, witchcraft and the dead. Health and a good life are understood as requiring judicious incorporation of difference, but the power of difference is understood as ambivalent and difference is thus also potentially dangerous. Often, difference is understood in terms of material things, the position of these things inside or outside (of bodies, the village, the region), and their resulting capacity to heal or harm. This materiality troubles any easy classification of these concerns as mimetic, suggesting instead a distinct outlook on difference.

中文翻译：

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坎图人中的帕朗：或者，差异是一种药

摘要 Palang 是老挝色公省康图族村庄中使用的一个词，意思是外观广泛的白人。在声音和语义范围上，它类似于许多亚太语言中的词，表示西方、西方人和起源于西方的事物。Kantu palang 还与其他类别的人类差异有关，包括种族、财产、巫术、巫术和死者。健康和美好生活被理解为需要明智地结合差异，但差异的力量被理解为矛盾的，因此差异也具有潜在危险。通常，差异是从物质事物、这些事物内部或外部（身体、村庄、区域）的位置以及由此产生的治愈或伤害的能力来理解的。