Communal house (dinh): Political and ritual center of village life, both town hall and church. Central place of worship to village deity/guardian spirit and other village festivals. Meetings, elections, and feasts held there. Members were adult male villagers who appeared on the village roles Registration requirements were usually based on long-term residence in village (or birth) and property ownership. Women were forbidden from entering the dinh.

Council of notables (Ban Ky muc): Elite class with most decision-making power in village socio-political hierarchy. Consisted of scholar-officials (titles granted by state), those with rank in village (titles could be purchased), and local scholar-teachers (thwarted exam candidates). Village title holders would also tend to dominate other types of social and political organizations, such as the giap or neighborhood association.

Elders: Male village members above 50 years of age. Had honor, social and moral influence.

Highest venerable (tien chi): Man with highest status in village, either a mandarin or oldest man. Had ultimate decision-making power, but could be more of an honorific position.

Village chief/headman (ly truong): Intermediary between village and state. Executed council's will, maintained records, collected taxes. Lots of work involved, maybe not so much real power, but prestige.

Neighborhood (xom): Based on residence and registration status. Had its own chief. Mutual aid was commonplace.

Guild (hoi bach nghe): Professional organization which often provided mutual aid and was responsible for apprenticeship and training.

Pagoda (chua): People attended as they wished. Often a site for social activity, primarily for older women of the lower and lower middle classes, who would form women's associations (hoi chua ba).

Mutual aid societies (ho): Many different types, usually based on geographic residence, formed to help members meet formal and expensive ritual obligations. Common societies included funeral and burial (ho hieu), New Year (ho an Tet), and weddings. Many of these were controlled by women.

Giap: A kind of social organization, often formed on the basis of lineage membership or territorial basis. Provided assistance to members in times of need (such as death of member). The giap was a corporate entity with its own property, may have had its own spirit and temple. No competitive elements with respect to ritual organization. In Son Duong village (studied by Hy Van Luong), a giap was a patrilineage-based neighborhood group which controlled the distribution of communal lands and used the proceeds to conduct its ceremonies. Within a family, the first son would belong to his father's giap, while the second joined that of his mother's father.

Markets (cho): Sites for commerce and socializing, dominated by women. In rural areas, markets were held periodically.

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SOURCES CONSULTED:
Hy Van Luong. 1992. Revolution in the Village. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Jamieson, Neil. 1986. "The Traditional Village in Vietnam," in The Vietnam Forum 7:89-126.

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu