Villages of the Tay people in the North West region

Abstract

Villages of the Tay people in the North East of Vietnam are social institutions that embrace featured ethnic identities. Each village has its boundaries and name. Due to their distinct histories, each village has different scales, habitation pattern (intensive pattern, family grouping pattern or mixing pattern like a street). Each village has a self-controlled administrative apparatus, representing the voices of the elderly, the head of village, and spiritual master who are trusted and followed by the community. Each village has its customary principles that regulate natural resource preservation (soil, water, forest), production, reciprocity, safety and security. This regulation is mostly orally transmitted through generations and it is willingly abided by everyone in the village.