Hmong people tend to live at quite high altitudes, the smallest of villages clustered at the tops of mountain peaks. Village practices are often dictated by Hmong religious beliefs (which do not include gods) in spirits occupying all sorts of natural items such as rivers and trees, and in ancestor worship.

Sometimes a house or a village can be marked ‘off-limits’ for a period of time, meaning that the house or village cannot accept visitors. For example, immediately after a woman gives birth, her house becomes off-limits to married women. If a married woman comes to visit, she might secretly be pregnant, and the new mother fears the visitor will ‘steal’ the her nursing milk. As is the duty of the woman of the house, the new mother will repeatedly invite guests, even married women, to come and visit. But under no circumstances should a married woman take her up on the invitation! If she does, she’ll have to return later with an offering to apologize for 'stealing' the new mother’s milk.

In case of sickness, a spirit-practitioner called a twix neeb may conduct a ceremony to call the wandering souls of those who are ill. This makes a household or a whole village ‘off-limits’ to visitors for the duration of the malady, and is indicated by a waist-high pole topped with a bamboo disk and green leaves set up next to the door or village gate.

According to the Hmong beliefs, a child is named three days after birth in a 'soul-calling' ceremony, where a twix neeb or other prominent figure does not simply give a child a name, but calls a soul to come and inhabit the body. Throughout a Hmong person's life many illnesses and other problems are attributed to the loss of this soul, which must be found and called back to the body before the owner can get well.

One of the biggest problems currently facing Hmong youth is the early age of marriage. Many girls marry when they are only 12 - 14 years old. The couples have not learned a skill and do not have a way to provide for themselves, much less care for their children when they have them. Girls often marry early because they are afraid they will be rejected by their boyfriends if they do not. However, girls who are able to get an education typically wait till they are about 25 - 28 years old before marrying.