26 p.Leach used the notion of “ritual language” in order to show that ritual acts are ways of “saying things,” but also that this language is common to otherwise dissimilar groups and serves to express or validate social status. Drawing on this proposition, I investigate in an historical perspective the interethnic relationships between Drung, Nung, Naxi and Tibetan in northwest Yunnan. Pointing out some basic characteristic of their past political relations, I discuss the ritual/power/fertility complex in the broader eastern Himalayas, centering my analysis on the ritual slaughter of animals and the distribution of their flesh. In the process of partaking is expressed a more general model on which power relationships are articulated, between humans as well as between humans and some spirits. I argue that the notion of debt can help in characterizing the underlying structure of a ritual language common to the people inhabiting the Eastern Himalayas
