Reframing the “Traditional” Vietnamese Village: From Peasant to Farmer Society in the Mekong Delta

• Main Authors: Trần Hữu Quang, Nguyễn Nghị
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2016-11-01
• Series: Moussons
• Subjects: Vietnam; Mekong Delta; village; rural transformation; social change
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/moussons/3643

What are the characteristics of peasants in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam? This question is largely indebted to the seminal work of Pierre Gourou in the Red River Delta or Tonkin Delta. However, land management practices in the southern part of the country remain a kind of terra incognita for researchers. This paper examines some main features of southern peasants’ behaviors concerning land ownership, labor use, and market-driven behaviors in the socio-historical context of “open community” villages by comparing them with those of northern peasants. The paper’s main argument is that Mekong Delta villages constitute an evident example of the “farmer society” type, different from the “peasant society” type—a distinction devised by Eric Wolf.