Readings: Jamieson, "The Traditional Village in Vietnam" in The Vietnam Forum 7 (1986), 89-126.
**Hy Van Luong, Revolution in the Village, 1-95
Note: Study Guide questions for readings are at the bottom of this page

 

Class Activity: Village Role Play
The readings for this week show that social organization in North Vietnamese villages is complex and dependent upon intricate and overlapping networks of relationships based on factors such as age, class, education, kinship, and gender. In class on 10/10, you will play a specific age/class/gender role in a traditional North Vietnamese village and family. Based on a random draw, roles have been assigned as follows:

Family #1: scholarly class
village scholar (Mairead Sullivan)
village scholar's wife (Michael Mooney)
son of village scholar (unmarried) (Dana Betts)

Family #2: large landowners/landlords
older large landowner man (Maureen Lo)
younger large landowner woman (daughter) (Laura Peynado)
younger large landowner man (son-in-law) (Rachel Adams)

Family #3: landless peasants
older landless peasant woman (Dan Kaiser)
younger landless peasant man (son) (Quan Nghiem)
younger landless peasant woman (daughter-in-law) (Colleen Quigley)

Family #4: small landowning peasants
older small landowner peasant woman (i.e., 1-2 mau) (Alexa Simeone)
younger small landowner peasant woman (daughter) (Alexandra Poh)

As you work through the readings for this week, please take note of the life circumstances, roles, and interactions that might be characteristic of the villager you are representing. It would be helpful for you to address the following:

-o- What are your roles and responsibilities?
-o- To what organizations do you belong? (The accompanying sheet lists types of village organizations)
-o- What ceremonies do you take part it? What is your role?
-o- What are your primary occupations? Your interests?
-o- What are your sources of income?
-o- What do you spend your income on?
-o- What plans do you have for your children's marriages?
-o- What is your probable educational background?

In class, you will be asked to represent your villager's views in some of the situations listed below. As you prepare for your role, consider how your villager would respond to these issues in imperial Vietnam (before the French) and in colonial Vietnam.

1. Politics:
Your village needs to elect a headman.
-o- Who should be chosen?
-o- What characteristics should he have?
-o- Who will vote for him?
-o- What are your interests in the outcome?
-o- What role can you play in the decision-making process?

2. Morality:
Your son/daughter declares that s/he would like to marry for love.
-o- What responses does his/her declaration evoke in your family?

3. Education:
You realize that your son is extremely gifted intellectually.
-o- What plans can you make for his future?
Suppose your daughter is also intellectually talented.
-o- How willing are you to provide her with an education?

4. Neighbor relations:
(Click here for more information on village organization)
Two small landowners have a dispute about the border of an adjoining piece of land. Both are convinced that the disputed land belongs to them.
-o- How should this matter be resolved?

5. Ceremony:
(Click here for more information on village organization)
A feast is planned for the village.
-o- Who will be involved in planning and preparing it?
-o- Where will it take place?
-o- Who will pay for it?
-o- Who will take part in the feast and who will decide on how they should be seated?
-o- What if you are a Catholic villager: will you be allowed to participate? Do you want to?

 

STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1) In his study of the three villages making up the community of Son Duong, Hy Van Luong states, "Beneath the structure of all three villages lay an ideological tension between collectivism, on the one hand, and a class-structured, kinship-centered, and male-oriented hierarchy, on the other" (55). What concrete examples do Luong and Jamieson provide to illustrate this tension? What factors promoted village cohesion? Do you agree with Luong that these were opposed to male-based and class-based hierarchy?

2) How was labor divided by gender within villages? How did these divisions of labor vary according to age, education, class status, or landholdings? In what ways did they promote village unity or reinforce male, class-based hierarchies?

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu