In a world so thickly intertwined with ties of communication and commerce, there are virtually no traditional cultures left anywhere – certainly not in Yunnan. Even when, as in Yunnan , certain rituals and customs have been preserved from the past, they can never be practiced with the matter-of-factness with which they were practiced in the era before modern roads and telephones and the internet, not to mention modern methods of political control. Even when indigenous peoples in relatively isolated villages practice their rituals and customs, they do so with the awareness that there are many other people in the greater society who are living successful, meaningful lives, but do not see the value of those indigenous rituals. Those who continue to practice the rituals must do so in a self-conscious way that at the least robs the rituals of the spontaneity that they had in more pure times. Also, insofar as indigenous peoples are forced to explain themselves to outsiders, they find themselves translating their beliefs, rituals and customs into the language and cultural systems of the outsiders, and this very process of translation changes the meaning of the original indigenous culture. So there is no pure indigenous culture to be protected from change. Change is inevitable, and considerable change has already taken place.

At different times, and under different circumstances, however, change takes place in different ways. We could probably chart the course of social and cultural change in Yunnan according to the following schema. In Imperial China, Yunnan was at the far frontiers of imperial rule. Imperial garrisons could keep an uneasy peace, and taxes could be collected, but the imperial state did not have the ability to closely supervise local communities. The various indigenous peoples used the solidarity created through their customs and rituals to keep outside forces at arm’s length and to get some control over the terms of their relationship with the outside world.

By the early twentieth century the old political system had collapsed. But in a highly fluid, even anarchic situation, new kind of commerce (some of it illegal, like the opium trade) flourished and complicated new relationships with outside cultures were forged, often through foreign Christian missionaries. After 1949, the government of the PRC established order and incorporated local communities in a strong system of bureaucratic control. Eventually, under the influence of leftist elements in the government, the PRC suppressed local religious practices and even discouraged the use of local languages. At the same time, the PRC explicitly classified communities as belonging to one or another "national minority" (sometimes the classification was based on research that modern anthropologists would deem inaccurate) and inhibited members of these minority communities from moving out of their enclaves. Thus although the PRC during the Maoist era suppressed the expression of indigenous cultures, it enforced a community solidarity and isolation that would eventually facilitate attempts to revive those cultures.

In the Reform era, government policy allows for the open expression of many of the traditional rituals and customs. However, many members of the indigenous communities have forgotten such customs and the younger generation never had a chance to learn them. So as they revive certain community rituals and customs, they are not so much carrying on tradition as inventing tradition. They are selectively taking partially remembered elements of the past and recombining them in new ways to meet the needs of the present.

The needs of the present are to some degree needs to keep the indigenous communities from demoralization and disintegration. The new socialist market economy provides opportunities for national minorities to leave their communities in search of work elsewhere. But as a matter of fact this is often low paid, low skilled work in places far away from home. National minorities who seek such work are vulnerable to exploitation. It would probably be better for many of the national minorities if they were able to remain in their home communities and benefit from the mutual support and moral solidarity that such communities provide. The revival (or invention) of traditional rituals and practices is probably a way of expressing the need for such solidarity and helping to bring it about. This will work, however, only if people are not forced to stay in their communities, but encouraged to stay by the genuine economic vitality of such communities. Revival or reinvention of community culture and local economic development must go hand in hand.

It is important that this revival be done in such a way as to preserve and enrich the social capital of local communities. According to the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, "By analogy with notions of physical capital and human capital – tools and training that enhance individual productivity – ‘social capital’ refers to features of social organization, such as networks, norms, and trust, that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefits." Such social capital has traditionally been deepened by rituals, religious practices and even aesthetic practices. Thus, a revival of such practices can not only be an attraction for tourists, but they can actually build the social capital that gives strength to local communities. However, such rituals and practices build social capital only if they are engaged in sincerely, to some degree as ends in themselves, and not just as means to attract outsiders and their money. So it would be to the material and spiritual benefit of Yunnan’s indigenous communities if they underwent a cultural renaissance – one that took tradition and sincerely, creatively adapted it to a modern world, shaped by science and technology and ties of communication and commerce.