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Laos
Index
In mid-1994 Laotian society was in a period of
transition.
Although firmly based in self-sufficient village
agricultural
patterns, it was beginning to experience social and
economic change
stimulated by government policies and slowly growing
communication
with urban centers and neighboring modernizing countries.
However,
most Laotians had little experience outside their district
of
residence and were able to live simply and relatively
comfortably
on the food and other products they produced or gathered
themselves. Limited but expanding trade provided basic
consumer
goods that made life more comfortable or save labor. Trade
also
provided a stimulus to produce somewhat more than the
family needed
for its immediate consumption. Nevertheless, villages in
mountainous regions were less advantaged and less
connected to the
market network and to government influence than those on
the plains
and river valleys, and some were chronically unable to
produce
enough food to meet their needs.
As the market economy expands and rural farmers find
opportunities for cash crop production, village labor
exchange
relationships and other forms of cooperation are likely to
begin to
break down. These changes have already begun in the
villages on the
Vientiane plain, although in outlying provinces
traditional
cooperation networks remain more firmly in place. Not
surprisingly,
social and economic stratification increases in villages
more
closely linked to urban areas or markets, where some
families are
quicker to exploit economic or educational opportunities.
Landownership remains relatively equal, but unclaimed good
quality
land for paddy rice production is extremely difficult to
locate,
thus removing one factor that served to minimize
stratification in
the past. At the end of the twentieth century, competition
for
lowland farms and increased pressure and restrictions on
upland
swidden farming may combine to change the character of
rural
landownership and farming. Genuinely landless families are
likely
to increase in number, and urban populations also will
likely
continue to expand at a moderate rate, depending on the
continued
establishment of manufacturing enterprises in provincial
centers.
Substantial changes occurred in the education and
health
systems after 1975, but both sectors are severely
underfunded and
fail to meet the expectations of government policy makers.
Education is more likely to improve, and, as schools
improve,
expand their curriculum, and become more widespread, rural
youth
will gradually acquire the outlook and skills needed for
work and
life in an increasingly open and market-oriented society.
Whether
improved education also brings political inquiry and
change remains
to be seen.
Past performance of the state health sector does not
generate
much optimism regarding future developments. In the early
1990s,
economic growth and stratification were already creating a
demand
for health care that remained unmet by the government
sector, and
since the late 1980s, significant numbers of people have
traveled
to Thailand for treatment of serious illnesses. Private
health
providers may increase, in much the same way as private
pharmacies
have opened to meet the demand for medications that cannot
be
obtained through the state health system.
Religious traditions that were initially threatened by
the
communist government have made a resurgence, and economic
prosperity in lowland Lao areas has stimulated increased
donations
to and support of the Buddhist wat in many
villages. As of
mid-1994, most ethnic minorities maintained animist
traditions as
well, but were criticized formally and informally by
officials for
being superstitious.
At least through the 1990s, the traditional elements of
Laotian
society will very likely continue, and society will
maintain its
predominantly rural character. Self-sufficiency is not
widely at
risk, although there are certain ethnic groups and regions
of the
country experiencing inadequate food production and
continued lack
of access to productive resources. Ethnic diversity will
certainly
continue to be a factor in government development policy
as well as
intervillage relationships but is unlikely to be a source
of
serious conflict.
* * *
There have been few contemporary works on Laotian
society, and
only one researcher, anthropologist Grant Evans, has been
able to
carry out formal ethnographic or sociological studies in
Laos since
1975. Most recent books and articles have focused on
economic and
political affairs. For information about society, it is
necessary
to search for certain less accessible reports prepared for
development projects, as well as older sources. For some
of the
better sources, knowledge of French is necessary. The best
books as
of the early 1990s were Evans's Lao Peasants Under
Socialism, Australian political scientist Martin
Stuart-Fox's
Laos: Politics, Economics, Society, and French
social
geographer Christian Taillard's Le Laos: stratégies
d'un Étattampon . The UNICEF report, Children and Women in
the Lao
People's Democratic Republic, is not easily available
but
provides an excellent up-to-date overview of the economic,
health,
education, and agricultural sectors, as well as the
socioeconomic
status of women and children.
A number of monographs or journal articles on post-1975
Laos
are noteworthy. These include Evans's Agrarian Change
in
Communist Laos; an article entitled "'Rich Peasants'
and
Cooperatives in Socialist Laos," and another article
entitled
"Reform or Revolution in Heaven? Funerals among Upland
Tai." Carol
Ireson's study, "Women's Forest Work in Laos," outlines
women's
roles regarding gathering of wild foods and other
resources in
rural areas. Three short studies produced for the Swedish
development aid mission also provide useful details of
contemporary
village life in rural areas: Agneta Håkangård's "Road 13:
A SocioEconomic Study of Villagers, Transport and Use of Road 13
S, Lao
P.D.R.;" Jan Ovesen's "Anthropological Reconnaissance in
Central
Laos: A Survey of Local Communities in a Hydropower
Project Area;"
and Ing-Britt Trankell's "On the Road in Laos: An
Anthropological
Study of Road Construction and Rural Communities." Martin
StuartFox and Rod Bucknell's "Politicization of the Buddhist
Sangha in
Laos" analyzes the religious changes occurring through the
early
1980s.
Several works based on research during the RLG period
remain
valuable. Jacques Lemoine's Un village Hmong vert du
Haut
Laos is the only comprehensive source on the Hmong in
Laos, as
is Karl Gustav Izikowitz's dated, but still fundamentally
useful
account of the Lamet, Lamet: Hill Peasants in French
Indochina.
Several publications on the Kammu produced with the
collaboration of Kristina Lindell, Damrong Tayanin, and
their
coworkers provide detailed descriptions of Kammu life in
Laos prior
to the revolution. See particularly Lindell, et al.,
The Kammu
Year: Its Lore and Music; Damrong and Lindell's,
Hunting and
Fishing in a Kammu Village; and Damrong's "Environment
and
Nature Change in Northern Laos."
Articles by Christian Taillard and Georges Condominas
provide
an understanding of the social dynamics of lowland Lao
village life
unavailable elsewhere, particularly Taillard's "Le village
Lao de
la région de Vientiane: Un pouvoir local face au pouvoir
étatique"
and "Le dualisme urbain-rural au Laos et la récuperation
de
l'idéologie traditionnelle" and Condominas's "Phiban Cults
in Rural
Laos." Martin John Philip Barber's "Migrants and
Modernization: A
Study of Change in Lao Society" also contains valuable
information
on village social structure in the Vientiane area. (For
further
information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of July 1994
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