A Minority Enters the Nation State. Case of Hmong in Vientiane. A Case Study of a Hmong Community in Vientiane Province, Laos 9150610988

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.Ian Ovesen

A MINORITY ENTERS THE NATION STATE A Case Study of Hmong Community in Vientiane Province, Laos

Uppsala Research Reports in Cultural Anthropology, No. 14

1995

Cover photo: Hmong children having secured the intestines of a pig sacrwcedfor the journey of a shaman

Publication of this work has been financially supported by Vilhelm Ekmans Universitetsfond

Published and distributed by Department of Cultural Anthropology Uppsala University Tréidgéirdsgatan 18 S-753 09 Uppsala, Sweden .. . . . ...

© Jan Ovesen 1995

Key words: Anthropology - Laos, Hmong, Anthropology - Development

ISBN 91-506-1098-8 ISSN 0348-9507 Photos and lay-out by the author Printed in Sweden by Go tab, Stockholm, 1995

CONTENTS Preface

1

Introduction: The Project Area

5

The Hmong, their History and Environment

9

Fieldwork Methodology

17

The Social Organization of Hmong Society

19

Religion

26

Population and Migrations in the Project Area

32

Physical Description of the Villages

40

Subsistence and Economy

50

Sex Roles and Division of Labour

71

The Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay Plateau: Problems and Prospects

'76

Summary and Recommendations

83

Notes

89

Bibliography

91

Appendix Household survey questionnaire

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vi

Maps North Laos Part of Vientiane province

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Illustrations Hmong children with the intestines of a sacrificial pig Front cover Preparation of a pig sacrificed for the shaman's journey 28 A shaman explains his itinerary to the public 29 30 A shaman sets out on his journey Newcomers building their house on the plateau 36 A Hmong settlement on the shore of the Nam Ngum reservoir 38 The interior of a Hmong house 41 Houses and vegetable gardens in Ban Vanghua 43 Tai-style house in Ban Vanghua 44 46 The daily bus leaving the plateau for the plain 48 The 'adult education center' in Ban Vanghua Hmong women in traditional dress, north Laos

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Hmong women of the Phoukhaokhouay plateau A bidden field between the slashing and the burning

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51

A bidden field with cassava A man on the threshing place in his paddy field

52

Deforestation as a result of swiddening A boy with the day's catch of fish

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A young couple about to start clearing a new bidden A feast in Ban Vanghua

62 70 72

The Christian church in Ban Vanghua

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PREFACE This report is the result of the social anthropological component of the Environmental Impact Assessment for the feasibility study of the Nam

Mang 3 Hydropower Development Project, Vientiane province, Lao PDR. The feasibility sandy was carried out by Worley International Ltd., of Auckland, New Zealand, in cooperation with Lahmeyer International GmbH, of Frankfurt, Germany, for Electricité du Laos (EDL), Ministry

of Industry, Government of the Lao PDR. The study was financed by the Asian Development Bank. The project is a so-called multi-purpose project in that it includes both a hydropower and an irrigation component. The hydropower is to be generated by a dam on the Nam Gnang river (a tributary to the Nam

Mang, from which the project derives its name). From the resulting reservoir on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau the water will be channeled down the escarpment to a Poweiiliouse on the Vientiane plain (see map, p.6). The power plant will have a capacity of 35-40 MW. Both in the national context and in international comparison, it is thus a fairly modest hydropower project. Like other hydropower plants in the country, this one is meant primarily to generate electricity for export to neighboring Thailand. The diverted water will be used, after power generation, to irrigate about 2,900 ha of agricultural land on the Vientiane plain. The aim of the social anthropological study was to provide ethnographic

and socio-economic background data in order to determine the impact of the project on the population on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau. The main points of my terms of reference were: - Determine the age and sex structure of the population. - Describe the groups in terms of their heritage of history, social customs and behaviour.

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2 --. Determine the economic livelihood of the groups and their use of various natural resources. - Determine whether any of the social impacts which have been identified for the project could adversely affect any population group. ...- Comment on ways in which any problems which have been identified may be mitigated and make recommendations concerning mitigating measures .

Considering the amount of opposition and criticism which has been voiced, mainly by environmentally concerned scholars and organizations, towards hydropower development projects, both in Laos and elsewhere, a few comments on the general situation may be in order. . Environmentalist objections to hydropower projects have most often concerned the inevitable loss of biodiversity in the project areas, while anthropological critiques have typically centered on declining possibilities for local populations to pursue their traditional mode of livelihood, the long-terrn result being loss of cultural diversity. The environmentalist concern for biodiversity and conservation of nature should be seen in a broad national and international perspective. Whether we like it or not, Laos, like all other countries in the 'Third World', is becoming increasingly involved in the 'world system' of economic exchange which dictates, among other things, a growing need for foreign currency. To meet this need, Laos has for the time being to rely on her natural resources, and her two main assets are timber and hydropower. Forest produce accounts for about 50% of the country's foreign income, and non-timber forest products are insignificant in that respect. According to estimates made by the World Bank, the sustainable rate of

timber extraction is 288,000 my per year. The current rate of legal extraction is 300,000 m3 per year, to which must be added another 150,000 m3 per year of illegal logging (Lao PDR 1993:l4-16). One of the possible ways of reducing logging in order to approach the sustainable level is to indicate alternative or complementary ways of gaining foreign income. At the moment, and for the foreseeable future, development of hydropower seems the most realistic complement. Laos has the highest availability of renewable freshwater resources per capita in Asia, twenty times more than the average for Asia as a whole (ibid.;40). This is, of course, partly a function of the very low

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population density of the country. But the fact remains that the potential for sustainable hydropower development is far greater than the sum of the capacity of existing, planned and contemplated plants. The currently existing capacity is only about 200 MW, while the country's total potential is estimated at 12,000 MW. To replace the foreign income deriving from excess logging (i.e. the amount of legal and illegal logging

which surpasses the sustainable level) with revenue generated by hydroelectricity would require the development of hydropower with a further capacity of about 850 MW (ibid.:4-0). The environmentalist critique of hydropower development is important in its own right, and the loss of biodiversity which results

from any hydropower project is, of course, regrettable. But these considerations should be seen in the context of the environmental situation of the country as a whole. The environmentally negative effects of hydropower development should be weighed against the deforestation and consequent environmental degradation which is presently taking place as a result of excessive logging, deforestation is also a threat to the long-term renewability of the so far abundant freshwater resources. The anthropological considerations of the project form the main

part of this report. .

While in Laos I benefitted from the support and cooperation of Mr. Charles Adamson, environmental coordinator for the feasibility study. I also gratefully acknowledge the assistance and companionship of my Hmong interpreter and assistant (whose name I have chosen to refrain from mentioning). The text that follows is a slightly revised and expanded version of the report I submitted.to Worley International in April 1994, and it has benefitted from comments by my colleagues Per

BrandstrOm and In-Britt Trankell. Uppsala, January 1995 Jan Ovesen

INTRODUCTION: THE PROJECT AREA The hydropower catchment area is located on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau in the Thoulakhom district, Vientiane province. The distance from Vientiane city is about 70 ldlometers, and the plateau is reached by Road 10 to Ban Napheng, from where a gravel road (No. 151) crosses the plain and winds up the escarpment to the plateau. The plain is at an altitude of about 200m above sea level, while the altitude of the floor of the plateau is about 750m. The hills on the plateau reaches some $00m, while a couple of the surrounding mountain peaks to the north reaches over 1,600m. The Phoukhaokhouay plateau is an attractive area with large stretches of pine forest interspersed by semi-dense mixed forest, secondary bidden regrowth and bidden fields, with paddy fields and grassland on the level areas. It is traversed, from the northeast to the southwest, by the Nam Gnang river. The plateau was used, under the name of Ritaville1, as a resort and excursion area by the French who constructed the road up the escarpment, and who also constructed an airstrip at the end of the road. During the civil war the airstrip was in the hands of the Royal government which had an army camp nearby. After the revolution, the Ministry of Defense used the grounds for cattle farming until the now rather derelict looking army camp was reclaimed in 1988-89; it is now said to be used as a training camp for officers below the rank of captain. The road runs on the former airstrip, beyond which it deteriorates into a track which continues to Ban Vanghua at the southeaster end of the plateau. The track is passable by truck or 4-wheel

drive car in the dry season, when Ban Vanghua is served once or twice a day by truck buses from Ban Napheng and Ban Phonrnouang in the plain. In the rainy season, the buses can go no further than Ban Phoukhaokeo, the first village to be reached on coming up the escarpment.

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Map of north Laos

The village of Ban Phoukhaokeo was earlier known by the name of Ban Hueybon. It is inhabited by Lao Lum who are families and campfollowers of the personnel of the army camp, to which the village is connected. The camp and the village is under the authority of the Ministry of Defense and the village headman is a retired army captain. It

consists of 56 households and has a total of 280 inhabitants. 4 of the households do not consist of army personnel, but of farmers who cultivate some paddy land in the vicinity. Even some of the army families cultivate a few raj of paddy. The headman assured that the village is the responsibility of the Ministry of Defense, so it will be of no further concern in this study. The headman also intimated that the Ministry of Defense are not taking kindly to the hydropower plans for the area, which is claimed to be of supreme strategic military importance, but that

7 the ministry nevertheless had plans for developing it into a tourist resort(!), like in the old days.

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Map of part of Vientiane province

The two other villages on the plateau are Ban Phoukhaokhouay and Ban Vanghua. These are Hmong settlements, and they will be the main focus of this study. Ban Phouldiaokhouay is a rather scattered settlement which starts just east of the airstrip and extends for about 1.5 km along both sides of the track. It consists of 52 households. Many of the houses are fairly new, more than half of them having been built in 1991 or later. At the time of the study, several new houses were being constructed- Ban

i

8

Vanghua is quite a large settlement, consisting of 162 households, and it is divided into two parts. The one, smaller, part consists of some 40 households, some of which are scattered along the track, from about three kilometers east of the last houses of Ban Phoukhaokhouay, while most are clustered at a bend in the river Nam Gnang just south of where the track crosses the river. The second and larger part of Barl Vanghua is a compact village situated at the end of the track, a further 1.5 km from the first part, it consists of some 120 households (exact figures and village statistics will be given below). Since this study is primarily concerned with the Hmong population of the Phoukhaoldlouay plateau, I shall set the context by first providing some general iMorlnation on the situation of the Hmong population in the Lao PDR.

THE HMONG, THEIR HISTORY AND ENVIRONMENT The ancestors of the present-day Hmong ethnic group were aboriginal tribesmen of the mountains of southern China. They were mentioned in Chinese chronicles as early as about 2500 B.C. Their language belongs to the Miao-Yao group of the Sino-Tibetan family, so linguistically they differ very much from both the Tai/Lao, the Vietnamese, the aboriginal Mon-Khmer population of Laos, and the other (Tibeto-Burman) hill tribes of northern Laos and northern Thailand. The Hmong started to migrate from their original homeland in the mid-19th century, as a result of conflicts with, and oppression by, the (Han) Chinese. In less than 50 years, groups of Hmong spread to those mountainous regions of northern Viet Nam, northern Laos, and northern Thailand where they are presently found. The majority of the Hmong - an estimated 3 million still live in southern China, there are about 350,000 in northern Viet Nam and about 100,000 in northern Thailand. in Laos the Hmong are estimated to number about 230,000, making up about 5% of the country's population.

The Hmong were earlier referred to as Meo or Miao in the western literature. To the Hmong themselves, the term Meo is felt to be derogatory, it is still used by some Thai in Thailand, but it was never current in Laos, though it is occasionally found in some of the few Anglophone writings on that country. The Hmong are customarily divided into two major dialectical and cultural divisions, referred to as

the Green Hmong (Hmong Njua, Hmoob Nt5aub2, earlier also called the Blue Hmong, or Blue Meo in English writings) and the White Hmong (Hmong Doh, Hmoob Dawb). The colour terms refer to certain particulars of the women's traditional dress. Although the dialects of the two divisions differ in some respects, they are mutually intelligible. There is evidence that earlier intermarriage between the two divisions 9

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was rare in Laos, but today the divisions do not have manage regulating functions. On the whole, the divisions have very little social significance, their function being primarily emblematic. Of far greater social importance are the clans. Eighteen Hmong clans have been identified in Thailand and Laos, of which eight are represented in the project area. I shall account for the clan s-ystem below.

As comparative newcomers to Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand, the Hmong have encountered numerous difficulties with the local majority populations, as well as with their foreign overlords. In 1918, the Hmong of Xieng Khouang rebelled against the Tai, Lao and French because of the very heavy taxes levied by the local Tai officials on behalf of the French Opium Monopoly. The rebellion was fired by the millenarian prophesies of its leader Pa Chay Vue. It petered out in 1921, when the prophecy eventually failed and when French military power proved overwhelming, and Pa Chay was lolled by a contingent of pro-French Khmer soldiers. Other leaders of the rebellion were summarily executed by the French, and their supporters were forced to pay heavy fines, altogether, 375 kg of silver ingots, coins and neck-rings were extracted from the Hmong following the crushing of the Pa Chay rebellion. After the rebellion, however, the French, on the advice of missionary administrator F.M. Savina, decided to appoint Hmong chiefs, instead of Tai/Lao ones, in the Hmong areas as delegates of French authority. This led temporarily to the outward pacification of the Hmong, but it hardly bought their loyalty (Gunn 1986; 1990:151-60). When the Viet Minh and the USA expanded their battlefield into

Lao territory in the 1960s, the Hmong became divided between the two sides. This was to a large extent due to the rivalry that evolved between the two equally influential leaders, Pathet Lao supporter Lo Fay Dang, and French-educated royalist Touby Lyfoung. Many Hmong at that time felt forced to leave their mountain homes to escape the fighting, and the Royal Government evacuated many of its passive 'supporters' to special areas in the lowlands near Vientiane and Vang Vieng, where they were supplied with American rice and provisions. These areas became recruiting grounds for the anti-communist general Vang Pao who had set up his headquarters at Long Chen in Xieng Khouang, from where he commanded a 'secret' mercenary army financed by the CIA (HamiltonMerritt 1993). After the envisaged victory, Vang Pao's supporters were

11 promised a sovereign Hmong state, but in 1975, when also that prophecy failed, a large number of Hmong made their escape from Laos, first to neighbouring Thailand, and for many eventually to the USA. By the late 1980s, about 120,000 Hmong had left Laos, about 80,000 are currently living overseas, most in the USA, but there are smaller communities also in Australia, Canada, France, Argentina, and even Suriname. Of the Hmong who fled to Thailand, a fair number have returned in recent years, but according to the estimates of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), there are still about 20,000 Hmong living in refugee villages in Thailand. The Lao and Thai governments have agreed on a repatriation scheme, under UNHCR auspices and

assisted by various NGOs, to be completed by 1994/95 (Fig 1993). The main anthropological studies of the Hmong have been conducted in Thailand (Geddes 1976, Cooper 1984, Tapp 1989); but both Cooper's and Tapp's books are highly relevant also for the Hmong in Laos. The popular book by four leading authorities on the Hmong in Thailand (Cooper et al., 1990) gives a good overview of their society and culture. For the Hmong in Laos, the work of Jacques Lemoine (1972a, 197213) is the most important source, Guy Moréchand (1968) has done a detailed study of shamanism, Yang Dao (1975) has contributed a general report, and geographer Christian Taillard (1977) has done a comparative study of a Hmong and a Lao village in Vientiane province. I am not aware of any contemporary anthropological work on the Hmong in either China or Viet Nam. The Hmong traditionally subsist on bidden cultivation. Their comparatively rapid southward movement, into Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand during the last 100 years serve to indicate the fact that they have never stayed long enough in one place to have had the opportunity to develop an environmentally sustainable system of shifting cultivation. One reason for this may be that they have always been late settlers in an area and therefore have been confined mainly to the high mountain slopes where nobody else has found it worthwhile to cultivate. The environmentally destructive character of Hmong bidden cultivation was already noted by Savina (1930), and since then the situation has hardly improved, the result being a permanent state of resource scarcity (Cooper 1984). Unfortunately, the situation of resource scarcity is often

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aggravated by the somewhat paradoxical lack of ecological consciousness among the Hmong. The Hmong attitude towards their natural environment, particularly the forest, is significantly different from that of, say, western conservationists. There is nothing in the historical experience of the Hmong that can make them understand the sentimental (and, we now know, ecologically sound) attitude of many Westerners towards forest preservation and bio-diversity: For the Hmong, wild animals are a source of food which is tapped as long as it lasts, forest produce is a potential source of cash income, and cash is always needed, and large trees are a nuisance near human settlements, so they should be cut down. Opium cultivation is another trait commonly associated with the Hmong (as well as with other hill tribes in the region). The Hmong have probably grown opium on a modest scale for domestic consumption for a very long time. Their contemporary inclination for large scale opium production as a cash crop is the result of the marketing opportunities that arose in the first place from the colonial policies which vere instrumental in creating an international i r n l n u u e r et al-, 1990). Since opium is easily portable, readily convertible into cash, and grows best at high altitudes in a monsoon climate, it represented one of the very few advantages that the Hmong were given in the mountain environments to which they had to adapt. It is little wonder that the Hmong has taken advantage of that opportunity, but it has also made them the target of various more or less recent drug eradication programmes. Estimates of the extent and adverse health consequences of opium addiction among the Hmong vary widely between different authorities. The more pessimistic view tends to dominate because of the moralistic attitude which the American Bureau of Narcotics and various missionary organizations have managed to spread to the rest of the world. Thus, for example, missionary G.L. Barney (1957) stated that in the 1950s, 60-70% of Hmong males in Laos were regular opium smokers, and the Thai Prince Bhistej Rajani (n.d.) gave as his considered opinion that "the drug subjugates the soul, destroying all honesty and pride" (both cited by Cooper l984:xix). A more liberal view is represented by J.S. Westermeyer (1982), based on his experience as a practicing physician among the Hmong in Laos. He estimated the number

13 of debilitated opium addicts to be less than 1% of the population and called attention to the therapeutic (apart from the well-known medicinal) qualities of the drug, by which it, in his opinion, performs a valuable service to society. This view is corroborated by Cooper, who after spending two years among the Hmong concluded that "opium smoking in a Hmong village is not in itself a medically or socially dangerous affair" (1984:xx).

Like other hill tribes in the region, the Hmong have been subject to the efforts by Western missionaries to convert them to Christianity. The Messianic vision of Pa Chay was no doubt at least indirectly inspired by missionary teachings, and Protestant missionaries had worked among the Hmong in Laos in the early 19-40s. But it was only after the Second World War that large numbers of converts were made (Tapp 1989a:9599). The socially disruptive influences of Christianity among the Hmong are well documented from Thailand (Cooper 1984, Tapp 1989b), and Tapp (1989a:99-100) has noted the at the same time intol rant and

credulous attitude of most Protestant missionaries. In Laos, the present socialist government does not encourage missionary activities, but forms of more or less fundamentalist Protestant Christianity has since the 1950s gained a foothold in many Hmong communities in the country, and often Christian Hmong families in Laos are in contact with Christian Hmong congregations overseas who supply them with religious propaganda in the form of magazines and cassette tapes. The percentage of Christians among the Hmong in Laos is estimated at about 20%.

The Hmong differ profoundly from the Tai/Lao majority population of Laos, both linguistically and in rems of culture and society. This fact

alone might be sufficient to explain the lack of mutual understanding by the Hmong and the Lao of each other's way of life, form of society, and world-view. In the Laotian context, however, the cultural differences have been aggravated by the historical, ecological and economic circumstances outlined above. In the eyes of many Lao who feel they represent the official political ideology, the Hmong therefore appear as an object of suspicion on a number of counts: They are prone to destroy the forest which it is the officially stated policy to protect. They tend to

engage in illegal opium production and trade. Their patriotism and loyalty to the government may be put in grave doubt because of their

14 role in the war. And they do not follow the officially endorsed religion of Buddhism, but practice either the traditional, shamanistic form of spirit cult, or the alien Christian religion, both of which are frowned upon, for different reasons, by the socialist government. Also in terms of family life, Hmong customs are significantly different from those of the Lao. The fact that the Hmong accept pre-marital sexual relations for women as the rule rather than the exception, and that they allow polygyny, is quite contrary to the established Buddhist canons of morality and make them appear as immoral 'savages' in the eyes of the Buddhist Lao majority. It is thus not uncommon to encounter even younger Lao persons who regard the Hmong with a mixture of fear and contempt. The Hmong, on their side, often express mistrust as to the good intentions of the political authorities of the country. They feel that they have been consistently let down by the government, that they are looked down upon by the Lao, and that promises made to them have never been kept. This is not to say that there is overt enmity or conflict between Hmong and Lao on the level of everyday interaction. On the contrary, in most daily situations representatives of the two ethnic groups cooperate perfectly well and get on well socially. But it should be kept in mind that when the latent mutual mistrust occasionally surfaces, there are good cultural, historical aNd political reasons for it. lt should be strongly emphasized, however, that the reasons that the Hmong have a bad name in the opinion of some Lao do not lie primarily in any intrinsic character of Hmong culture, but are due to factors largely outside the control of the Hmong themselves: The Hmong did not choose to migrate south from China, they were forced to do so by the circumstances. They did not choose to engage in bidden cultivation on the high mountain slopes, it was the only land available to them. They did not invent the opium trade, it was presented to them as one of their very few possibilities of a reasonable income. They did not start the civil war or call in the CIA, they only wanted to make a living as farmers, but they were used as either pawns or hostages by both sides. Some did convert to Christianity, not out of spite for Buddhism, but because the millenarian or messianic overtones of the former religious ideology struck a certain cord with their traditional cosmological ideas. It should also be emphasized that nowadays the government of the Lao PDR in many ways makes honest attempts to improve the conditions for

15 the country's ethnic minorities, including the Hmong, and to include them into the mainstream of the society. If the Hmong are still in certain respects relatively disadvantaged, this is primarily a reflection of magnitude of the cultural and political-historical differences between this particular ethnic minority and the Lao majority population.

The good intentions of the Lao government vis-8-vis the Hmong have, however, been questioned by certain people much more intimately

acquainted with the Hmong than myself, most notably by American journalist Jane Hamilton-Merritt. In her book Tragic Mountains (1993) she not only relates the plight of the Hmong during and immediately after the war as pawns in the international game of politics, but also testifies to continuous attempts at genocide, by means of chemicalbiological toxin weapons (the 'yellow rain'), by the present Lao government as late as into the early 1990s. I am not in a position to judge Hamilton-Merritt's extensive and detailed evidence for the governments genocidal efforts, having only visited Hmong communities north and south of the area where the alleged chemical attacks have taken place (see map in Hamilton-Merritt 1993:354). Nor would I question her information that many Hmong in the refugee camps in Thailand were fervently opposed to the idea of their repatriation. Hamilton-Merritt severely questions the legitimacy, as far as the Hmong refugees are concerned, of the Thai-Lao agreement on the repatriation scheme, mentioned above, and she accuses, among other people, anthropologist Robert Cooper (who worked for the UNHCR in Thailand) of having manipulated the Hmong into acquiescence (ibid.:50613). Considering Cooper's sympathy for the Hmong, gained through prolonged fieldwork among them, I find it hard to question the honesty

of his intentions, but the whole question remains as highly politically charged as ever. My own brief visit to a community of recently repatriated refugees in Vientiane province did not bear out any of the misgivings of Hamilton-Merritt's interlocutors. Although the assurances of these repatriates that it was wonderful to be back in their 'home country' had a somewhat brainwashed ring, their main complaint was the lack of certain facilities to which they had been accustomed in the camp in Thailand, primarily electricity (a luxury enjoyed by only 17% of the population in Laos, mainly in the cities and larger towns) and a nursery

16 school - and would I please convey these requests to the YMCA in Thailand...

By no stretch of the political imagination can Lao PDR be said to score very high in the fields of democracy and human rights (the mere suggestion in public that a multi-party system might be a good idea is enough to land you in prison, irrespective of your ethnicity). And we should not forget that the recent history of the various peoples of Laos in genera and that of the Hmong in particular, is one of numerous atrocities. Hamilton-Merritt has supplied one perspective on this history . But I do not believe that it serves any useful purpose for future political developments or ethnic relations in Laos to continue to portray the Hmong in the western press as a case of 'self-sacrificing heroism' of a 'brave tribal people' now facing 'forced repatriation from Thailand to probable slaughter in Laos' (Toye 1994). What follows is another land of picture, taken from the other side of the border.

FIELDWORK METHODOLOGY In view of the particular situation of the Hmong vis-8-yis the national establishment, sketched above, special care was taken in the design of the field study. It was my good fortune to be able to solicit the services as assistant and interpreter of a Hmong of Xieng Khouang origin and with an education in forestry. During our first visit to the project site, we arranged for accommodation in a "modern" house in the village of Ban Vanghua which belonged to a member of the same clan as my assistant. Rather than starting right away with distributing questionnaires, I decided to establish my presence in a more informal way to begin with. The first week in the village was spent doing semi- structured in-depth interviews, i.e. to have fairly lengthy conversations (usually about two hours, including translation) with a number of people, either individually or in small groups. All conversations were held in the Hmong language. This gave me an impression (as well as a lot of concrete information) of the particular way of life of the people in the area, of their current problems and future hopes and prospects, and of their genera] history (or histories) of migration. This time thus allowed me to frame the questions for the household survey questionnaire in what was hopefully a reasonably relevant fashion. At the same time it gave me the opportunity to establish my credentials with people by demonstrating that I could stay in their village, eat and drink with them, bathe in the river, and on the whole act like a normal human being, even though I did not speak the language. After the first week in the village, I spent a day in Vientiane doing

the questionnaire. I decided to keep it to one page in the interest of the maximum return. (A copy of the questionnaire is included as Appendix). The questionnaire was distributed to all households in the villages of Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay through the leaders of each village group. The group leaders were instructed, by way of doing their own questionnaire as an example, in how to fill in the sheet, and all agreed to

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18 pass the sheets around to the households in their group and to make sure they would be properly filled in. The whole procedure of locating all group leaders, distributing and eventually collecting all the questionnaires went on intermittently for the next week. During the fieldwork we also paid a couple of visits to the Hmong village of Ban Narnnham at the foot of the escarpment, that village is outside the project (i.e. the catchment) area, but there is a fair amount of communication between that and the villages on the plateau.

Since conversations had made it clear that many of the families current living on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau had in-migrated from the district of Muang Horn, I decided to spend a couple of days surveying the Hmong villages of that district. Finally, a visit was paid to a Hmong village of recent returnees from Thailand, established by the UNHCR and located in the plain in the Thoulakhorn district, some 5 kilometers west of Ban Haignon on the Road 10.

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF HMONG

SOCIETY The structure and organization of Hmong society differs in many respects profoundly from that of the Lao, and it is therefore necessary to account for it in some detail. The most important difference lies in the character of what anthropologists

are prone to refer to rather in-

discriminately as the 'kinship system' of the two groups. For the Lao, kinship relations are a concomitant of spatial proximity and household membership. Lao society is an instance of the 'house-based society' (Macdonald 1987, of. Trankell 1993) where ties to the domestic unit and its connection to the village land are the most important organizing principles. The Hmong, on the other hand, form a more classic 'tribal' society based on kinship ties expressed in the idiom of patrilineal descentThe patrilineal clan system of the Hmong, coupled with a traditional bidden subsistence economy that has necessitated a good deal of migration, has resulted in a comparative lack of village cohesion in favour of individual household mobility, but also in the retention of a penchant for living near close relatives.

The Clan System The Hmong are divided into about eighteen clans (xeem), eight of which are represented in the project area. The clans are patrilineal, i.e. children belong to the same clan as their father. The clans are strictly exogamous, i.e. marriage must be with a person from another clan than one's own. Considering that the clans are dispersed over the vast region inhabited by Hmong groups, the exogamous rule is followed with remarkable rigorousness, and it even pertains to pre- or extramarital sexual relations. If a young man takes a fancy to a girl, all erotic attraction will inmlediately vanish if he learns that she belongs to his own clan.

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20

A person's primary loyalty is always towards other members of his own clan, irrespective of village or region of residence. Given the migratory way of life of the Hmong, clan solidarity is for practical purposes extremely important. A household wishing to move to some other area will always contact clan relatives in the settlement of their destination and negotiate with them about the proposed relocation, as the latter will act as

sponsors for the new arrivals. A Hmong person who happens to pass through an unknown Hmong village may always call at the house of one of his fellow clan members and expect hospitality. This basic clan solidarity is undirrlinished even among Hmong living in communities overseas. This is one reason why the Hmong in for instance USA or Australia find it very important to have telephones: By entering your clan name in the telephone directory, you make sure that visiting clan relatives will always be able to locate households of fellow clansmen to visit (of. Tapp 1983). Disputes or conflicts within the clan are felt to be extremely threatening to society as a whole, such conflicts are very rare, but should they arise, they will be mitigated at all costs. Disputes between members of different clans will often involve several of the elder resident members of the respective clans. Most of the clans each have its own particular taboo, usually in the form of some dietary prohibition. Examples of such taboos include the prohibition to eat the heart of any animal, the prohibition to eat sour or acid things together with rice, the prohibition to kill buffaloes, the prohibition to take cooked rice along to the field, or the rule that for ceremonial occasions a head of cattle should always be sacrificed before any other animal. The rationales for these taboos are to be found in more or less well-remembered myths OI` legends.

Marriage At marriage, a woman leaves her natal household and becomes a member of that of her husband. She also leaves her natal clan and becomes attached to that of her husband. The normal age of marriage is quite low, usually about 18-20 years for men and 16-17 for girls, but it is not uneolmnon for a girl to marry at the age of 14. Pre-marital sexual

21 relations are accepted and are the norm rather than the exception for both boys and girls. If pregnancy results from such a relation, marriage will most often ensue. The Hmong allow polygyny, though it is not a common practice. A man may take a second, or even a third wife in principle only with the consent of the first, and traditionally he would only do so if the first wife proved barren or had given birth to girls only. Among the Hmong in Laos, however, polygyny is somewhat more frequent for people born in the l940s and 1950s because of the considerable number of casualties among men during the civil war.

Traditionally, a marriage was arranged by the fathers of the young couple, and there was a preference for marriage between cross-cousins, i-e. a man should marry his father's sister's daughter or his mother's brother's daughter. A traditional alternative to the arranged marriage was the custom of elopement. If a young couple wanted to marry without the prior consent of their fathers, the boy and some of his friends would lie in ambush and capture the girl when she passed, when 'captured', the girl would cry out and her parents would come to her mock-rescue, but in reality to receive a silver coin (Piastre) from the boy. After that, negotiations for the marriage would be initiated. In the project area today, most marriages are the result of a young couple finding each other, but the dramatic performance of the 'bride-capture' is played down. Instead, the boy sends a friend of his as a go-between to the girls father, he presents the silver coin and informs the father that the young couple intend to marry, the presentation of the coin implies that marriage negotiations will begin after three days. The couple then go to the boys father's house where they stay for three days, this represents the girl's entry into the clan of the boy, and for that occasion the spirits have to be

informed and give their consent. This is ensured by the performance of a ritual called hu p i g which means summoning the soul. It is rather similar to the Lao back ceremony and involves the sacrifice of a chicken. It is held to ensure that the souls of the young couple, and in particular that of the girl (since the shifting of clan membership is a spiritually delicate business) do not stray or wander.

After the three days, the negotiations for the bride price and the payment for the wedding party can begin. In practice, only the latter sum is negotiable, and will depend on the relative wealth of the two families and the number of relatives expected to attend. Because of the

22

importance of, and prestige attached to marriages in unilineal societies like that of the Hmong, there is a tendency for the bride price to increase gradually. In present~day Laos, measures have been taken, both locally and nationwide among the Hmong, to reduce and six the amount to be paid as bride price. Before the revolution, the bride price was generally about five silver ingots, but today it has been reduced to two. (A silver ingot commands the price of about 100$, but most people are reluctant to part with their silver unless they are economically forced to do so). In a document drawn up by the elders of Ban Vanghua in 1989, and attested by the district authorities,~'the bride price rate for different kinds of marriage were fixed. It stated the bride price for an unmarried girl to be two silver ingots and two silver coins, one of the latter to be paid at the beginning of the negotiations and the second to be paid to the girl for clothes and other necessities. The bride price for a woman widowed after less than six years of marriage should be 50,000 Kip, for a widow after six to ten years of marriage 25,000 Kip, while no bride price should be paid for a widow who had been married for more than ten years. If a girl gets pregnant or has a baby and the presumptive father refuses to marry her, he is to be fined two silver coins. If for some reason a pregnant girl refuses to marry the father of her child against his wishes, she is fined 75,000 Kip, i.e. about half the normal bride price, this implies that she gets the custody of the child that consequently becomes a member of her clan until she marries into another clan. The above rules and their underlying principles are a good illustration of the function of the bride price in a patrilineal society such as that of the Hmong. The bride price is a compensation for the productive and reproductive capacity and potential of a woman, i-e. her

l a b o r force and her fertility; it is paid by the household (and, ultimately, the clan) which acquires these assets to the household (or clan) which relinquishes them.

The Importance of Kinsmen

Although solidarity can Io general be expected from fellow clansmen, substantial assistance in economic and social matters requires the

23

presence of actual biological relatives. These are the people that a person refers to as his kw kg, i.e. those who trace descent in a direct line from a common ancestor. This is a group that in the common anthropological terminology is called a lineage, but because of the migratory way of life

of the Hmong, genealogical knowledge is most often shallow, a 'lineage' seldom goes back more than three generations and it rather has the character of a large extended family, of which the 'ancestor' may still be alive. It is to the kw IU ('lineage') relatives that a man will primarily turn for economic help, practical assistance, and consolation. If a man

wishes to move his household to another location, he will almost invariably have relatives there who should be prepared to sponsor his entry into the new location by giving him land, giving loans of rice or money, and helping him build his house. But the importance of relatives lies not only on the material level. The sociality of the Hmong is predominantly focused on the spatial proximity of relatives. A Hmong can only be really happy when he is together with his relatives, since such close contact represent emotional assurance, social support, spiritual comfort as well as the greatest possible economic security. The spiritual aspect of being together with relatives is quite literal, and its practical implications should not be underestimated. The eldest surviving member of a group of relatives is the spiritual leader of the group and the one who has the knowledge and authority to be in charge of the spirit cult. This means that when such an elder dies, and if his successor lives in a different location, the rest of his group of relatives will feel the need to move to the location of the successor, in order that they may be able to properly venerate the spirits under the new elder's religious authority.

The Household The household (tsev) forms the basic social and economic unit of Hmong society. It is normally built around a man, his wife or wives, and their children, but it often includes other relatives as well, such as the man's widowed mother, the widow and children of his deceased brother, or the wife or wives of his married son(s) and their children as long as the son(s) and daughters-in-law have not yet established separate households. A man's widowed mother~in-law, on the other hand, cannot

24

be part of his household, because the clan spirits do not permit members of different clans to live in the same house. In rare cases, a household may consist of only a widower whose daughters have married and whose sons have established separate households. Thus, a household may consist of anything from one person up to more than twenty, the average household size being 6-8 persons. The Hmong household is an autonomous unit of production and consumption and is under the authority of the the head of the household, normally the eldest married man, who is responsible for the welfare of his household members. The material property of the household the house itself, the paddy land, the use-right to swiddens, the buffaloes and cattle and other livestock - belongs ultimately to the head of the household. It is the head of the household who makes all major socioeconomic decisions, including -the eventual decision to migrate. -.-

Organization of the Village The pronounced socio-economic autonomy of the household is one

reason why the concept of the village has a different meaning and much less importance for the Hmong than it has for the Lao majority of the population of the country. And it is important to note that the Hmong do not feel attached to any particular village - as a spatial or social unit - in the same way as do the Lao. To the Hmong, the primary foci of social identification are the household, the group of close relatives (kw IU), and the clan, irrespective of any temporary or even permanent settlement. Their social identity is thus fixed through the concepts of patrilineal descent groups Clineages' and clans), the actual units of which

are, however, dispersed, nowadays on a truly cosmopolitan scale. This ideology of social organization, based on descent rather than on locality, is also the reason why Hmong villages do not have Hmong names, but are referred to by the Lao name that the district authorities or the local Lao population have decided upon. Since the time of French colonialism, however, the Hmong in Laos have been subject to the same kind of village organization as is found among the Lao, and this also holds for the villages in the project area. Each village has a headman, who is responsible to the district authorities

rJ

25

for the general administration of the village. The village headman is appointed by the vote of each head of the households, There is no fixed term of office, a headman functions as long as the inhabitants of the village are satisfied with his way oiiiandling image affairs, or as long as he himself wants to go on being headman. A village is subdivided into a number of groups, each group consisting of 10-20 households. Each group has its appointed group leader who reports to the headman. Apart from these 'official' administrative positions, the elders have a good deal of influence. Some elders form a semi-official group which is responsible, together with the headman, for the maintenance of orderly relations in the village, and for making sure that the swiddens are allowed sufficient fallow periods. Disputes are sought settled in the first place by the leader of the group(s) in question. If he is unsuccessful, the elders intervene, and the third instance of settlement is the village headman. The most frequent cause for disputes of a more serious nature is conflict over paddy land, and occasionally over swiddens. Disputes over ownership to cattle are also common, as are quarrels between newly-weds.

RELIGION Like in most other tribal societies, the indigenous religion of the Hmong is intimately connected to the structure and organization of the society and the dominant mode of subsistence. Buddhism, the official religion of

the country, is quite alien to the Hmong way of thinking. Christianity, as already mentioned, has proved to have greater appeal, not least in its messianic aspects, but about 80% of the Hmong in Laos still subscribe to the indigenous, 'aninlist' religion. The complexity of Hmong religious beliefs and practices is considerable. Despite the efforts of Moréchand (1968), Lemoine (1983) and Nus it (1976), and the overview by Tapp (1990), our knowledge is still fragmentary; the definitive general study of Hmong religion remains to be done. It goes without saying that the

following sketch, based on such a short visit, and on the reading of the above-mentioned

literature, can only present a rather superficial and

very incomplete picture.

.

The Spirits

The Hmong cosmos is inhabited by a large number of different spirits (dab). The most important categories of spirits are the household spirits,

the spirits of medicine, the spirits of nature, and the shamanic spirits. The household spirits (dab qhuas) include a number of highly specialized spirits, residing in and guarding the pillars, the main housepost, the loft, the cooldng hearth, the ritual hearth, the bedroom, and the front door. These spirits are worshipped by members of the household according to the customs of the clan. The most important spirit of the house is that which ensures the wealth of the household and protects its members, and whose altar, dab xwm kab, is placed on the wall opposite the main door. The altar consists of a rectangular sheet of paper painted with 'gold'. At New Year a chicken or (preferably) a large pig is sacri-

26

27

riced to this spirit, and blood and hair (or feathers) is daubed on the altar.

The various spirits of 'medicine' (dab tshuaj) are called upon for assistance by a person who has learnt to perform magic and/or employ herbal medicine to exorcize the spirits (either spirits of nature or the really evil and dangerous spirits, vysub vusw) causing illness. Such a person (khawvkoob) may be a man who performs magical acts to drive away the spirits, such as blowing water or swinging knives over the sick person, or it may be a woman who attempt to cure by means of herbal medicine, often in combination with massage. The spirits which the khawvkoob appeals to for assistance have their altar on the wall next to the dab xwm kab. There was said to be five khawvkoob in Ban Vanghua and there was at least one in Ban Phoukhaokhouay. The spirits of nature (dab qus) live in wild and uncultivated spots. They are not inherently malevolent, but they are likely to attack if disturbed, and they are constantly on the look-out for wandering human souls to capture. Every human being possesses a number of 'souls' ( p i g , rather like the Tai/Lao khwan). Some of these souls are not overly faithful to the body of the person but like to stray in search of the playful company of spirits or other souls. They may wander during sleep, and sometimes they get lost, with the result that the person gets sick. The ritual hu p i g (calling the souls, equivalent to the Lao back) is performed to bring back wandering souls. It is often performed for a sick person, and it is always performed for a newborn baby on the third day after birth, which is the first time the body and souls are brought securely together, thus transforming the newborn into a proper human being. It is also always

performed for a new bride on the third day after marriage, because of the necessity of securing the fragile souls of the new bride and connecting them with the spirits of her husband's clan and household.

Shamanism In cases of illness when neither the hu p i g nor the efforts of the khawvkoob are sufficient, the services of a shaman (txiv neeb) may have to be called upon. A person (mostly a man but sometimes a woman)

28

becomes a shaman at the bidding of the shamanic spirits, dab neeb. Their wish is usually conveyed to the shaman-to-be by means of an illness with fever and hallucinations, and when the person recovers he has the gift of getting into a trance with the ability to cure other people with the help of the dab neeb. The material equipment of the shaman consists of an altar for the dab neeb, a paper-covered shelf on the wall next to the dab xwm kab, a bronze gong; a pair of finger bells and a metal ring with bells, a black hood to cover the face, and a bench (a 'horse') to ride on the journey to the spirits.

Preparation ofa pig sacrificed for the shaman's journey

The general idea of the shamanistic performance is that the shaman in a state of trance, together with his auxiliary dab neeb embark on a journey to the spirits which are the cause of the illness, in order to negotiate the cure by persuading or bargaining with them to either release the soul of the sick person or to prolong his licence for life. Before the shaman begins his journey, one or more pigs are sacrificed,

29 their souls are brought along on the journey so that the shaman may exchange them for that of the sick person. The shaman performs the journey sitting on the bench in front of the altar. At the start, he covers his face with the hood and while summoning the dab need he works himself into a trance by chanting and ringing the finger bells and the bell-rattle, while the gong is struck rhythmically by a (human) helper squatting behind the bench. When they are underway, the helper puts down the gong, but the shaman stomps his feet all the time, to illustrate the riding, and chants and talks to the spirits.

Before embarking on his journey, the shaman explains his itinerary to the public

30

The shaman sets out on his journey

Shamanism is very much an existing aspect of the socio-medico-religious life of the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau. There are more than twenty shamans in Ban Vanghua and during my short stay at least two curative rituals were performed. The one performance I had occasion to

witness was what was explained to be a 'heavy' neeb, - heavy because the journey was scheduled to last three hours. It was apparently what

Moréehand (1968;273-74) referred to as u p neeb ntxiv ntawv, "chamaniser-ajouter papers". It was performed for a man who had recently recovered from a serious illness, and the object was to travel to the deity NyU Vag Xab Teem to negotiate for the prolongation of his licence for life. Each person is from birth issued with 'papers' which state the duration of his or her lifespan, or licence for life. The papers

are issued by the divine otherworldly bureaucrat NyU Van Xab Teem who has to be approached for applications for extension of the licence. This, presumably, is a heavy task for the shaman, even if he will not embark OI] it unless he reckons he stands a good chance of success. In

31 general, a shaman, since he has his GWB reputation to consider, will not engage in what looks like a lost cause from the beginning, i.e. a shamanistic curative ritual is seldom performed if the sick person is not already showing some signs of recovery (Tapp 1990:6'7-69).

The 'Ancestors'

The great importance attached to relations between patrilineal kinsmen by no means stops at death, and the influence of a lineage elder extends beyond his lifespan. Because of the traditional migratory life style of the Hmong, however, genealogical memory is generally quite shallow. As

stated above, a 'lineage' comprises in most cases only its living and recently deceased members. The migratory life style also runs counter to an accentuated connection between the ldn group and a specific territory. These two circumstances, the lack of genealogical depth and the absence of association to a specific territory, gives Hmong 'ancestor worship' a special tenor. The reverence for a deceased elder is the obligation of his sons. The prime obligation towards the father is to see to it that he arrives properly and is well provided for in the village of the ancestors (Lemoine 1983), because the fortunes of the living humans depend in large part on the well-being of their deceased ancestors in the land of the

dead. The first task of a son is to make sure that his parents are buried in a proper place. The suitability of a possible burial site is determined by geomantic considerations (see Tapp 1989a). Often the parents themselves will have proposed a suitable site, but if not the son will decide. It is also very important that the deceased is provided with a substantial herd of cattle, which will enhance his prestige in the village of the ancestors and

improve his chances of an eventual auspicious rebirth. As noted above, the living lineage elders have a highly important function as spiritual leaders of the the kin group, since they are the ones who have the necessary knowledge of the proper worship of the clan and lineage spirits.

POPULATION AND MIGRATIONS IN THE PROJECT AREA Demography

The Hmong population of the project area inhabit the villages of Ban Phoukhaokhouay and Ban Vanghua. The total population of the two villages amounts to 1,543 persons. Ban Vanghua is by far the largest village, with a population of 1,180, while Ban Phoukhaokhouay has 363 inhabitants, the number of households in the two villages are 162 and 52, respectively. Ban Vanghua is exceptionally large for a Hmong village, and even the size of Ban Phoukhaokhouay is larger than average for traditional Hmong villages. The size of the villages is made possible by the fact that paddy cultivation accounts for a substantial part of the population's subs stence, while the Hmong have traditionally had to subsist on bidden cultivation only. It is generally reckoned that a system

of bidden cultivation can support a population density of no more than about 5-6 persons per km2 in mainland Southeast Asia, while paddy cultivation at the very least allows a population density of 100 persons per km (of. Hanks 1972). At a very rough estimate, the area of the Phoukhaokhouay plateau is about IZU E521"a7?'1 with a total population of 1,823 persons (including Ban Phoukhaokeo), the population density is about 15 persons per km2. The relative numerical strength of the the various Hmong clans represented in Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay is given in Table 1.

32

33

Table 1

Population According to Clan Clan Name

No. of Households

No. of Persons 595

Christian Households 20

Yang

79

Moua Lee Vue

52

366

19

23

Lor

19

158 158 144

5 1 2

Shone Her

15 2

95 15

5

Vang

2

9

(Lao Lum)

1

3

214

1,543

21

TOTAL

2 (Buddhist) 54 = 25.2%

The presence of one Lao Lum (Buddhist) household in Ban Vanghua is explained by the marriage of a Lao man to a Hmong girl. Intermarriage between Hmong and members of other ethnic groups is quite rare. The age structure of the population is given in Table 2, which also allows for a comparison with the age structure of the rural population of Lao PDR as a whole.

Table 2 Age Structure of Project Area Population

Compared with nationwide Rural Population Age Group

Project Area

Nation, Rural

0-14

55.6%

46.1%

15--44

33.0%

38.3%

45-59

7.7%

9.2%

_

3.8%

6.2%

60

34

Even though Laos as a nation has a very young population, the population of the project area is extremely young compared with the nationwide figures. Without having had the opportunity to collect statistical data which would allow the calculation of the annual population growth rate, I think there are good reasons to believe that it might be as high as 3.5%, or even higher. With a growth rate of 3.5% the present population of 1,543 persons in Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay will have grown to 1,897 persons by the year 2000.

The 33% of the population between the age of 15 and 44 is a lower figure than the national average, but there are good reasons to believe that the percentage is higher for those between 15 and 24 years of age than for those between 25 and 44. The casualties of the civil war has taken a toll of the latter group. This fact is also reflected in the structure of the sex ratio of the population, given in Table 3, the most significant feature of which is the high proportion of women above the age of 45. Table 3 Sex Ratio of Project Area Population Age Group

Males

Females

O-4

49.9%

50.1%

5-14

54.1%

45.9%

15--44

48.6%

51.4%

45-59

43.7%

56.3 %

60 ..

43. 1%

56.9%

50.0%

50.0%

All Ages

Another striking feature of the sex ratio is the high proportion of boys between five and fourteen. I have 110 explanation for this anomaly. It is possible that the for the Hmong politically turbulent years between 1979

and 1989 implied very limited or difficult access to medical facilities, and that boys were attended to more than girls. There is no correlation, however, between the sex ratio of this group and the migration histories of the individual households.

35

Migrations

As noted above, the Hmong have a long tradition of migrations, the reason for which lies in the combination of economic and social factors. The decision to migrate rests with the head of the household, who will have scouted the proposed place of new settlement well in advance. He will also have made Sl1I°€ that relatives or clansmen in the new place are willing to sponsor him, and that possibilities for the economic viability of the household exist. The season for the actual relocation is generally after the opium harvest but before the clearing of the new swiddens, i.e. February and early March (Cooper 1984, 1986). In-migration of Hmong to the Phoukhaokhouay plateau began in the 1950s or earlier. During the civil war the area was partially evacuated, but by the early 1970s groups of Hmong started to move in again. Ban Vanghua is the oldest of the two settlements, and it exhibits a comparatively stable character. Of the present 162 households, more than half (88) were established before 1985. The 'age structure' of the present households is given in Table 4.

Table 4 Time of In-Migration for Presently Existing Households Villa2e

No. of households established Before 1975

Ban Vanghua Ban Phoukhaokhouay

13

-

1991-93

After 1993

1975-84

1985-90

75

56

17

1

. -

23

21

8

Of the relatively long-established households in Ban Vanghua, a significant proportion came from Muang Pheung and Muang Phonhong, two districts in Vientiane province, to the west of the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, while only a few have migrated from other provinces such as Xieng Khouang (9) and Bolikhamxai (1). In later years, the greatest inmigration has been from Muang Hom, the district to the northeast of the

36

plateau. This is particularly evident in Ban Phoukhaokhouay, where 38 out of 52 households have migrated from Muang Hom. Repatriation from Thailand is fairly insignificant in the area, only three households in Ban Vanghua are returnees. 1994 year's new arrivals to Ban Phoukhaokhouay came on March 2, while I was in the field. They carne from Ban Namdeng, a forest settlement in Muang Hom, between the Nam Xan and Nam Leuk rivers. They said that no more arrivals from their former settlement were to be expected this year. My visit to Muang Hom showed, however, that the next couple of years are likely to see some in-migration to the plateau from the settlements along the Nam Ngum reservoir near the mouth of the Nam Xan, notably from Ban Paktou and Ban Phonsavat.

Newcomers building their house on the plateau

Systematic information on out-migration from the plateau proved more difficult to get. I had hoped to arrive at some estimate by comparing my data from the household survey on in-migration with the population statistics for the villages on the plateau for the last ten years, which was

37

presumed to be available at the Thoulakhom district office. But what I received from the district office was a list of complete fiction: The officials had decided that the nationwide estimated net growth rate of 2.9% also applied to the villages in question, so they had come up with a list where for each year 23 persons had been added to the previous year's figure ! There is little doubt, however, that in-migration by far outweighs out-migration in the area. The major recipient from the Phoukhaokhouay plateau has been Ban Namnham, the Hmong village on the plain at the foot of the escarpment, about four hours' walk away from Ban Vanghua. This settlement was established in the early 1970s by households from Ban Vanghua and the now-abandoned Ban Thongpeng on the plateau. At that time, the plain was already well populated, and as latecomers the Hmong were not well placed in the competition for paddy land with Lao. Today Ban Namnham consists of 98 households which depend on swiddening for about half of their rice production. Their dependence on swidddening was illustrated by the fact that at the time I wanted to do a sample household survey, there were very few responsible members of households around, as most people were away clearing swiddens. Even though the availability of paddy land does not differ significantly between Ban Namnham and the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, my survey showed no migration at all from Ban Namnham to the plateau, and since the climate on the plain is less agreeable to the Hmong than that of the plateau, the main reasons for moving down are likely to be social. Movement of households between different districts is formally a rather complicated affair. In principle, the household wanting to move shall first acquire a written consent from the headman of the receiving village,

given on the condition that adequate resources (i.e. paddy land) are available. On the basis of this, the officials of the district of departure

issues a permission to move, and on arrival this should be forwarded through the headman to the district of destination. This procedure may take many months, and it is commonly recognized that it is hardly ever followed. The Hmong move pretty much the way they have always done, i.e. they find sponsoring relatives in a new place and move in when the time of the year is right. The fait accompli is presented to the village headman, and if Fermi Zion is afterwards sought from the previous

38

district, it will mostly be granted without further questions, as the officials are likely to be only too happy that some swiddeners have moved away. Because of the nature of the Hmong social system (of which, of course, also the village headrnan are part), the often rather inaccessible location of their settlements, and the scant communication between ordinary people and the authorities, there is very little either district officials or village headmen can do to control or regulate migration. At the time of my visit to the Muang Hom district office, I was informed that thirteen households were wanting to move from Ban Namdeng to the Thoulakhom district. In fact, eight of these had already arrived in Ban Phoukhaokhouay five days earlier, and it turned out that the other five had decided to stay on (for the time being).

A Hmong settlement on the shore of the Nam Ngum reservoir

By way of conclusion, we may observe that earlier the pattern of inmigration into the Phoukhaokhouay plateau was rather diverse, with people coming from a number of different districts. Though the last area of settlement before coming to the plateau had for most of the

39 immigrants mainly been within Vientiane province or prefecture, it was quite common for people above the age of about 35 to have been bom in Luang Prabang, Xieng Khouang or Sam Neua provinces and to have stayed in half a dozen different locations during their lifetime. During the last four or five years, however, most new arrivals on the plateau have come from Muang Hom, from what the authorities officially like to think of as temporary settlements. This means settlements, like those on the banks of the Nam Xan and the Nam Ngum reservoir, where there are no possibilities of creating any (more) paddy fields, but where people have moved to from the surrounding mountains and forests because of the government's ban on swiddening. Some, like the new arrivals in Ban Phoukhaokhouay, have come directly from forest settlements. The tendency, both on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau and elsewhere in

Vientiane province, is towards larger and more permanent Hmong settl ements or villages, the economic base of which is comparatively large, if yet by no means sufficient, areas of paddy land.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VILLAGES Houses A Hmong house (tsev) is a rectangular structure, measuring on average

6 X 10 m, the size depending O11 the number of inhabitants. In contrast to the houses of the Lao, the Hmong house is not raised on poles, but built directly O11 the ground, the floor being made of leveled, packed earth. The roof is supported by a number of pillars - as many as fifteen for a large house - one of which is the central house-post, the abode of one of the most important spirits of the house. The walls are usually made of split bamboo, but occasionally of timber. The roof is thatched with woven mats of large leaves, but sometimes with split bamboo or wooden slates. In contrast to the Hmong houses in norther Thailand (Cooper et al. 1990:16-17), those on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau are all of one kind. The main door is placed in the long front wall, the outside length of which forms a kind of porch overhung by a continuation of the roof. A side door is set in one of the gable walls. The inside lay-out of the house shows individual variations, but common features are the altar or altars O11 the wall opposite the main door, a cooking hearth in the middle of the main room, one or more walled bedrooms for the married couple(s) of the household, one or more open

sleeping platforms along the walls for visitors, and a ceremonial hearth to the one side of the altar(s). This hearth is constructed of dried mud

and is the foundation of a large iron pot in which pig food is cooling and into which eventual left-overs are scraped. The space under the roof serves partly as storage loft, and over the cooking fire ears of maize and chunks of smoke-dried meat are hung. In some houses the granaries are built along one of the gable walls, while others have erected separate rice-barns close to the house. 4-0

41

The interior

of a Hmong house in Ban Vanghua

The selection of a site to build a house is determined both by practical and geomantic considerations. Among the former are the proximity to the fields, to sources of water, and to kinsmen and other neighbours. When a site has been selected which fulfill these requirements, and the general topography of which seems satisfactory, a divination is performed. One method of divination is to dig a small hole in the place

of the proposed central house-post and erect a small pyramid of uncooked rice in the hole. The pyramid is covered overnight, and if it remains intact the next morning, the site is approved by the spirits. Another method is to cut a fresh stick of wood, measure its length and drive it into the ground in the place of the central post. If the stick has grown longer overnight, the proposed site is accepted. A skeptic may well suspect that the more mundane considerations carry the most weight, since in the case of which I got information, the stick was actually said to have grown.

42

The construction of a new house, including collecting and preparing all the structural materials, requires the work of three of four grown men for 12-14 days. The preparation of the split bamboo walls is the most time consuming task. When a household moves, as many of the parts of the old house are taken along as the distance of the moving and conditions of transportation will allow. The value of a house is difficult to reckon in terms of money, since houses are not normally a commodity among the Hmong, and since the structural materials are collected in the forest rather than being bought. In terms of the labor required for the construction, we may tentatively set the average price for a house at 50,000 Kip, corresponding to 1,000 Kip per day per person.

Ban lVanghua The village of Ban Vanghua is the largest of the two Hmong villages on the plateau, and the longest established one. It is also the more prosperous. It it made up by 162 households, totalling 1,180 inhabitants. It is divided into two parts, the largest is a compact settlement situated at the southeastern end of the plateau, at the end of the track that traverses the plateau and connects the village to the Road 151, leading to the plain. This part consists of 120 households. Most houses are built in the traditional Hmong style, but a few, belonging to wealthy households, have been constructed in modem Tai style, i.e. built on stilts, with timber, and with corrugated iron roof. These houses consist of a spacious open veranda area which serves a the 'living room' and where guests are entertained, and two or three secluded bedrooms. Next to the 'modern' living quarters is the cooking hut, built OD the ground and with

traditional Hmong building materials. There are four diesel-powered rice~mills in this part of the village. The price for having one's rice husked is 200 Kip per tin (of about 12 liters) if you want the husks back, 150 Kip otherwise. The husks are used for pig fodder. The water supply to the village in this part comes mainly from wells. The wells are privately 'owned' by the household which has done the digging and is in charge of the maintenance, but they are considered a communal facility, in that everybody is allowed to draw water.

43

Houses and vegetable gardens in Ban Vanghua

There are about a dozen small shops in this part of the village, which sell such items as cigarettes, sweets, soft drinks, batteries, razor blades, soap, and the odd tin of Russian sardines in tomato sauce, one shop even advertised cassette tapes of Hmong music (produced by the

Asia Supermarket in Stockton, California, and sold for the modest price of 800 Kip). The shops are mostly staffed by female members of the

household. In a low-lying part at the center of the village, the vegetable gardens are found. Each plot is meticulously fenced with bamboo sticks to prevent the pigs from ravaging the gardens. Cultivated vegetables include primarily cabbage, a kind of mustard (the leaves of which are used in cooking), and occasionally a patch of pineapple. What little opium is grown is also found in those gardens. The opium harvest had been especially poor this year, and the hal'vested poppies looked very pitiable, indeed (while the cabbages looked quite healthy).

44

The second, smaller, part of Ban Vanghua is located about 1.5 km north of the larger part and consists of 42 households. Some of them are scattered along the track, from about three kilometers east of the last houses of Ban Phoukhaokhouay, while most are clustered at a bend in the Nam Gnang just south of where the track crosses the river. There is no bridge for cars to cross the river, but, then, there is no real need for one since the track is only passable in the dry season anyway. Pushcarts may cross by means of planks placed across the rocks. The clustered section of" i?iils part of-anVanghua also features a few 'modern', Tai-style hou , two (belonging to the headmaster of the school, and to an elder Christian) in the process of being constructed at the time of my fieldwork. The majority, however, are traditional Hmong houses.

One of the Tai-style houses in Ban Vanghua, the temporary base of the anthropologist

45

The other noticeable feature of this part of the village is the Christian church, a rather unpretentious structure with bamboo walls and thatched roof, which the leader of the congregation was looking forward to having replaced by a far more imposing building. One million Kip had already been collected towards the building costs, and bricks and cement bags were being brought up occasionally by the local bus. 19 of the 44 Christian households in Ban Vanghua are located in this part of the village. The Nam Gnang river is the main source of water supply for this part of the village, since the bedrock makes the digging of wells impossible in most places. Water is fetched above the common washing and bathing place.

Ban Phoukhaokhouay The location which is now called Ban Phoukhaokhouay was earlier settled under the name of Ban Keothat. That settlement was vacated in the 1950s. Compared to Ban Vanghua, Ban Phoukhaokhouay is a much more scattered settlement. It is also much newer, none of the presently existing 52 households had established themselves in this location before the late 1980s. The settlement begins along the track shortly after the airstrip and continues east on both sides of the track for a couple of kilometers. Quite a few houses were less than one year old, and most migrants to the plateau nowadays come to settle in Ban Phoukhaoldiouay. At the time of

my fieldwork, eight new households had arrived and were about to start building their houses.

The village has as yet no communal facilities, except for one or two small shops.

Communications

and Transport

Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay are linked to the plain in the dry season by a daily or twice~daily bus service from Ban Napheng. In the rainy season the buses can go no further than Ban Phoukhaokeo.

46

The daily bus being loaded with bundles of grass for brushes, to be marketed in the plain ,

Most people, however, walk when they want to get from one place to another. From Ban Vanghua there is a path leading down the escarpment to Ban Namnham in the plain. The walk takes 3-4 hours. Where the terrain permits, pushcarts are used for transporting heavier loads than may be carried in a basket on the back. Where the terrain makes the use of pushcarts impossible for transportation, as for

example for carrying harvests back from the bidden fields, horses are sometimes used as pack animals. A few people have a bicycle, and one or two motorbikes are also found.

Education Apart from the houses, the larger part of Ban Vanghua features the

47 village school which is housed in two buildings, one (grade 1-2) on the outskirts of the village, and the other (grade 3-5) about one km to the east. There are six teachers including the headmaster, all local. The pupil

statistics are given in Table 5.

Table 5 Pupils in Ban Vanghua School Glade 1

No. of Pupils 108

No. of Girls 50

2

48

18

3

37 32 28

11

253

102

4

5 Total

14

9

Percentage. Girls 46.3% 37.5%

37.8% 34.4% 32. 1% 40.3%

II

In Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay, the total number of children between the age of five and fourteen is 447. This means that 56.6% of the children of this age group attend school, but a much higher percentage will at one time have attended at least the first grade and thus have acquired some very basic school education. Among the factors which prevent children of Ban Vanghua going to school is the needs of the household for a child to take care of baby siblings. For most children of Ban Phoukhaokhouay, the distance to the school in Ban Vanghua is an added obstacle to school education. The Lao language is the exclusive medium of instruction. Though Hmong is everybody's first language,

which is used locally for all normal daily purposes, virtually all adult men as well as most younger women and most children are bilingual in Lao. While the ability to read and write Lao in the Lao script is a necessity for any kind of education in the country, many Hmong take a more positive interest, or even delight in being able to communicate in writing in their own language. Most people find the Romanized Phonetic Alphabet for the Hmong language much easier to use than the Lao script.

48

Another educational facility is a sort of adult education center, l'l1I1 by the UNESCO. This facility offers cutting and sewing classes for people of all ages as well as basic literacy classes for adults. The classes are taught by teachers from the plain.

The 'adult education center' in Ban Vanghua

Dress

In contrast to the Hmong in Thailand and in the northern provinces of Laos, the Hmong Of] the Phoukhaokhouay plateau do not adhere strictly to the traditional ethnic dress, which make them conspicuously different from other groups in the first-mentioned areas. (For descriptions of the traditional Hmong costume, see for instance Lewis & Lewis 19841101-

133). For a visitor hoping to meet representatives of 'colourful hill tribes', the Phoukhaokhouay plateau is not the place to go. Only some of the older people retain elements of the traditional costume, all girls and practically all women below the age of about 40 have adopted the Lao style of dress, a blouse or T-shirt, and a pas i f .

49

bzrhenorthoflaos (Pllong Saly), tiiehénatzgslillwear the Maaklibrzaldress... II

-1

...while on the plateau only the elder generation dress traditionally

SUBSISTENCE AND ECONOMY Agriculture In Laos, 85% of the population are subsistence farmers who grow rice as their staple crop. The Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau belong to this majority. In the general ethnographic literature of Southeast Asia (e.g. LeBar et aL, 1964), the Hmong are often described as growing maize as their staple crop. This view is primarily based on the descriptions by Savina (1930) and others of the Hmong in Indochina before the Second World War, though it has been reiterated by Yangdao (1975). There is little doubt, however, that for the majority of the Hmong in general, rice is and has 'always' been the preferred staple food, since it has been grown wherever the terrain and climate allowed. The introduction of maize into China in the 16th century coincided with a drastic increase of the population, and there is no reason to doubt that maize also for the Hmong meant an important supplement to the diet, as well as a critical source of food security, since maize grows well OII high altitudes, is less demanding in terms of water and soil fertility, and has a different growth cycle from that of rice (of. Cooper 1984:19-22; see also Tapp 1989:44-47). Considering the precarious economic situation of the Hmong in Xieng Khouang at the time of Savina's study, the role of maize as an 'emergency food' may well have been crucial. But for the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau today - like for the Hmong of Northern Thailand (Cooper 1984; Tapp 1989)

- rice

remains the staple crop par

excellence. The cultivation of a limited amount of maize, as well as the cultivation of cassava, is said to be for pig fodder only. And though some people may mix some maize with their rice in times of shortage, nobody would voluntarily contemplate eating cassava.

50

51 Swidden Cultivation The Hmong in Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand are conventionally portrayed as bidden agriculturalists, and, as mentioned above, their practice of bidden cultivation is generally recognized as relatively more destructive for the environment than that of other swiddeners in the region. As pointed out by Kunstadter & Chapman, in Northern Thailand the label 'bidden cultivation' covers a wide variety of cultivation

systems where "variations in patterns of land use are associated with variations in physical and social environment, population density, major crop plants, and balance between subsistence and cash operations, as well as cultural traditions" (1978:7). Kunstadter & Chapman (ibid.:7-13) distinguish three different systems of bidden cultivation in Northern Thailand: 1) A system of short cultivation and short fallow, which is mainly resorted to by the Northern Thai. This system is seen essentially

A bidden field between the slashing and the burning

52

as a way of preparing new land for eventual paddy fields, and it is what in Laos is described as lowlanders' 'encroachment' or 'colonization' of forest areas (of. Trankell 1993). 2) A system of short cultivation and long fallow, characteristic of the Karen. Given the absence of serious population pressure, this is the closest one can come to a system of sustainable bidden cultivation. 3) A system of long cultivation (i.e. up to five years) and very long fallow (i.e. in practice abandonment of

exhausted plots). This system is typical of the Hmong and other hill tribes in Northern Thailand who grow opium as a cash crop on high altitudes (of. Keen 1978) .

Cassava is grown on swiddens ajiter one crop of rice has been harvested

The bidden cultivation of the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau does not fit into this neat scheme. Their system is not 'typically Hmong'

because the climate on the plateau is unsuitable for opium cultivation. On the swiddens rice is only cultivated for the first year. The rice is of the glutinous, or 'sticky' kind, of which several varieties are grown. After

53

the rice harvest, the field is either left fallow, or it is planted with maize and/or cassava. Maize is also only grown for one year, while cassava which, once planted, needs little further labour input - form a natural crop storage which may be utilized for five years. Most bidden fields

are cleared from secondary bidden regrowth, both because there is very little primary forest left on land which is suitable for cultivation, and because clearing of primary forest is much more arduous than clearing of regrowth. A fair amount of the regrowth areas have been infested with Imperata cylindric, a grass the roots of which make further cultivation next to impossible, and which thrive on periodic burning. The fallow period for fields which have escaped the Imperata is usually five to six years, with three years as the absolute minimum. During the fallow period is it usual to burn the field a couple of times without cultivating it the same year Fields are cleared of regrowth in late February and early March, if dense forest is cut, the clearing may start already in January. The cutting is considered very hard work, and the heaviest tasks are carried out by the men. For the initial cutting, one man working alone may clear one raj (= 1,600 my in three days, but he is usually assisted by other members of the household. After the cutting, the vegetation is left to dry for a couple of weeks - four to six weeks in the case of dense forest or if larger trees have been cut down. The burning goes on for some days and when the fires have died out, the fields are cleared and prepared for sowing, the preparations take about a week, after which, and when sufficient rain has fallen, about 10 days are spent on sowing, usually in early to mid-June. The weeding demands considerable labour by both men and (especially) women; it is reckoned that weeding takes up a total of three weeks of full time work for all adult members of the household. The harvest is normally in October-

Carrying the harvest from the bidden fields to the village is another arduous task. The bidden fields are often located at a distance of several hours' of walking from the village, and the terrain can be very difficult to traverse. Sometimes, horses may be used as pack animals for some of the distance, but as often as not, humans are the only possible transporters.

54

Wet Rice Cultivation Wet rice, or paddy, has been grown by the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau since the mid-1980s. People related that a few households started paddy cultivation in 1983, and that most others followed a couple of years later. Today, paddy cultivation is the main

agricultural pursuit of the population. The rice is sown in seedbeds after the first rain in May, and when the ground is sufficiently soaked, ploughing and harrowing is done. Buffaloes are used as draft animals for ploughing and harrowing. The seedlings are transplanted when they are about one month old, in late June or early July. Harvest is in November.

A man on the threshing place in his paddy field

55

Paddy or Swidden: Alternatives?

Among the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, there is a clearly stated preference for paddy cultivation and a marked lack of enthusiasm for swiddening. This should only surprise us if we believe that the historical, or perceived 'traditional' reliance of the Hmong on bidden cultivation is based on some deep-rooted 'cultural' inclination for swiddening, for migration, and for living on mountain slopes at high

altitudes. It is not. The Hmong are no more (or no less) culturally 'irrational' in their economic strategies than, say, the Lao. They are perfectly well aware that bidden cultivation requires more labour in any given year than does paddy cultivation. They know that in contrast to paddy cultivation, the productivity of swiddens per unit of labour goes down rapidly as the quality of the land declines, since weeding is a very l a b o r consuming activity (cf. Kunstadter & Chapman 1978). And for

Deforestation and eventual cultivation

soil erosion are results

of

bidden

56

this reason they calculate that rice cultivation OD swiddens is only worth the effort for the first year. When a Hmong household moves to a different location, they do not do so because of some 'cultural' urge for a change of scenery, or because they love to spend four weeks on dismantling a house, transporting the material to another place and rebuilding it. They do it out of economic necessity. Given half a chance, they would rather stay in one place, close to as many kinsmen as possible, and grow paddy. But they are also well aware that the development of paddy fields demands a substantial initial investment, in labour and/or money, because of the necessity to clear, level, dike, and develop dams and ditches. So when in 1991 and 1992 there was the possibility of hiring a tractor, many people in Ban Vanghua marshalled as much money as they could, and during these two years the paddy area was augmented with 50 and 48 ha, respectively. In late 1993, and during my visit to the area, a bulldozer was working on and off on the Road 151 leading up to the plateau. Some people had begun negotiations with the driver for renting its services for the development of further paddy land. The driver had demanded the exorbitant price of 50,000 Kip per hour for the hire of the bulldozer, but even then a few people had been willing to go along. The project was never realized, however, either because the driver was not really interested, or because of lack of local organization between the interested households, and/or problems of coimnunication between the driver and the Hmong. Paddy cultivation also requires a fair number of buffaloes for ploughing and harrowing, tasks which must be completed within about four weeks in order that the seedlings be transplanted before they grow too big. A

grown buffalo cannot work for more than half a day. If we reckon that one buffalo can plough one

raj

and harrow two raj per day (of. Cooper

1984:167), it means that the ploughing and harrowing of

ODC

hectare

takes 9.4 buffalo-days, which in tum means that the total paddy area of Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay requires about 1,600 buffalodays. Over a period of four weeks this necessitates the availability of about 60 buffaloes fit for work. The number of buffaloes owned by the population of the two villages by far exceeds this requirement. The total number of buffaloes reported was 879, and even allowing for a large

57

number of calves, there should still be sufficient buffaloes on the plateau to meet the present demand for ploughing and harrowing, and even for doubling or tripling the paddy area. For the individual families, however, things are not always so straightforward. Buffaloes, like paddy land and all other items of wealth, are very unevenly distributed among the households. I shall return to the distribution of wealth below.

Rice Area and Yields Paddy cultivation on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau does not depend on any irrigation, but is rainfed only. The total area of paddy land belonging to the villages of Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay was just over 170 hectares in 1993. The distribution of paddy and bidden land among the population in the two villages is given in Table 6.

Table 6

Average Area of Rice Fields per Household, 1993 Village

Ban Vanghua

Ban Phoukhaokhouay Total

Paddy Area

148.32 ha

Per Household 0.92 ha

Swidden Area

Per Household

24.92 ha

0. 15 ha

22.2 ha

0.43 ha

13.96 ha

0.27 ha

170.52 ha

0.80 ha

38.88 ha

O.18 ha

Of the about 170 ha of paddy land, 98 ha (in Ban Vanghua) had been developed in 1991 and 1992, with the (paid) help of a privately owned

tractor the first year, and one owned by the State Lottery the second. Given the proper technology (tractors and bulldozers), even without irrigation the paddy area could be tripled on the plateau. If we reckon an average yield for paddy land of 2.5 tonnes per hectare (which is the national average for non-inigated paddy, cf. Basic Statistics), the presently cultivated paddy area on the plateau (170 ha) should yield an average of 276 kg of rice per person, or almost 80% of the total need of rice consumption. However, the paddy land is very unevenly distributed among the households (and between the two

58

villages), and'the yield is by no means always optimal. In 1993, the average yield of paddy rice per person was only 128 kg, or 36% of the total need. For the bidden fields, the same applies. The national average yield of bidden fields is generally reckoned as 1.37 tonnes per hectare (of. Basic Statistics), which should equal a total of 53.3 tonnes, or 34.5 kg per person (9.9% of the total need). In reality, however, the bidden yield was only slightly more than half of the national average, namely .79 tonnes per hectare, or a total of 30.6 tonnes which equals only 19.8 kg per person, or 5.6% of the total need. The rice areas and yields for the

two villages are given in Table 7. Table 7

Area and Yield of Rice Fields, 1993 Villaac Ban Vanghua Ban Phoukhaokhouay Total

Paddy Area

Paddv Yield

Swidden Area

Swidden Yield

148.32 ha

187,526 kg

24.92 ha

24,830 kg

22.2 ha

10,076 kg

13.96 ha

5,751 kg

170.52 ha

197,602 kg

38.88 ha

30,581 kg

For Ban Vanghua, the average yield of paddy land in 1993 was 1,263 kg per ha, or less than half of the official average for Vientiane province for the years 1985-90. For Ban Phoukhaokhouay the paddy yield was no more than 454 kg per ha, or only 16.6% of the official provincial average for the years 1985-90 (Basic Statistics). The average yield of the swiddens was 996 kg per ha for Ban Vanghua, which is 76% of the

official provincial average. For Ban Phoukhaokhouay it was only 412 kg per ha,

OI'

31.5% of the provincial average (Basic Statistics). Thus, in

1993, the total yield of rice from paddy fields and swiddens could only cover 42.3% of the consumption need of the population. There is a considerable difference between the two villages with respect to rice harvest. For Ban Vanghua the yield of paddy and upland rice in 1993 was on average 180 kg per person, while for Ban Phoukhaokhouay it was only 44 kg per person. This meagre yield is due to the fact that rats devastated a lot of

59

both the paddy and the bidden fields in 1993. Ban Phouldiaokhouay was especially severely affected and several families had the whole of their paddy harvest destroyed. According to the local population (and the information was confirmed by an expert at the Ministry of Agriculture in Vientiane), the normal habitat of these rats is the forest, but in years when a certain land of bamboo flowers, the abundance of bamboo seeds cause the rats to multiply rapidly, and when the seeds are gone they take to the rice fields, both swiddens and paddy. Poison proved ineffectual as a means to cope with the problem, the rats would not eat it when there was so much unpoisoned food around. The rats, of course, represented an additional source of protein, but this was a very small compensation for the severe loss of the staple crop which they caused.

Animal Husbandry

Domestic animals kept by the Hmong include cattle, buffaloes, horses, pigs, goats, chicken, ducks, and dogs. Cattle traditionally play a significant role for the Hmong. They are a means of accumulating wealth, and they are the prime sacrificial animal in connection with funeral ceremonies. Even if a man has not had any cattle in this life, it is important for him to have a herd with him in the land of the dead to facilitate an auspicious rebirth. At the death of a man, each of his sons and sons-in-law should ideally sacrifice a cow, while one additional cow should be sacrificed on behalf of all the female relatives. Also if a man falls ill, one or more cows should be sacrificed for his deceased father. As storage of wealth, cattle may be sold (but not gladly) in order to buy paddy land or, in ease of dire need, rice. So, a substantial

herd of cattle is a means of both economic and spiritual security. During the growth period of the rice, the cattle is kept in pens or tethered, but otherwise they are allowed to roam freely, grazing on the harvested rice fields and on the grassland. Buffaloes were quite numerous on the plateau. Like cattle, they function as an important means of wealth storage and as a source of cash income if need be. Their religious significance is not so important as that of cattle, but they are indispensable for ploughing the paddy fields, and the manure of both buffaloes and cattle is important for fertilizing the paddy fields. The association between buffaloes and paddy is reflected in

60

the distribution of buffaloes between the two villages. Table 8 shows the number of cattle and buffaloes in the two villages.

Table 8 Average Number of Cattle and Buffaloes per Household Village

NQ. of Cattle

Per Household

No. of Buffaloes

Per Household

Ban Vanghua

327

2.0

763

4.7

Ban Phoukhaokhouay

222

4.3

126

2.4

Total

$9

26

889

4.2

Horses are the traditional pack animals among the Hmong. With the declining importance of bidden cultivation, and the absence of opium cultivation, the economic importance of horses is very modest. The total number of horses on the plateau was 80, and those households who owned horses would seldom have more than one or two. Pigs are primarily valued for their meat, but they are also very important for sacrifices in connection with shamanistic rituals. For each shamanistic performance at least one pig has to be sacrificed. The jawbones of the sacrificed pigs are hung on the shalnan's altar where they remain until the Hmong New Year. The number of jaw-bones on the altar is thus an indication of each shaman's powers. The pigs also fill an important function as scavengers, keeping the village clean of edible rubbish and human excrernent. Like chicken, but unlike cattle and buffaloes, they are fed by the people, pig fodder include maize, cassava and rice husks. Chicken are kept by most households, they are used for minor sacrifices, and they are bought and sold locally. Many young boys have a favorite cock which they like to play with as a pet. The children will also enthusiastically catch a chicken which has been selected for sale to a customer such as the visiting anthropologist. Dogs are kept as watchdogs and hunting dogs but are otherwise mostly a nuisance and consequently ignored. In special cases - such as childlessness - the sacrifice of a dog (and/or a cat) may be necessary to ward off the evil spirits which cause the problems. The Hmong, like the

61 Lao but unlike the Vietnamese, do not eat dogs, and normally dogs are not bought or sold. But when the planning of the hydropower project implied the presence of a team of Vietnamese topographers on the plateau for a couple of weeks, dogs suddenly acquired a temporary commercial value.

Fishing Though the Hmong do not traditionally engage in fishing on any significant scale, the Nam Gnang river affords some fishing opportunities which boys and young men do not disregard. Very small fish (2-3 cm long) are caught in nets which are suspended across the river over night or early in the morning. Bigger fish - 'mostly catfish, but occasionally eel - are caught with lines with several hooks, or with a single hook on a small bamboo rod which is stuck into the mud on the river bank. Though the time of my visit was the dry season, we had the opportunity of buying a catfish of more than one kilo.

Hunting

Wild animals are no longer plentiful on the plateau, but hunting is still a worthwhile pursuit. Most hunting goes on in the autumn when the animals have grown fat for the winter. Deer have become very scarce, only two or three may be had each year; people attempt, if possible, to catch the deer alive (with the help of dogs), as they hope to be able to sell them to the provincial

zoo in Ban Kean, the Thoulakhom district

headquarter. Monkeys are also hunted in the rainy season, but the most common game (apart, in unfortunate years, from the abovementioned rats) are the wild pigs. These are quite plentiful around harvest time, and it is not uncolmnon to get two or three pigs per day during a couple of weeks in December. The most cherished meat is that of the nocturnal

porcupine, which is hunted in the dry season.

62

A boy with the day's catch o f j i s h

Fruits and Vegetables

The cultivation of fruits and vegetables is rather modest, both for domestic consumption and as cash crops. The occasional papaya tree may be seen in the village and along the borders of the paddy fields, and some bananas are grown on abandoned swiddens. In Ban Vanghua, a low-lying

63

area in the middle of the village had been made into vegetable gardens, and quite a few people also grow vegetables in part of the plot around the house. The gardens are meticulously fenced to keep the pigs from ruining the crops. In the gardens, cabbage, greens and herbs are grown for domestic consumption. Cabbage is also grown as a cash crop, as are pineapples. The gardens also contains what little opium is grown.

Forest Produce The relatively difficult access to the Phoukhaokhouay plateau has so far prevented logging on a commercial scale. For the Hmong, the forest provides a number of resources which may be utilized both for domestic purposes and as a means of cash income. Apart from structural materials, the main items of non-timber forest products which may be converted into cash include wild fruit, incense, medicinal herbs, twigs and bark, and grasses for brooms. Because of the historical experience of having had to migrate as the bidden cultivation system dictated, the Hmong have never felt the need to be particularly protective of their natural environment. And with the diminishing importance of bidden cultivation on the plateau, it is in the utilization of the non-timber forest products that the 'careless', or exploitative attitude of the Hmong towards their environment is most clearly expressed. In short, whatever the forest has to offer in terms of opportunities for cash income is taken advantage of, with absolutely no

regard for sustainability. The collecting of wild fruit is a case in point. A certain species of wild fruit, mak khan peep, is reasonably abundant in

the forest. It is ripe in November, and the demand for it in Vientiane is such that it fetches 1,000-1,200 Kip per kilo locally. The problem is that the oldest and largest trees yield the greatest amount of fruit, but since the people find it exceedingly difficult and dangerous to climb a 15-20 meter high tree, the problem is solved by simply cutting down the tree in order to get the fruit. For a westerner like myself, this no-nonsense attitude to getting what you want was tantamount to sacrilege, but there was no way I could convince the people that it might be 'better' to collect less fruit and save the trees for the years to come. (But having seen the trees in the forest, both standing and chopped down, I readily admit that

64

I myself would not be terribly keen OH climbing them to pick the fruits). The most costly of the forest products is incense (mai ketsana). It fetches between 20,000 and 40,000 Kip per kilo, and it is bought by Thai or Lao merchants who come up from the plain. Its ultimate destination is said to be Saudi Arabia, where presumably it is very much in demand. The incense is a black substance, the waste products of a certain worm or insect which attacks the center of the trunks of certain softwood trees. Incense is also a slowly renewable resource which may be exhausted by the present rate of exploitation. One man had in 1993 collected 400,000 Kip worth of incense, but he told me with a shrug that now there was no more in his territory.

The knowledge of the medicinal properties of various herbs and parts of trees is the province of female experts, mainly elderly women. In one of the households I visited, the mother of the head of the household was a herbalist of some renown, she was absent at the time of my visit, peddling her wares in Paksé. Health permitting, she would travel two or three times per year, to Vientiane, to the south, and to Thailand, and each journey would bring about 100,000 Kip. The most common forest product in the dry season is grass. The long and sturdy flowering stalks of the Imperata cylindrica are cut on abandoned

swiddens for the manufacture of brooms. A finished broom is sold for 100 Kip, but most often the stalks are sold in larger bundles at a price corresponding to 70 Kip per broom. Cutting and binding the grass is mostly done by women, and the bundles are sometimes bartered for clothes - T-shirts and Lao sldrts (pas i f ) rather than sold for cash.

-

Sources of Cash Income

The main sources of cash income for the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay

plateau include the sale of the items accounted for above, i.e. cattle and buffaloes, pigs and chicken, fruit and vegetables, and forest produce. Another possible source of income is selling one's labour. Hired labour may be resorted to by households which can afford it and which need

65

extra l a b o r for certain specific tasks, typically preparing new paddy fields. The wages for paid labour are fixed at 1,000 Kip per day. Those who get an income from wage labour are mostly comparatively poor people. I shall return to the issue of relative wealth and poverty of the households below. Additional sources of income are, for certain people, the salaries as schoolteacher or preacher, and income from a shop or a rice mill. Occasionally, a man may borrow or rent a motorized chain-saw and make some money by felling trees or cutting timber into planks. Finally, a quite significant source of cash consists of gifts from relatives abroad. These gifts typically amount to 100$ U.S. per household. The relative importance of the various sources of cash is given in Table 9.

Table 9 Sources of Cash IncoMe Source

Sale of forest produce Sale of cattle and buffaloes Sale of pigs and chicken

Vzmghuél 40.4%

Ban Phoukhaokhouav

21.5%

5.7%

8.0%

4.5%

74.9%

Sale of vegetables and fruit

1.8%

Paid labour

1.7%

6.0%

26.6%

8.8%

Other (salaries, gifts from relatives overseas)

As the table shows, there are significant differences between the two villages. Most strikingly, Ban Phoukhaokhouay relies to a much larger extent on the sale of forest produce than does Ban Vanghua. The latter derives a greater part of its income from the sale of cattle and, especially, buffaloes. And Ban Vanghua also has a larger income from 'other' sources. This is due to the fact that all salaried personnel (five schoolteachers and one preacher) live in Ban Vanghua, but not least to the fact that the inhabitants of Ban Vanghua seem to have more (relatively wealthy) relatives overseas than those of Ban Phoukhaokhouay.

66 I

Distribution of Wealth As we have seen in the previous sections, there are considerable differences in the relative wealth between the villages of Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay. Even though the question of relative wealth or poverty should really be addressed on the level of the individual household rather than on the level of the village - since the household is

an autonomous economic unit - a comparison between the two villages nevertheless reveals a certain pattern which also has relevance for the household level. In order to do a proper economic anthropological analysis of the Hmong of the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, it would have

been necessary to follow a number of individual households for an extended period of time, conducting in-depth interviews and having discussions about economic choices and strategies. Time did not allow such a detailed study, and my findings are based mainly on the results of the household survey. The most important feature that emerges from the survey is the correlation between wealth, amount of paddy land, and the age of the settlement. As we saw from Table 4, Ban Phoukhaokhouay is a much younger settlement than Ban Vanghua, and Table 6 showed that the average paddy area per household was more than twice as large in Ban Vanghua as in Ban Phoukhaokhouay. Since ownership of buffaloes is only relevant if one has paddy land, it is not surprising to find considerably more buffaloes totally as well as average per household in Ban Vanghua than in Ban Phoukhaokhouay, as shown in Table 8. On the other hand, the inhabitants of Ban Phoukhaokhouay have a larger amount of their wealth stored the traditional way, i.e. in cattle. With respect to cash income, the most significant fact is the much greater reliance on forest produce of Ban Phoukhaokhouay, as shown in Table 9. It is also noteworthy that the people of Ban Phoukhaokhouay have to resort to paid l a b o r to a much greater extent than those of Ban Vanghua. .

-

All these trends together marks Ban Phoukhaoldlouay as a more 'typical' Hmong village than Ban Vanghua, in the sense of greater reliance on bidden cultivation and the sale of forest produce, and of a

67 preponderance for storing wealth the traditional way, in cattle. Ban Vanghua, on the other hand, has come economically to resemble more the Lao pattern of a village. Ban Phoukhaokhouay is also a much poorer village than Ban Vanghua. In terms of cash income for 1993, the difference between the two villages is not so great. The average income per household was 208,000 Kip for Ban Vanghua and 167,000 Kip for

Ban Phoukhaokhouay. But when cash income is related to paddy and swidden areas and potential rice yield, it becomes apparent that the inhabitants of Ban Phoukhaokhouay have to spend considerably more on buying rice than do the inhabitants of Ban Vanghua. If the yield of paddy and swiddens were to conform to the national average, Ban Vanghua would be able to grow 98% of the rice needed on the present area under cultivation. The comparable figure for Ban Phoukhaokhouay would be only 58.7%. This means that even in a good year, Ban Phoukhaokhouay would have to spend at least 7.5 million Kip to make up for the rice deficit. (This is on the hypothetical condition that all rice is bought soon after the harvest, when the price is at the lowest, by May the price has already risen by 30%, and by October it has almost doubled). The gross cash income for Ban Phoukhaoldiouay in 1993 was 8.7 million Kip. The disastrous harvest of 1993, however, has multiplied this year's rice deficit. To make ends meet, Ban Phoukhaokhouay will have to spend a minimum of 16 million Kip on rice, corresponding to about 309,000 Kip per household, while for Ban Vanghua a minimum of about 29 million Kip, or about 179,000 Kip per household will be needed. The inhabitants of Ban Phoukhaokhouay will have to sell a lot of cattle during 1994.

There are several interrelated reasons why a longer established village is in general wealthier than a newly established one. In the first place, it should be noted that in contrast to an economy exclusively based on bidden cultivation, paddy cultivation implies individual ownership to .land. While swiddens are also individually owned, the question of permanent ownership to the land itself does not arise, since the traditional Hmong system of swiddening in practice means abandoning the field after between one and five years of cultivation. It is also important, and for the hydropower project essential, to keep in mind that ownership does not only pertain to already existing paddy fields, but also to potential but not yet developed paddy land. This means that all

68

available land is already distributed among the households in the village. When a new household settles in a village, they will try to get land from resident relatives, either as a gift, for a reduced price, or on loan. The amount of paddy land, if any, which is put at the disposal of a newly arrived household is mostly far from sufficient to meet the needs of the family, and it normally takes at least a couple of years for a household to become properly established in a new settlement, i.e. to build up a herd of cattle or buffaloes, and to acquire a reasonable (if hardly ever sufficient) amount of paddy land. A new household, established when a married son leaves his parental home to form an independent household faces the same initial problems. The acquisition of additional paddy land always requires an investment, either in money or cattle, or in labour for developing the land. In addition, investment in one or more buffaloes will most often be necessary. This generalized sketch_of the economic development of the household is corroborated by the fact that of the 29 households in Ban Vanghua and Ban Phoukhaokhouay which had no paddy land, 18 were established in their present location in 1993 and 1994, and none had been established earlier than 1988. The distribution of households with no paddy land is shown in Table 10. Table 10

Number of Households with No Paddy Land Village Household est. before 1993 Ban Vanghua 7 4 Ban Phouldmaoldmouay Both Villages 11

Household est. 1993-94

5 13 18

Total

12 17 29

Of the 29 households with I1O paddy land, 21 had no cattle or buffaloes, either, and of these, 13 were established 1993-94. So, one determinant of the comparative poverty of a household is the length of time it has resided in the village. Another is the composition, in terms of age and sex, of the household members. An older man, whose grown-up children have left the household but who still has younger

69

children to take care of, may be hard up, particularly if illness, old age OI` opium smoking affects his working ability. In the two villages, people estimated that there were about 15 opium addicts - all older men - only one of whom was able to perform all the tasks normally required of a grown man. Time did not allow me to investigate any of these cases further, so I cannot say if their inability to work was a consequence of the addiction itself, or whether opium was resorted to as a remedy for some debilitating physical illness or infirmity. According to the village headman of Ban Vanghua, the population may be divided into three categories of wealth: 1) Those who grow enough rice for household consumption, 2) Those who have enough money to buy additional rice, and 3) The poor who have to work for others and get paid in cash or rice. The first category comprises about 25% of the population, the second about 35% and the third about 40%. Working for others is always taken as a sign of poverty, and it has moral connotations, too. Since the norm is total economic independence for each household, offering your labour for hire to other households is felt to be slightly inmioral, and so, indeed, is poverty itself. According to the (well-to-do) headman, the main reasons for poverty is 'laziness' (a category to which opium addicts, among others, belong) and lack of knowledge and/or unwillingness to cultivate paddy, which is related to a perceived traditional inability of many Hmong to engage in long-term economic planning. These two, in this case rather contradictory, reasons for poverty, laziness and stupidity, seem to be the standard party-line explanation for the economic problems faced by bidden cultivators in Laos, be they ethnic minorities or not (of. Ovesen 1993:2l). This line of reasoning has the curious result that if you work for others, you are lazy,

because only poor people work for others, and people are poor because they are lazy. While paddy cult vation certainly implies an economic improvement for those who engage in it, it can also lead to increased economic inequality in the society. In the traditional bidden economy, availability of l a b o r rather than land was the critical factor (of. Keen 1978:218). And the solidarity between clansmen and, especially, lineage relatives implied that a man could almost always rely on the help of relatives if he needed assistance for clearing a bidden. With the introduction of paddy

70

cultivation, however, land has become the scarce resource. With permanent ownership to paddy land, helping a relative to develop a paddy field gives a different import to the notion of solidarity than merely helping him to clear a bidden. And to relinquish definitively a paddy field to another household is generally felt to be beyond the limit of what is comprised by traditional ldn solidarity.

A young, recently married couple about to start clearing a new bidden. To establish one's own household without access to paddy land takes a

lot

of hard work.

SEX ROLES AND THE DIVISION OF LABOUR The supposed sexual inequality among the Hmong has been treated in

detail by Cooper (1983; 1984). Although he notes that the relations between the sexes "must be considered within an Asian context, where the position of women are generally inferior to that of men" (Cooper 1983:l75), he makes little of the more important determining factors for the nature of gender relations, viz., the strictly patrilineal descent system, the rule of virilocal residence, and the fact that female labour is of great importance in the domestic production (of. Collier & Rosaldo 1981).

Given these fundamental parameters, I, for one, was rather struck by the comparative freedom enjoyed by most women, within an 'Asian' or any other context (save that of a 1970s Western liberal gender ideology). And though Cooper talks in general about "the ideology of male supremacy in Hmong society" (ibid.:178), a society "where women have so few rights" (ibid.: 184), he is forced by the empirical facts to concede that "there is no obvious pattern of exploitation of the female in the organization and division of labor" (ibid.:176), and that "it is difficult to be sure of the degree of ill-treatment of wives by husbands" (ibid.:183), - for during his more than two years in the field, he never observed any wife beating, and by his own admission, quarrels between husband and wife appeared to be infrequent. ' My own much more scanty observations confirm these latter

points. I was impressed by the spirit of amiable cooperation which seemed to obtain between most married couples. A husband and wife were frequently seen walking together to of from the fields, and a couple would normally eat their meals together if there were no guests. The facts that the man will always walk in front of the woman, and that if there is one load to be carried, the woman will do it, are to my mind no

72

more expressions of any 'ideology of male supremacy' than the facts that the man is the one who cuts down trees and the woman pounds the rice and does the cooling.

The equality between the sexes does not extend to more public events like this feast where the men are seated and served by the women

The system of pattrilineal descent and the predominant rule of virilocal residence imply that a woman must leave her natal household at marriage

and that she becomes affiliated to the clan of her husband. Thus, the first couple of years of married life, when the young couple normally lives in the household of the husband's parents, may entail certain adjustments on the part of the wife, who will be forced to try and meet the demands and expectations of her parents-in-law, in terms of diligent work and having children. But the frequent instances of a young wife running away from her husband and returning temporarily to her parents point to one of the ('few') rights that a woman does have, i.e. the right to voice her opinion of the way her new life is to be organized and to complain about her husband's attitudes or behaviour. Instances of young wives running away

73

are more often part of the process of mutual adaptation in the early years of a manage than indications of cruelty on the part of the husband.

Another right that a woman has - one which is comparatively rare in an 'Asian' context - is the right to indulge in fairly unrestrained pre-marital sexual relations. Neither parents nor previous or future boyfriends or lovers will ever make it their business to comment on the sexual activities

of an unmarried girl. If or when she eventually gets pregnant, she even has the right to refuse to marry the presumed father, as we saw in the above section on marriage. Once married, however, the sexual freedom of the woman comes to an abrupt end. This is not primarily a question of sexual morality as such, but rather a reflection of the fact that a marriage, legitimized by the payment of the bride price, entails that the offspring belong to the clan of the husband, who by virtue of the patrilineal descent ideology should be the undoubted biological father.

The institution of bride price, which Cooper (1983:179), rather amazingly, chose to describe for the Hmong as "the institutionalized selling of of women by men", is usually recognized by anthropologists as an appropriate way for a kin group of acquiring the productive and reproductive capacities of a woman. Consequently, the existence of the bride price may be seen as the society's way of recognizing the crucial importance of female l a b o r in the domestic production process, as well as a way of legitimizing the marital union and acknowledging the husband's responsibility for the affairs of the household. For while it is true that the man formally makes all the economic decisions on behalf of the household, it is equally true that he also bears the responsibility for the economic well-being of its members. If a household is poor, it is the

social prestige of the man that suffers, and he may incur the legitimate scorn, private or public, of his wife. In short, the position of women among the Hmong, like the case in so many other tribal societies, is not so much one of inferiority as it is a reflection of the fundamental social difference and complementarity between the two sexes. The practical application of this principle of complementarity (rather than 'inequality') may be seen in the sexual division of labor, shown in Table 11. The table is adapted from Cooper (1984:116).

74 Table 11

Division of Labour between the Sexes and Ages

Men

Swidden Cultivation Cutting trees Clearing undergrowth Burning fields

W_Q_men

X

X

X

x

Sowing, planting Weeding Harvesting

Paddy.Qult:i vatior; Constructing and maintaining fields Ploughing Sowing Transplanting Harvesting Care of buffaloes

X

X X X

X

X

X

x

X

X X X

X

X X

X

Qther Activities. Hunting Gathering forest produce Gathering edible insects Fishing Care of cattle and horses Care of pigs and chicken Cultivation of vegetables and fruit Cultivation of opium

x

X X

X

X

x

X X

X

x

I

X

x

House building Manufactuie of building materials (thatch, walls) Iron working Basketry

X X

X

X X x

x

Carqdng, transportation Collecting firewood and water

X

Washing clothes Pounding rice Cooking Taldng care of small children Sacrifice, worshipping the spirits Shamanism

x

X

Children

X

= major participation in the activity

X

x

K

X X X X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

X

=

x minor participation in the activity - - _

-

75

One reason why Cooper presents a rather more gloomy picture of the position of women among the Hmong than I have felt it warranted to do here is that the Hmong he studied in Thailand relied to a very large degree on the cultivation and sale of opium for their livelihood. And as his very perceptive analysis makes clear, the large scale cultivation of opium as a cash crop entails that the nature of the relationship between husband and wife changes Erom one of co-operative partnership to one approaching an employer-employee relationship, in which part of the

l a b o r value of the wife is appropriated by the husband" (Cooper 1983:I73). The increasing reliance on paddy cultivation, on the other hand, once the initial preparations of the fields have been completed,

entails a si gnificant decrease of the everyday labour requirements, least for the women, since the arduous weeding of the (bidden) fields are no longer needed. Provided that the results of-C-oopers ii:i§§) analysis from the Hmong of northern Thailand are roughly applicable also on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, the productivity of paddy cultivation is about four times that of bidden cultivation, given the same

labour input. Thus, it may be said that in a general Hmong perspective, the women on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau get the best of both worlds, since opium cultivation and sale is negligible, and the reliance on paddy cultivation is increasing.

THE HMONG ON THE PHOUKHAOKHOUAY PLATEAU: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS The transition from a bidden subsistence economy to one based on sedentary wet rice agriculture implies not only a shift in agricultural technology, but will entail considerable socio-economic changes, not all of which are necessarily foreseen or consciously realized by the members of the society. Most people are, or may easily become, aware of the greater productive potential of paddy cultivation and may thus readily be convinced that it is a good idea. Everybody is aware that paddy cultivation furthers permanent settlement, which is felt by all as a welcome change, the Hmong never migrated because of any genetic or culturally determined wanderlust. What the people may not be expected to realize immediately are the socio-economic consequences of permanent ownership to land, and the impact that permanent settlement is likely to have with respect to pressure on resources other than agricultural land. As for permanent land ownership, the Hmong do not have clear-cut rules of inheritance. In the bidden system, the principle of ultimogeniture prevails: When elder sons marry they set up independent households, while the youngest son

stays with his wife and children in the parental house and at the death of the father he inherits the house and becomes head of the household. Under paddy cultivation, the same principle has been applied. The elder sons are given a relatively minor area of paddy land when they establish

separate households, to get them started, while the father retains most of his land which in its turn goes to the youngest son. While the youngest son has always been pampered by the parents, this very tangible material advantage is likely in the long run to put an occasional strain on the traditional fundamental solidarity among brothers. As noted above, from the point of view of the community paddy cultivation, with its necessity 76

77

for permanent ownership to land, entails increased economic inequality between the households: No matter how hard a person or a household works, if the results of one's labour cannot be converted into land, there is little hope of an enduring improvement of one's economic status. Rather to the contrary, since according to the local Cupper class') ideology, the more you have to work (for others) the poorer (and lazier) you are.

With permanent settlement, and the increased population density that paddy cultivation permits, non-agricultural resources will become scarcer. This pertains most notably to the non-timber forest produce. While there is enough Imperaza around to satisfy the demand for brooms for a foreseeable future, the supply of the more costly forest products, notably wild fruit and incense, is likely to decrease significantly, given the traditional manner of their utilization. According to the local population, those alternative, already existing, sources of cash income which could be expanded are notably cattle farming and, given adequate transportation facilities, the cultivation of vegetables and fruit. As Table 9 above showed, these alternatives already play a comparatively more important role in Ban Vanghua, which is the village that has gone furthest along the road from bidden to paddy.

Determinants of Community Stability In the traditional Hmong bidden economy, there is a certain contradiction between social values and subsistence strategies. Socially, there is an emphasis on the value of the spatial proximity to close kin. Ideally, the 'lineage' should be located in one place, and, as earlier mentioned, a Hmong can only be truly happy when he is together with all his close relatives, and, particularly, when he lives close to the lineage elder who is in charge of the cult of the lineage and clan spirits. The frequent migrations necessitated by the bidden economy, in combination with the economic autonomy of the individual household, however, works against this ideal. It is true, as Cooper has pointed out, that "a widely dispersed lineage can afford certain economic securities to swidden farmers in a situation of resource scarcity, principally by providing knowledge of access to alternative resources" (1984:38). But

78

this possible. economic security is obtained at the price of a corresponding social and spiritual insecurity. And with the gradual transition to a sedentary life style based on paddy cultivation, such knowledge of alternative resources becomes of less import. For most of the people on the Phouldiaokhouay plateau, the desire is to stay where they are and to have enough paddy land to live on. As we have seen, paddy cultivation has permitted the village of Ban Vanghua to grow far beyond the size of an average Hmong settlement based on bidden cultivation. Given the Hmong propensity for living together with close relatives, and the decisive influence such considerations often have on migration options, we may safely assume that the larger the settlement, and the more sedentary its character, the greater the likelihood that more close relatives will have congregated over time and are found together in the same place. So there is a direct correlation between the size and the age of a village and the stability of the community. The primary limiting factor is the availability of paddy land.

We may thus observe that the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau and the Lao government pursue the same overall goal, viz., to bring about sedentarization - albeit for slightly different reasons. The prime motivation for the government is to control its citizens - which is facilitated if they are spatially fixed - and to put an end to the environmentally destructive practice of bidden cultivation. The Hmong are hardly concerned about the environment (in a country which they have never been given the chance to regard as theirs anyway), but they

have realized the greater welfare potential of paddy cultivation, and, not least, they welcome the greater possibility under paddy cultivation to

realize the social ideal of spatial lineage cohesion. In view of this happy concordance of interests, it is highly important for all parties, if the hydropower project is realized, that no effort is spared to develop as much paddy land as physically possible on the plateau.

Christianity While, as we have seen, opium cultivation or addiction is by no means a major problem on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, the addiction to

79

Christianity represents a more serious threat to communal harmony. As already stated in the literature (Tapp 1989b, Cooper et al. 1990), and as recognized by the local people, devotion to the (local Protestant version of) the Christian faith entails a weakening of the traditional clan and lineage solidarity and often results in more or less latent conflicts between Christian and non-Christian kinsmen. To understand these deplorable effects of Christianity on the Hmong, we have to bear in mind that the Christian message as received by the Hmong is not necessarily the same as that which is intended by (no doubt well-meaning) Western missionaries, but is made the subject of a cultural interpretation which has its basis in Hmong traditional religious beliefs and social values. Clan and lineage solidarity is put at risk by the message that all men are brothers and that not only your close relatives but everybody may be your net ghbour. This makes it suspect for a Christian to support close relatives (especially non-Christians), if others (i.e. members of the congregation) are equally in need of support. The ideal obligation to help

The Christian church in Ban Vanghua

80

anyone in need, irrespective of clan and lineage, is a very difficult one for anybody to carry out in practice, and the (paradoxically rather 1111Christian) result is often that solidarity is less frequently manifested in material terms. In contrast to what seems to be the general situation of the Hmong in northern Thailand (Cooper 1984:I68-69, Tapp 1989a:99), on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau Christianity has made converts mostly among the more well-to-do families. About half of the 54 Christian households in the two villages are found in the smaller part of Ban Vanghua, where also the church is located, and where the social focus is the compound of four new and very solid Tai-style houses which belong to a 49-year old man of the Mona clan, his sons (the eldest of whom is the local preacher) and his father-in-law, who was converted to Christianity by an American missionary as early as 1957. This family group is the driving force behind the contemporary quite successful efforts at conversion. The man related that of the 26 Christian households in this part of the village, only four were poor. They get a little help in the form of labor from the other Christian households, one person-day per year from each, this is construed as charity, since any traditional clan or lineage solidarity is per definition rLded out according to the local interpretation of the Christian ethos. What is felt by the non-Christian majority to be more serious is the refusal of the Christians to participate in the cannon ritual obligations towards relatives, particularly in connection with funerals. We have already noted the importance of providing for deceased relatives to ensure their safe passage to and reception in the village of the ancestors, for which the sacrifice of a number of cattle is necessary. Such animal sacrifice is not tolerated by the Christians, which means that many elder people whose sons have converted or whose daughters have married Christians are both resentful and not a little worried about their posthumous fate. The campaign against animal sacrifice is helped by cassette tapes, distributed, I was told, from the Philippines, which depreciate the practice as irrational, wasteful and therefore sinful behaviour. Many non-Christians, in their turn, are puzzled and somewhat dismayed by the constant demand for money by the church. All Christians are obliged to attend the Sunday service, at which each adult is

81 expected to contribute 100 Kip and each child 50 Kip. One man told me that he had contemplated conversion and had attended the church service a couple of times. Since he was poor he had not paid anything, and he was told that unless he paid regularly he could not hope to become a true believer, so he stopped going. Apart from the weekly contributions, each household is encouraged to donate one tenth of the harvest to the churchThe preacher told proudly that they had so far collected one million Kip towards the construction of a new church building. A detached observer may speculate about possible alternative ways of spending such an amount. It could, for example, buy bulldozer time for the preparation of about 10 ha o f new paddy land, sufficient to sustain the same number of households on a permanent basis... The most worrying aspect of Christianity as far as the non-Christians are concerned, however, is the apocalyptic run our, enthusiastically peddled

by the preacher and his fellow believers, that the world will come to an end in the year 2000, and that only the true believers will be saved by Jesus.3 As mentioned briefly in the introductory section, there is historical evidence for the readiness of the Hmong to embrace various millenarian movements. It was not only Pa Chay's revolt in 1918 that lent itself to Messianic Christian interpretation. In Xieng Khouang in the 1950s, a movement known as the 'Meo Trinity Cult' grew up: "Three Hmong, claiming to represent the Holy Trinity, travelled from village to village winning converts. They burned household altars as the missionaries did (and still do), they removed 'fetishes' from the body, such as the silver neck-rings often worn by Hmong, and they performed rituals to exorcize evil spirits. The movement came to an end when the 'Holy Spirit' killed himself by jumping off a high mountain ledge to

prove that he could fly like a dove" (Tapp 1989:97, citing Barney 1957). During the war, the airlifts of rice from CIA-chartered airplanes in Vang Vieng were given Messianic interpretations. Says American anthropologist(l) Joel Halpern, "The run our circulated rapidly among these credulous tribes [sis] that a prophet who had fallen from the sky was summoning all the Meos [sicl] to revolt and form a great independent kingdom" (Halpern 1964, cited by Tapp 1989:97). Another run our had it that Christ was about to appear to the Hmong in a jeep, wearing American uniform and handing out weapons (Tapp, ibid.)-

82

So it is not surprising that the presently canvassed prophecy about the end of the world should cause some concern. Very often when in the course of an interview the conversation drifted away from the anthropologist's specific inquiries, the question would be brought up by non-Christians who would solicit a second opinion from someone was supposed to know about Christianity. One man suggested the optimistic interpretation that Jesus would come and take away all the Christians so that the others could take over their rice fields and houses. Most people

were genuinely worried, however. Among those who worried was, of course, the poor man who could not afford to become a true believer, but also many who were decidedly unfavourably disposed towards Christianity were affected by the r u m o r . There is no doubt that the r u m o r will win a few further converts, but it is likely that the price will be the intensification of the latent antagonism between Christians and non-Christians. It should be bore in mind that if a decision is made to realize the hydropower project before the turn of the century, there is the

possibility that the construction works may be subject to interpretation in apocalyptic terms by the Hmong. It is thus, also for this reason, highly important that all questions of compensation for flooded rice fields and relocation of houses are settled well in advance of the physical implementation of the project. And it is equally important that the population is given tangible proof that the project will not only reimburse those who lose property, but will lead to a general improvement of the standard of living for the whole community.

SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS This section presents a very brief summary of those main findings of the social anthropological study for the Nam Mang 3 Hydropower Development Project which are directly relevant for the concrete measures to be taken in connection with the physical implementation of the project. The recommendations that I make are based on the following premises: I have defined my task as one of presenting to the proper authorities the viewpoints, opinions and outlook of the local population of the project area. Apart from my general anthropological experience, I have been guided by the Environmental Aerion Plan, detailed by the Government of Lao PDR in November 1993. In the section dealing with the development of Hydropower schemes and their effects on human populations in terms of displacement and/or loss of property, it says, "Compensation should include the provision of compensatory housing and agricultural land of equal or better quality, and provision of services

to which the population had access prior to resettlement" (Lao PDR 1993:43). I have also been guided by the recommendations of the American Anthropological Association Task Force on Involuntary Resettlement, laid down in a White Paper, March 1991. Among those recommendations are the following: "Reduction of the human costs and ensuring that benefits accrue to the people adversely affected by development projects should be a first consideration of governments and funding agencies"

(AAA 1991:4). "Those who are asked to give up land and other resources should benefit from profits and other advantages accruing from a project" (ibid.:5).

*

83

84

1. The catchment area for the project is part of the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, and it is the population of that area which will be adversely affected by the project. Apart from the inhabitants of the village of Ban Phoukhaokeo, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense, the population of the plateau all belong to the Hmong ethnic minority. This minority has had a particularly turbulent history, both in Laos and elsewhere, for largely global political reasons beyond their control. Despite the efforts of the Government of Lao PDR in recent years to integrate the Hmong into the mainstream of Lao society, the remnants of mutual mistrust and suspicion between the Hmong and the Lao majority population have not yet been completely eradicated. It is a regrettable but common opinion of the Hmong on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau that the promises of the Lao Government are not to be trusted.

*

Because of the particular predicament of the Hmong, it is recommended that the authorities undertake all measures to mitigate adverse effects of the project even more promptly and generously than

under more 'normal' circumstances.

2. Hmong society is organized on the basis of ldnship. This implies that in contrast to the Lao majority population, the kin group rather than the village is the focus of social relations. These relations also have an important religious dimension. For this reason, it is likely that the plateau may envisage further in~migration in the future, as people from elsewhere in the district or from neighbouring districts may want to join relatives living on the plateau. The envisaged in-migration is, however, judged as relatively modest, while the birth rate will probably account for the greater part of the population growth. The crude birth rate among the population is considerably higher than the national average, and the net growth rate is estimated to be at least 3.5%.

* The fact that

the population growth in the area surpasses the national

average should be taken into account M all planning for the development

area. In the case of applications for immigration to the project area, special consideration should be given to claims of kinship relations

of the

between prospective migrants and residents in the area.

85

3. The Hmong have traditionally practiced a system of bidden cultivation which is commonly regarded as particularly destructive to the environment. On the Phoukhaokhouay plateau, however, the Hmong population has gradually developed paddy fields over the last ten years, and their own efforts are towards expanding paddy cultivation at the expense of the traditional swidden economy. In this respect the interests of the Hmong and those of the Government of Lao PDR coincide. The study shows that there is a direct correlation between paddy cultiv ation, the size and age of the settlement and its stability.

*

It is therefore of the utmost importance that provisions are made for the continuation and further development of paddy cultivation on the

plateau. This will reduce migration and enhance community siabilizy.

Not only should all flooded paddy land be replaced by new developments of paddy fields, but no extort should be spared to develop as much paddy land on the plateau as physically possible.

4. Paddy land is not normally a commodity on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau. The few cases of sale of paddy land that came to my attention all involved the sale to close relatives, for a price which bears little relation to any 'market value' of the land. It was generally felt that 300,000 Kip per hectare would be a fair hypothetical price for paddy land, had the 'market' existed.

If cash compensation for

loss of paddy land should become necessary, the compensation should be a minimum of 300,000 Kip per hectare. =1=

However, it is always preferable to substitute lost land with newly developed paddy land, since this will sustain the people on a permanent

basis. 5. Even undeveloped paddy land is distributed among the population and is thus privately owned.

* CompeNsation for lost land, either in terms of money or (preferably) replacement land, should cover not only already developed paddy fields, but also potential but yet undeveloped land. 6. A proper study of land tenure on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau remains

86

to be done, and a detailed mapping of ownership to the land that will be flooded will be necessary in order to ensure that an impartial

compensation can be made.

* In

order to maximize the fertility

of

the paddy land which will be

developed, it is recommended that the topsoil

of the

paddy land that

will be flooded is removed and spread on the newly developed fields. The development and distribution of these new fields should be determined with the active participation of the village headman and the affected land owners. From the project the procedure will require a team consisting a land surveyor, an agricultural engineer and an anthropologist. The task of the team will include the administration Of the just compensation to land owners of replacement land as well as the distribution of surplus paddy developments among other members of the community, free of charge.

7. Like land, houses are not a commodity among the Hmong. The structural materials for a traditional house are gathered in the forest. A possible way to determine the cost of a house, with a view to compensation in case of necessary relocation, is to reckon the amount of man-labour required for its construction.

* IF

is recommended that the compensation for necessary relocation

of

houses should amount to 50,000 Kip per house.

8. A substantial part of the cash income of the population on the Phoukhaokhouay plateau derives from the sale of non-timber forest products. With increasingly permanent sett rent, these resources will gradually diminish. It is therefore important that alternative sources of cash income be explored. The people themselves indicated cattle farming and cultivation of vegetables, particularly cabbage, as possible alternatives.

*

It is recommended rhaf those people who wont to engage in cattle farming be supported with favourable loans to cover their initial investments, and the; free veterinary services are included in the support.

87

9. At the time of this study, there was a r u m o r spreading among the Christian minority of the population that the world will come to an end

in the year 2000 and that only true believers in Jesus will be saved. As this date is likely to coincide with the project construction work, perhaps even with the flooding of the reservoir area, the possibility exists that project activities be interpreted in apocalyptic terms.

* This

is an added reason why all issues of compensation for lost land and houses, development and distribution of new paddy land, and all other mitigating measures should be settled well in advance construction work.

of the actual

NOTES 1. I found the name Ritaville on a Vietnamese map, published in Hanoi in 1959. Locally, 'Ritaville', not to speak of 'Rita' herself, was long forgotten. It is.just possible, however, that Rita could be the French-Hungarian proprietress of

the "rustic inn" where American diplomat Perry Stieglitz stayed and enjoyed her "incredibly pleasurable" meals when he spent a week-end on the plateau in 1960. He also encountered "villagers in their colorful costumes" in "this delightful mountain retreat", and unwittingly he had a close call, for the week after "Pathet Lao-inspired tribesmen" kidnapped 'Rita' and a French female visitor after having killed their-male escort, believing them to be Americans. After her release, 'Rita' was given employment by the French ambassador in Vientiane and "became a stellar addition to his ldtchen" (Stieglitz 1990:2527). 2. A Romanized Phonetic Alphabet for the Hmong language was proposed by American missionary E. Heimbach (1969), among others. To a Westerner, the script at a first glance seems rather confusing, until one has gotten used to the two fundamental features, viz., that doubling of a vowel indicates nasalization, and that the final consonant is not pronounced but is a tone marker. Thus, for example, the word Hmong is rendered Hmoob in the phonetic transliteration.

3. In preparation for the event, the preacher had recently attended a two month's course in 'Advanced Leadership' in Thailand, during which an important part of the curriculum consisted of material from the 'New Life Training Center' in Singapore. (In my prejudiced opinion a most unpleasant

blend of vulgar management training, indoctrination of simplistic categories of sin and confession, and fantasies of apocalyptic miracles).

89

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