Villages of the Hmong people in Son La province.

Abstract

This article describes features of the villages of the Hmong people in Son La province. For instance: very little cohabitation with other ethnic groups; village members attach to each other by kinship recognition and neighborhood relationship; auto-managing structure (village elders, head of villages, head of kinship groups, shamanist master, etc.) These characteristics play a determinative role in organizing social life and local economic development. Each village has its own customary law with the content that serves the community members’ benefits and mainly focuses on land management, water resource and forest, crops, live-stocks protection and social security.