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Laos
Index
Lao Theung (Laotian of the mountain slopes), make up
about 24
percent of the population and consist of at least
thirty-seven
different ethnic groups ranging in population from nearly
400,000--
the Kammu--to fewer than 100--the Numbri. Many of the
groups have
additional members in Thailand or Vietnam. Of the three
main ethnic
classifications, the differences among the Lao Theung
groups are
greater than among the Lao Loum or Lao Sung. Little is
known about
many of these groups, and reasonably complete ethnographic
accounts
are available only for a few. Most Lao Theung groups
reside in a
relatively limited geographic area; for example, the
Nyaheun,
Sedang, and Lavae mostly live in the far southern
provinces of
Attapu and Saravan (Salavan), whereas the Lamet reside
near the
border between Bokeo, OudĂ´mxai, and Louang Namtha
provinces. The
Kammu live scattered throughout the north, from
Xiangkhoang to
Bokeo.
The Lao Theung speak languages of the Austroasiatic
family, and
although some languages are closely related, such as
Kammu, Lamet,
and Sam Tao, others are mutually incomprehensible. None of
the
languages has developed a written script. The geographer
Christian
Taillard has suggested that the Lao Theung were originally
paddy
rice farmers displaced by Tai migrants into the hills and
mountains
and forced to turn to swidden rice production. However,
Karl Gustav
Izikowitz's ethnography of the Lamet reports that
historically they
had been swidden farmers and did not cultivate paddy rice
even in
areas where suitable land was available. Certainly within
the last
two centuries, all the Lao Theung have been characterized
as
swidden farmers and as semimigratory because they have
occasionally
relocated their villages as swidden areas were exhausted.
The Kammu
and Lamet, who are found in northern Laos, have different
social
organization and agricultural ecology than the ethnic
groups in
southern Laos.
Most Lao Theung villages (based primarily on
descriptions of
the Kammu) are located on mountain slopes but not at the
peaks or
ridges--the name Lao Theung means roughly "the Lao up
there." Since
the 1950s, however, a growing number of villages have been
established at lower elevations near rivers or roads,
which
occurred as roads were beginning to be rebuilt and
expanded.
Sometimes these villages were founded by people fleeing
the war,
and sometimes they arose out of a desire to be closer to
transportation, markets, and social services. After 1975
many Hmong
and some Kammu were driven out by the Pathet Lao and the
Lao People's Army (see Glossary).
Since the 1980s, the
government has
encouraged upland swidden farming minorities to relocate
to lowland
areas in order to reduce upland swidden farming and forest
clearing. Kammu and Lamet villages, as well as those of
some other
midland groups, are relatively permanent, some remaining
over fifty
years in a location. Traditionally, villages managed the
rotation
of swidden fields in such a way as to sustain agricultural
production over long periods. Individual households might
move from
a village to another location, or villages might merge
with a
second village being established a short distance away;
however,
the usual pattern was sedentary. Midland groups inhabiting
central
Laos generally have been more mobile, with villages
relocated after
a decade or so. However, it is not clear whether this is a
long-
standing pattern or a response to the unsettled conditions
during
the Second Indochina War.
Lao Theung villages are usually somewhat smaller than
most Lao
Loum villages, commonly ranging between twenty and thirty
households, but sites with fifty households and 300 or
more
inhabitants have been reported. Houses in Lamet and Kammu
villages
are clustered without apparent organization or
orientation, but
individual sites are selected with the advice of a village
spirit
practitioner. Lamet villages are commonly divided into two
segments
by the men's common house located in the middle of the
village, but
a similar practice has not been recorded for the Kammu.
Traditionally, in Kammu households, there is a separate
common
house for adolescent boys and strangers, but this practice
has not
been continued in many new settlements established after
1975.
The houses are built on wooden or bamboo piles between
one and
two meters above the ground and are at least five by seven
meters
in size. Usually they are larger. Construction materials
include
woven bamboo or sawn lumber for floors and walls and grass
thatch
or bamboo shingle roofing. A kitchen hearth is located
inside the
house, and an open porch is built on at least one end of
the house.
A separate rice barn, also built on piles, may be located
in the
village near the house (Kammu) or on the edge of the
village
(Lamet). Villages are commonly built near a small stream
to provide
drinking and washing water, which is often diverted
through a
bamboo aqueduct to facilitate filling buckets and bathing.
Virtually all Lao Theung groups rely on swidden rice
cultivation as the basis of their household economy. Lamet
and
Kammu prefer glutinous rice, but some other groups prefer
to eat
ordinary rice. A small field house is almost always built
in the
fields, and all or part of the family may sleep there for
days
during the farming season rather than walk back to the
village
every day.
Swidden rice seldom yields as much as paddy fields, and
the
labor needed to keep weeds under control is the major
constraint to
expanding the area farmed. Corn, cassava, and wild tubers
are thus
important components of the diet to supplement a
frequently
inadequate rice supply. As a consequence of low rice
yields, Lao
Theung are generally considered to be the poorest of the
three
ethnic groupings in Laos. Men often come to towns to work
as
coolies.
In addition to farming, Lao Theung engage in hunting
and
gathering in the forests surrounding the village. Men
shoot or trap
small game and occasionally a wild pig or deer. Both women
and men
regularly collect bamboo and rattan sprouts, wild
vegetables,
mushrooms, tubers, and medicinal plants, the latter
marketed by
women. Fishing is common for some groups but seldom
practiced by
others, perhaps as a consequence of living in an upland
environment
distant from large streams.
Damrong Tayanin, an anthropologist of Kammu origin, has
described a pattern of land tenure for the Kammu in which
households own a large number of separate fields that are
farmed
over a twelve- to fifteen-year rotation; other households
recognize
these ownership rights. The claimed fields are divided
among the
offspring of each generation. However, no other studies
mention any
Lao Theung group respecting permanent rights to swidden
fields. In
all cases, fields that are cleared and farmed are allowed
to revert
to fallow after a year or two. Depending on the
population-to-land
balance, these fields might be allowed to lie fallow for
three to
over fifteen years before being cleared again. After each
harvest,
individual households select the fields they will clear
and farm
the following year. Sometimes this choice is an individual
decision, but sometimes a group of households cooperates
to clear
and fence a single large area, which is then divided. Or a
village
decides which area to clear and divide among all the
families in
the village. Once a field is abandoned, anyone may clear
it and
farm. Fallow periods shorter than five to seven years lead
to
gradual degeneration of the swidden system, however,
because they
do not allow adequate regrowth of vegetation to restore
the soil
fertility.
Virtually all Lao Theung groups are patrilineal. Kammu
and
Lamet households average between six and seven persons but
may be
as large as twelve or fourteen persons. The ideal
household
consists of parents and children, wives of married sons,
and
grandchildren. Married sons eventually establish separate
households, but a family might be temporarily augmented by
a son-
in-law who must live and work with the bride's parents for
several
years in partial payment of the bride-price. The Kammu and
Lamet
have eight and seven totemic clans, respectively, which
provide a
basis for social organization and the regulation of
marriage. For
the Lamet, the clans are exogamous, and each village
contains at
least two clans, thus providing the possibility of
marriage
exchanges. Kammu group the clans according to three
categories--
quadruped, bird, or plant-- depending on the clan's totem.
The
totem is a plant or animal that was instrumental in either
saving
or killing the legendary clan ancestor. One must marry
someone from
another clan, and more particularly, men should marry real
or
classificatory mother's brothers' daughters. Each group of
clans
(for example, quadruped) always gives brides to one of the
others
(for example, bird) and receives brides from the third
(for
example, plants) in a circular relationship. Thus a
village must
have all three clan categories represented for marriage
exchanges
to proceed.
Lamet clans help in establishing relationships between
persons
both inside and outside a village. In the village, members
of the
same clan are likely to develop cooperative relationships
in
farming, and a man traveling outside his village might
seek out
fellow clan members when arriving in another village. For
the
Kammu, however, clan membership appears relevant only for
facilitating interhousehold cooperation and for regulating
marriage
relationships within a village. Should a family move to
another
village, they may change their clan membership in order to
fit into
the three-group marriage exchange circle.
Marriage choices are made by the groom and bride. Once
a couple
agrees to marry, their parents negotiate a bride-price.
Among the
Lamet, the bride's family also sends a dowry. Because
there are few
opportunities to acquire significant wealth in villages,
Kammu and
Lamet young men have frequently migrated to towns or to
Thailand
since the 1920s to work for several years until they
acquire the
funds needed for a bride-price. Among the Lamet, unmarried
adolescent males sleep in the communal men's house,
although they
work with their families during the day.
Polygyny traditionally has been allowed, but it is
rare,
because few men can afford a second wife. Whereas a Lamet
man may
marry two sisters, this practice is prohibited among the
Kammu; a
widow may marry her husband's brother in either culture.
If he
chooses not to marry her, however, the brother is still
responsible
for her support. Initial residence after marriage is
usually
patrilocal, but if the groom is unable to pay the full
agreed-upon
bride-price, he may be obligated to live and work in his
in-laws's
household for several years in lieu of the bride-price.
Upon the
parents' death, the sons divide items of value and,
according to
Damrong, rights to swidden fields and fallows. Material
possessions
are generally limited and include--not much more than
livestock,
farm and household equipment, or perhaps a few silver
coins--used
in traditional dress--or ingots. Wooden and bronze drums
were
important symbols of Lamet and Kammu household wealth in
the past,
but most appear to have been lost or sold during the
Indochina
wars.
Gender role differentiation in both farming and
household
activities is considerably greater among the Lao Theung
than among
the Lao Loum. Men are primarily responsible for clearing
and
burning swidden fields, although women may assist in
clearing the
smaller brush. Men punch holes for seed and the women
follow,
dropping and covering the seed with topsoil. Both sexes
weed the
fields, but the women are primarily responsible for this
time-
consuming task. Harvest is a joint activity. In the house,
women
cook, care for children, husk rice, cut firewood, and haul
water.
Women also gather roots, shoots, and other wild vegetative
products. Men weave baskets, repair farm tools, and hunt
small
game. Men are also more likely than women to manage
household
finances and engage in trade, typically selling livestock
and
collected forest products or scrap metal from the war in
exchange
for rice. Izikowitz reports a significant trade of surplus
rice by
the Lamet and Kammu to neighboring lowland Lao villages in
exchange
for salt and metal implements in the 1920s and 1930s but
notes rice
sales were declining because of competition from other
producers.
Since at least the 1970s, few Lao Theung produce any
surplus rice.
Women may sell vegetables, chickens, or occasionally
handicrafts
locally but do not have the important market role of
lowland Lao
women. Where villages have access to primary schools, both
boys and
girls attend for a few years, but girls are much more
likely to
drop out before boys
(see Education
, this ch.).
As in all villages in Laos, village governance is
managed by an
elected administrative committee consisting of a president
and
several other members in charge of economic affairs,
self-defense,
agriculture, and so on
(see Government Structure
, ch. 4).
Traditionally, the village has a chief who is the
intermediary
between the village and the national government. Important
decisions are made by elders, who in the absence of a
written
script memorize agreements among village members.
Both Kammu and Lamet villages have a ritual leader
(lkuun in Kammu, xemia in Lamet) who
officiates at
important spirit rituals that affect the entire village.
This
position is hereditary in the male line. Kammu and Lamet,
as most
Lao Theung, are animists and are respected by their
lowland
neighbors as being especially proficient in protecting
against or
propitiating spirits that may cause illness or accidents.
Ancestral
spirits are an important aspect of household religious and
safety
rituals, but above the grandparents' generation they are
generalized, and the spirits of specific persons are not
worshiped.
Kammu and Lamet revere rather than fear the spirits of
their
ancestors, who protect the household and village against
harm as
long as they are respected and are offered sacrifices.
Rituals are
also performed at the start of any important undertaking,
for
example, at the beginning of rice planting or building a
house.
Taboos restrict certain activities; for example, Lamet
cannot make
or repair tools inside the family house but do this work
in the
communal men's house.
Lao Theung are socially, economically, and politically
the most
marginal group of the three ethnic classes. During the
Second
Indochina War, many Lao Theung supported the Neo Lao Hak
Xat
(Lao Patriotic Front--LPF; see Glossary),
the political party
of the
Pathet Lao--or actively fought with the Pathet Lao. Ethnic
differences and resentments against lowland Lao dominance
likely
stimulated some of this support, as did effective Pathet
Lao
recruitment activities in the remote eastern areas
populated
principally by Lao Theung groups. During the years
immediately
after 1975, Lao Theung cadre gained numerous mid-level
positions in
the new government, but later many were replaced by
lowland Lao
with greater technical training and experience. Provincial
and
district officials are more likely to be Lao Theung in
provinces
with pronounced minority populations, and geographical
isolation
and poor education are still barriers to the integration
of all Lao
minorities in national affairs. The traditional
subsistence swidden
agricultural societies of the Lao Theung, which involved
little
trade with other groups, led to a marginal economic
existence for
many villages in the 1990s. Numerous individual Lao Theung
have
adopted lowland behavioral patterns and successfully pass
as
lowland Lao, but prejudicial attitudes attributed to many
lowland
Lao continue to affect social and economic opportunities
for many
Lao Theung villages.
Data as of July 1994
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