In Laotian society, ethnic, geographic, and ecological differences create variations in the pattern of life. Rural trade networks have been a part of life since the 1950s. Except near the larger towns and in some agricultural plains of Vientiane and Savannakhet, villages are spaced at least some kilometers apart and the intervening land variously developed as rice paddy and swidden fields or maintained as buffer forest for gathering wild plants and animals, fuelwood, and timber harvest.Ireson, W. Randall. "Rural life". In Savada.
Ethnic mixing has resulted from groups migrating to a new settlement site at about the same time, or a larger village at a crossroads or river transit point developing into a trading center. Some minority individuals have adopted lowland behavior and dress patterns, and have acculturated to lowland society. In some units, military service has also brought together ethnic groups.
Precolonial governments depended more on a system of control at the district level with the district chief maintaining his own allegiance and tribute to the state. Administrative practices under the French and during the post-World War II period were confined primarily to provincial and some district centers. The government was able to extract taxes with some facility. Since 1975, the government has expended some energy and resources on national unification, so that isolated villages recognize the role of local government and consider themselves at some level to be part of a state.
Lowland
Lao Loum (Laotian of the valley) has been the dominant group numerically since the founding of the Kingdom of Lan Xang in the 14th century. The Lao of the Lao Loum ethnic group comprise over 50% of the total population. Other related lowland groups include the Lue and Phu Thai, who together make up an additional 15% of the population. Groups such as the Tai Dam and Tai Deng are included by government statistics in the general category Phu Thai. Variations occur regionally and among ethnic subgroups. Most officials in the RLG were Lao Loum, and while there were increases in the number of minority officials in the government, the lowland Lao held a majority in the 1990s.Ireson, W. Randall. "Lowland Lao Society". In Savada.
Lao Loum live in villages situated near lowland rivers or streams. At higher elevations, villages are located in valley areas that give as much access as possible to land suitable for paddy rice cultivation. Villages are self-contained and range from around 20 to over 200 households. Individual households may move to another village where the family has kin or friends, while larger groups have migrated to unsettled areas. Such village fission or relocation continued into the 1990s.
The lowland Lao village economy includes paddy rice cultivation. Household work includes paddy production from the beginning of the rains in May through December when all the rice has been brought to storage. Cooperative work groups are organized among some families to help get the tasks completed in a timely manner. Where level terrain is inadequate, lowland Lao practice swidden rice farming. In certain villages, swidden rice is grown in some years as a supplement to paddy rice production, whereas in others it is planted regularly in smaller quantities. Some Lao Loum villages have no land suitable for rice paddies and are completely dependent on swidden rice production. Newly established villages may first clear fields and plant swidden rice for a year or two before plowing and bunding the fields to convert them to paddies. In addition to paddy rice, some households have a vegetable garden, and fruit trees, either in the house compound or near a stream or other water source. Other crops include cotton, tobacco, and sugarcane. Villagers also raise chickens, ducks, and pigs, and a buffalo or 2 for plowing the fields and perhaps a pair of cattle for pulling a cart. In general, rural households are mostly self-sufficient, growing their own food, making their own tools and clothes, and trading any surplus for soap, kerosene, medicines, and kitchen or household goods. Hunting, fishing, and gathering play a role in the household economy. Homemade rifles are used to hunt deer, wild pigs, and game such as squirrels and birds; fish are caught with nets, traps, or hooks. Bamboo shoots, mushrooms, fruit, medicinal or culinary roots, and leaves are gathered in the forest according to the season.
Lowland villages may be led by a village chief and 1 or 2 assistants who are elected by the villagers, while district or province officials sometimes use their positions to influence the results. Since 1975 villages have been governed by an administrative committee headed by a village president and other persons with responsibilities for such specific areas as economic and population records, self-defense militia, and agriculture. All members are in principle elected by popular vote, while for about a decade after 1975, party cadres at the village level were supposed to have taken an active role to ensure that acceptable candidates were selected. Village meetings are held with viewpoints on issues expressed openly. If a consensus on an issue is not reached, leaders will delay decisions to allow further discussion outside the meeting with all members of the community.
Each family contributes equal amounts of labor, material, and money to village projects. Once a decision is made to undertake a project, a committee is appointed to manage the details and keep track of the contributions to ensure that everyone does his or her share. Systems of rotating labor groups for village projects exist; for example, groups of 10 households may supply 1 worker per household every 3 to 7 days, depending on the number of groups, until the project is finished. Households also cooperate informally. Labor exchange occurs. There are 2 patterns of farm exchange. In central and southern Laos, villagers call on other households, sometimes the entire village, for one day's help to complete a specific task such as transplanting. No specific repayment is required, and the family is obligated to help others in the village if they are unable to finish work in time. In northern villages, mutual assistance is organized on the basis of exchanges between families that should even out over the year; a day's work transplanting may be repaid by a day's work threshing. The contributions of men, women, and children over 16 are considered equal, regardless of the task.
Midland Lao Theung (Laotian of the mountain slopes) make up about 24% of the population and consist of at least 37 ethnic groups ranging in population from nearly 400,000—the Kammu—to fewer than 100—the Numbri. Of the three main ethnic classifications, the differences among the Lao Theung groups are greater than among the Lao Loum or Lao Sung. Of the Lao Theung groups, the Nyaheun, Sedang, and Larvae mostly live in the far southern provinces of Attapu and Saravan (Salavan), whereas the Lamet reside near the border between Bokeo, Oudômxai, and Louang Namtha provinces. The Kammu live scattered throughout the north, from Xiangkhoang to Bokeo. The Lao Theung speak languages of the Austroasiatic family. 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. Karl Gustav Izikowitz's ethnography of the Lamet reports that historically they had been swidden farmers and did not cultivate paddy rice. Within 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.Ireson, W. Randall. "Midland Lao society". In Savada.
Most Lao Theung villages (based primarily on descriptions of the Kammu) are located on mountain slopes and not at the peaks or ridges. Since the 1950s, 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 some Hmong and some Kammu were driven out by the Pathet Lao and the Lao People's Army. Since the 1980s, the government has encouraged upland swidden farming minoritys to relocate to lowland areas in order to reduce upland swidden farming and forest clearing. 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. Midland groups inhabiting central Laos generally have been more mobile, with villages relocated after a decade or so. Lao Theung villages are mostly somewhat smaller than most Lao Loum villages, mostly ranging between 20 and 30 households, while sites with 50 households and 300 or more inhabitants have been reported. In Lamet and Kammu villages, individual houses are selected with the advice of a village spirit practitioner. In Kammu households, there is a separate house for adolescent boys and strangers; this practice has not been continued in some settlements established after 1975.
Most Lao Theung groups rely on swidden rice cultivation as the basis of their household economy. A field house is 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 constraint to expanding the area farmed. Corn, cassava, and wild tubers are thus components of the diet to supplement an inadequate rice supply. Lao Theung also engage in hunting and gathering in the forests surrounding the village. People collect bamboo and rattan sprouts, wild vegetables, mushrooms, tubers, and medicinal plants.
Damrong Tayanin, an anthropologist of Kammu origin, has described a pattern of land tenure for the Kammu in which households own separate fields that are farmed over a 12- to 15-year rotation; other households recognize these ownership rights. The claimed fields are divided among the offspring of each generation. Fields that are cleared and farmed are allowed to revert to fallow after a year or 2. Depending on the population-to-land balance, these fields might be allowed to lie fallow for 3 to over 15 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, and sometimes a group of households cooperates to clear and fence an 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 5 to 7 years lead to gradual degeneration of the swidden system, because they do not allow adequate regrowth of vegetation to restore the soil fertility.
Lamet clans help in establishing relationships between persons inside and outside a village. In the village, members of the same clan may develop cooperative relationships in farming, and a person traveling outside their village might seek out fellow clan members when arriving in another village. For the Kammu, 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 3-group marriage exchange circle.