Vietnamese

Neil Jamieson and John Beierle (synopsis and indexing notes)

Annamese, Cochinchinese, Kinh, Tonkinese

The Vietnamese speak the Vietnamese language and live in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Significant numbers of Vietnamese, especially since 1975, are now found in most Western countries, including the United States, France, Australia, and Canada. Remnants of earlier Vietnamese migrations still exist in northeastern Thailand and New Caledonia. Many Vietnamese have also lived in Cambodia and Laos for many decades. Under French colonial rule Vietnam was divided into three separate political entities: Tonkin (northern Vietnam), Annam (central Vietnam), and Cochinchina (southern Vietnam). Foreigners have sometimes used these terms as designators of ethnicity (e.g., the “Tonkinese”), sometimes employing the term “Annamese” to include all Vietnamese. This usage is offensive to Vietnamese, who all refer to themselves as “Vietnamese,” sometimes using “northern,” “central,” or “southern” as adjectives to designate region of origin. Ethnic Vietnamese also refer to themselves as kinh, meaning “lowlanders,” as opposed to highland “tribespeople.” Vietnam is located between 8°30' and 23° N and between 102° and 109° E. Very narrow and elongated in the center, it is wider in the south and in the north. The country lies to the south of China and east of Laos and Cambodia, with a long coastline on the South China Sea. Although some three-quarters of Vietnamese national territory is hilly or mountainous, ethnic Vietnamese have lived mainly in the lowland plains.

In 1992, the population of Vietnam was about 68.5 million, with about 20 percent of the population living in urban areas. In 2006, the estimated population of about 84 million still mostly lived in rural areas, with about 27 percent urban-dwellers. About 85 percent of the population is ethnic Vietnamese. There are many highland ethnic minorities, including numerous Tai-speaking groups as well as Hmong (Meo), Nung, and Muong in the northern highlands and Austronesian-speaking groups (e.g., Rhadé and Jarai) and Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic)-speaking groups (e.g., Bahnar, Sedang, Stieng, Mnong, and Katu) in the southern highlands. A sizable and long-established ethnic Chinese population lives mostly in urban areas of the south, although many left the country between 1975 and 1980. Many ethnic Khmer live in parts of the Mekong Delta. In 2006 population density was about 250 people/square km. Ethnic Vietnamese are largely concentrated in the Red River and Mekong deltas, which contain less than a quarter of the total land area of Vietnam. Consequently, population density in these core areas is often very high (averaging about 1,200 people per square kilometer in the Red River Delta and about 430 people per square kilometer in the Mekong Delta). Both the southern and the northern regimes during the division of Vietnam (1955-1975), as well as more recently the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, had programs to resettle Vietnamese into the highlands where population density is much lower, but they encountered numerous difficulties and achieved only limited results.

Vietnamese is a monosyllabic and tonal language of composite origin. It is basically a language in the Mon-Khmer group of languages (in the larger Austro-Asiatic family), but it has elements derived from Tai and Sinitic languages as well.

The early inhabitants of the area apparently were Negritos. Some 4,000 years ago Austronesian (Indonesian) migrants from the north were moving into the area that is now northern Vietnam. Later, Austroasiatic (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian) peoples arrived. Then, about 2,500 years ago Viet (Yueh) and Tai peoples moved down from southern China. Out of this mixture of genes, languages, and cultures arose Van Lang, considered to have been the first Vietnamese kingdom. In mid-third century BC. Van Lang was overrun by and incorporated into another state to the north, forming the kingdom of Au Lac. Then Au Lac was incorporated into an even larger and more powerful state: Nam Viet (Nan Yueh in Chinese), centered on Canton. Local leadership and culture were little disrupted in the Red River Delta, although new cultural elements entered from the north. In 111 BC. the region was incorporated into the expanding Han Empire in China and the Red River Delta was part of the Chinese empire for a thousand years. Local hereditary leadership was used by both Nam Viet and early Han rulers, but as infrastructure and more intensive production techniques developed, pressure increased for more complete Sinicization of local culture and administration. In AD 39 the Trung sisters led the traditional local elite in a popularly supported revolt that flourished briefly but was suppressed in AD 43, ending hereditary leadership. The new hybrid elite of the Red River Delta kept and developed a sense of regional identity; the local language and many non-Chinese customs were retained. Revolts came periodically until AD 939 when independence from Chinese rule was achieved, although China would remain a military threat and a continuing source of cultural influence. What is now central Vietnam was then the kingdom of Champa. The Cham spoke an Austronesian language, had a powerful Indian influence on their culture and political organization, and also had a strong maritime orientation. Over the next six centuries Vietnam displaced or assimilated the Cham and extended Vietnamese territory down the coast to the plains and foothills east of Saigon, which they took and occupied during the seventeenth century. The Vietnamese then expanded at the expense of Cambodia, settling the western Mekong Delta in the eighteenth century and the eastern portion in the nineteenth. But between 1859 and 1883 all of Vietnam fell under French colonial control. Southern Vietnam (called Cochinchina) was a French colony; central Vietnam (called Annam) and northern Vietnam (called Tonkin) became protectorates. Together with Cambodia and Laos, they constituted French Indochina. A public school system established by the French in 1908 disseminated elements of Western culture in Vietnam, influencing but not destroying Vietnamese culture. In 1945 a popular revolution erupted against French rule. As this movement came under increasingly strong Communist control, however, some Vietnamese became disaffected. In 1955 Vietnam gained independence from France but was divided into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the northern half and the anti-Communist Republic of Vietnam in the southern half. About 900,000 Vietnamese relocated from the north to the south, while 90,000 or so others moved from south to north. A Communist-led revolution in the south evoked heavy American support for the Republic of Vietnam, adding American influence to the already heterodox southern region, and led to the invasion of the south by northern troops. After a devastating war, Communist forces in 1975 took over all of Vietnam, the foreign troops departed, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was established in 1976.

The traditional Vietnamese village, typical of lowland northern and central Vietnam, was a highly nucleated settlement surrounded by a bamboo hedge or sometimes by an earthen wall. Each village had a communal hall ( dinh) that served as a sanctuary for the cult of the village guardian spirit and as a public meeting hall. Mahayana Buddhist temples were also common. These villages tended to be tightly bounded and relatively closed communities (both physically and socially) with an elaborate community structure, located along roads or waterways or on knolls or hillsides. Houses were built with mud or brick walls, thatched or tile roofs, and earthen or concrete floors. In the more recently settled southern region, especially in the western Mekong Delta, settlements have been more scattered and less tightly bounded, with a less well-defined community structure. Some southern villages had no dinh. Most are strung out along roads or waterways and some households are scattered over the countryside. Houses have walls of woven bamboo, brick, or wood, earthen or concrete floors, and roofs of palm leaves, thatch, or, in recent decades, corrugated iron or metal sheets made from recycled aluminum cans.

Agriculture, the main subsistence activity for most of the population, emphasizes the cultivation of wet rice, but there is also production of secondary food crops, such as maize, yams, manioc, and beans. Despite efforts to mechanize agriculture, water buffalo and human beings still do most of the farm work. Pigs, chickens, ducks, cattle, and fish ponds are common. Many coastal villages specialize in fishing. Home gardens play an important role in the household economy. While a majority of Vietnamese are engaged in agriculture, agriculture has been declining in its contribution to the gross domestic product while services and industry have increased. In 2008, agriculture contributed about 22 percent to the gross domestic product.

In the aftermath of the war between the north and the south that ended in 1975, Vietnam had serious food shortages. In the 1980s, Vietnam was one of the poorest countries in the world. In 1986 the government began a reform program ( Doi Moi) that transfered rights in land from state cooperatives to family farms and established market reforms. Major economic growth occurred subsequently, with a slight setback in the late 1990s during an Asian financial crisis. During this period of economic growth, rates of poverty were reduced dramatically; in the middle of the 1980s the number of people living in poverty was estimated to be about 75 percent and declined to under 16 percent in 2006.

In 2005, it was estimated that 19 percent of the labor force worked in industry and 26 percent worked in some kind of service job. Growing of industrial crops (rubber, tea, coffee, pineapple, citrus fruits, sugar, tobacco, jute) has also increased in recent decades.

Between 1994 to 2000, the industrial sector in Vietnam has averaged 11 percent growth per year. The major industry is food processing, followed by the manufacture of garments, shoes, and machines. Mining and metalworking are important in the north. Industries such as cement, textiles, chemicals, and steel are well-established. There are also fertilizer, glass, tires, oil, and paper industries.

Sewing machines are widespread and handicrafts (furniture, lacquerware, pottery, silk, baskets) play an important economic role.

While small shops, stalls, street peddlers, and market squares are common, and Vietnamese women are especially active in petty retail and trade, until recently ethnic Chinese dominated many wholesale activities. Government efforts to socialize the economy in 1978 closed tens of thousands of small private businesses that were replaced by a state trading network, but after the Doi Moi reforms, the number of state-owned enterprises declined and private enterprise increased. In the 2000s, Vietnam had a surplus of food and became a major food exporter.

Traditionally women have had charge of domestic affairs, including finances. Men dominated public affairs, the professions, and agricultural activity. Extended warfare and government regulations have given women greater opportunities in all areas, but much de facto division of labor by gender persists.

The ratio of people to arable land is one of the most unfavorable in the world for an agricultural country. Before the Doi Moi reforms of 1986, most landholdings were collectivized under Communist rule. Each household in a collective was permitted to have some land for its own use; private plots (about 5 percent of the land area) typically produced from 10 to 20 percent or more of the total yield. With the Doi Moi reforms, farm families were given land use rights.

The structure of Vietnamese kinship involves logical opposition and functional complementarities between two models. Especially in northern and central Vietnam, patrilineage has been the dominant form, with emphasis on hierarchy and solidarity. But bilateral tendencies, with greater egalitarian emphasis, have always been present, most strongly in the south. In recent years Socialist policies have reinforced bilateral tendencies, weakened patrilineage, and strengthened the nuclear family. Descent is patrilineal, but with increasingly strong bilateral tendencies.

Vietnamese kinship terminology is of the Sudanese type, highly descriptive. There are different terms for father's siblings and mother's siblings, and father's older brother is terminologically distinguished from his younger brother.

Although free choice in marriage is now the law and is quite common, arranged marriages and the use of matchmakers persist, and parents and important elders wield much influence. Traditionally weddings were often elaborate, large affairs. However, the communist regime tried aggressively to simplify these family rituals. While there was considerable resistance from the population for decades, noticeable resurgence began in the 1980s and the size of wedding feasts and consumption of prestige items gradually increased; by the mid-1990s weddings became large and costly affairs. In the northern and central regions, village endogamy and patrilocal residence have been the norm and are still common. Polygynous marriage, once common, is now illegal; but it has not disappeared.

Households average from five to seven persons, but they vary greatly in size. Most consist of a nuclear family, often supplemented with one or more other close relatives, and function as a single economic unit, sharing the work and resources.

In general, all children inherit equally, although sons, especially eldest sons, are sometimes favored. The oldest, or sometimes the youngest, son (or even the youngest daughter) may stay at home to care for aging parents and inherit the house.

The attitude toward young children is very permissive, but older children are much more strictly controlled and disciplined. Boys have somewhat more freedom than girls and, although the tendency is weakening, are likely to get more education. Family solidarity is emphasized over independence and nurturance/dependency relationships over self-reliance.

Vietnamese social organization entails complex interaction between two contradictory sets of ideas. Traditionally, individual Vietnamese have been firmly embedded in powerful corporate groups, first and foremost in a family. A family was part of a lineage and of a village. Villages were aggregated into the state through a national civil service. Within families, lineages, and villages a strict, male-dominant hierarchy was common. These biases persist in Vietnamese society. Relative age, rank, titles, degrees, and other status markers remain significant determinants of attitudes and behavior in social interaction. Yet at each level a distinct set of more open and egalitarian institutions has always been present: bilateral family ties, mutual aid groups, shamanistic cults, and Buddhist practices. Situational shifting between these two logically contradictory but on the whole functionally complementary domains at every level has been and to a large extent remains the essence of Vietnamese social organization. In recent decades state ideology and legal codes have weakened the strength of traditional social groupings and hierarchies; but the new Socialist men and women and the new Socialist society envisioned by state planners since 1955 in the north and 1975 in the south remain more of an ideal than an actuality as older patterns reemerge in new forms. Vietnamese social organization is changing, but the extent and precise nature of change is still unclear and unevenly distributed from region to region.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a Communist state divided into fifty-nine provinces and five autonomous municipalities. Provinces are divided into districts, districts into villages and townships. Each such unit has its own People's Council, the main public organ of state authority, and a People's Committee, the executive agent of the People's Council and the major administrative body. The National Assembly is a highest governmental organization. It is a unicameral body consisting of 500 representatives with five-year terms. The Communist party of Vietnam plays a major role in all spheres at all levels, however, imposing parameters of discourse and action and setting social and economic goals. The Communist party is designated by the constitution to be the “sole force leading the state and society,” and the executive branch of government is virtually an extension of the Central Committee of the party. However, many scholars have suggested that in many respects the state does not have the same degree of control as it had in the past. Labor strikes and demonstrations have occurred, some traditional customs have reasserted themselves (for example spirit mediums, elaborate ritual meals, stronger patrilineages), and previously banned books and songs re-emerged. Even in the political sphere, the National Assembly has had more debate and questioning of policy. In the 1980s it met briefly to rubber-stamp decisions; in the 2000s it met twice a year for month-long periods of time. In addition, forms of collective action from the bottom-up have resulted in some changes in state policy.

Traditionally families, lineages, and villages could be held corporately responsible for the actions of their members. Concern for the welfare and reputation of one's family has served to constrain misbehavior. Gossip and ridicule have been important weapons for social control because of a concern for “face.” Under communism, neighborhood committees and Communist party cells and organizations were used to monitor behavior and rebuke deviance. And self-criticism and public-criticism sessions are used to check antisocial tendencies. However, such measures now play a smaller role than they once did.

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Local disputes have often involved competition for scarce water or land; historically much conflict has arisen from Vietnam's southern expansion and from resistance to encroachment upon Vietnam's territorial integrity and independence from the north. Ideological disputes have torn the country and region apart for the past fifty years, while regional rivalry has reemerged with national independence. Within groups, conflict often involves perceived slights in regard to respect behavior and relative status. Underlying such sensitivities there are both high psychological stakes and competition over the control of resources. Vietnam, with the thirteenth-largest population in the world (as of 2005), had the twelfth-largest army and a large public-security apparatus, despite an economy that ranked 40th in gross domestic production.

The official ideology of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is basically atheistic, and the state is committed by its constitution to combat “backward life styles and superstitions.” While official policy guarantees freedom of religion, secular activities of religious groups were severely circumscribed, and activist religious leaders have been jailed. Since the mid-80s, government control has relaxed and there has been a resurgence of religion and ritual.

Popular Vietnamese religion is a mixture of ritual and belief derived from animist, Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist sources. Veneration of ancestors is a very important part of this syncretic system, as are many elements of Mahayana Buddhist practice and belief. But only a minority of Vietnamese could properly be called Confucianists or Buddhists. Beliefs in astrology, geomancy, and the intervention of spirits in human life are all widespread. Traditional villages had cults to a village guardian spirit. Many Vietnamese are nominally Buddhists, but active members of organized Buddhist churches probably number only about 8 million, mostly in and around Ho Chi Minh City and Hue. There are perhaps over six million Roman Catholics in Vietnam. The Cao Dai, numbering between one and two million and limited to the south and south-central regions, combine folk religion and Christian beliefs. The Hoa Hao, limited to one portion of the western Mekong Delta, with about two million adherents, are a puritanical, poor, peasant-based sect committed to a simplified and austere Buddhist doctrine. There are also a small number of Protestant Christians and other small sects built around prophets or charismatic leaders. For some Vietnamese, Marxism seems to function as a secular religion and appears to have acquired some sacred aspects. Ho Chi Minh, “the father of independence,” is to some a cult figure similar to traditional heroes worshiped as powerful spirits after their death.

Village guardian spirits were once important cult figures, but now less so. Some spirits are believed to provide assistance if venerated, or illness and misfortune if ignored. People who die violent deaths are thought to linger as angry spirits and bring misfortune if not propitiated. There are many categories of malevolent or potentially malevolent spirits, among them ghosts (ma), and demons (guy). There are numerous minor deities who may intervene in human life for good or ill, and a generally benevolent category of supernatural, tien, a “fairy” or “genie.”

Buddhist monks are to be found in many villages. They do not automatically enjoy high respect or exert influence in village affairs, although some may achieve these things. Catholic priests and many Cao Dai and Hoa Hao leaders are respected leaders in their communities. Shamans, fortune-tellers, and a variety of other specialists in dealing with the supernatural may build up a group of clients or followers.

The most widespread and important ceremonies involve the ancestors. Death-anniversary celebrations, New Year's festivities, and other events bring the ancestors back to visit the family, where they must be ritually greeted. The Midyear (Wandering Souls) festival is widely observed. Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter. Many households have, in addition to altars for the ancestors, small shrines to various spirits (the earth god, Shakyamuni, the goddess of mercy, the god of wealth, etc.) and present ritual offerings once or twice a month.

Literary arts, especially poetry, are highly prized. A wide variety of musical forms and instruments is popular. Many southerners enjoy reformed opera, musical dramas with humorous elements. Some people like Western music, everything from classical to rock and roll. While guitars and pianos are popular, some people still play traditional stringed instruments with great skill. Fine arts and architecture reveal both Western and Chinese influence. Skits and impromptu musical performances or recitations of verse are popular at many kinds of gatherings.

Illness is attributed to many causes: it may be organic or owing to germs, but it also may be caused by fright or hardship, heartbreak, an imbalance of elements, a curse, or spirit possession. Picking the right kind of treatment is essential. There are many specialists in the supernatural who diagnose and treat illness in a variety of ways, often sharing clients with modern medical centers and with Vietnamese or Chinese herbalists. Vitamin injections, tonics and elixirs of many kinds, and special dietary regimens are also used. Sometimes women feel called to worship a particular spirit or deity, and illness is the penalty for failure to make offerings. Protective talismans and amulets and ritual support for protector spirits are used to ward off illness.

Traditionally, funerals (and sometimes reburials) were elaborate and costly affairs, especially for the well-to-do. Ritual support for the deceased is most crucial. Those not honored by a cult become errant spirits, unhappy and harmful. A series of rituals elevates the deceased into the ranks of the ancestors. Ancestors return to visit the family on death-anniversary celebrations and special family occasions. Major life events are reported to the ancestors. As with weddings, the post-revolutionary government tried to limit the elaborateness of funerals and strip them of religious rites. However, there was considerable resistance to this suppression, particularly to eliminating assistance to the soul of the deceased. As with weddings, the government began to relax its pressure at the end of the 1980s and the 1990s saw an increase in the size and scale of feasts associated with funerals.

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Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The AM11 Vietnamese file consists of 62 documents, 14 in English and 48 translations from the French. Documents in the file cover all three main areas culturally recognized by the Vietnamese as the Northern (Bac Bo), Central (Trung Bo), and Southern (Nam Bo), regions, with Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), serving as the main cities of each of the three regions. In a file of this size the cultural data are diverse, but generally the best overall coverage of Vietnamese ethnography will be found in: Gourou, 1936, no. l; Huard, 1990, no. 179; Cima, 1989, no. 187; and supplemented with brief summaries in: Landes, 1880, 1881, 1881, 1881, nos. 134-137; and in Luro, 1878, no. 65. In addition to the above, some of the other major ethnographic topics discussed in this file are: community studies in Langrand, 1945, no. 8; Hickey, 1964, no. 173; Kleinen, 1999, no. 174; Hendry, 1964, no. 176; and Luong, 1992, no. 178. Gender studies with the emphasis on women’s roles and status in Vietanmese society will be found in: Gentile-Duquesne, 1925, no. 47; Lusteguy, 1935, no. 61; Coughlin, 1950, no. 172; Gammeltoft, 2001, no. 177; and Luong, 1989, no. 182. Law and legal norms are emphasized in: Dang, 1933, no. 45; Gentile-Duquesne, 1925, no. 47; Nguyen, 1932, no. 58; Chau-Thanh-Kien, 1940, no. 74; Aubaret, 1865, no. 93; and Jeanselme, 1906, no. 98. Economics are discussed in: Hendry, 1964, no. 176; Malarney, 1998, no. 185; Cosslett, 1989, no. 190; Chau-Thanh-Kien, 1940, no. 74; and Dumarest, 1935, no. 49, Dumoutier, 1907, 1897, nos. 106 and 131; Nguyen, 1930, no. 133; Cadiere, 1915, 1929, nos. 139 and 146; Tran-Nuong Han, 1882, no. 161; Kleinen, 1999, no. 174; and Rambo, 1982, no. 175, all deal with different features of Vietnamese religion. Information on the French colonial period in Vietnam, although touched on to some extent in many of the studies in this file, is given specific attention in: Thompson, 1937, no. 7; Bonhomme, 1931, no. 43: Dumarest, 1935, no. 49; and Rouilly, 1929, no. 60. Medicine and medical care are topics discussed in: Jeanselme, 1906, no. 98; Gammeltoft, 2001, no. 177; and Ladinsky, 1987, no. 186. Discussions on social change occur frequently throughout the file but are given special attention in: Dang, 1950, no. 64; Hickey, 1964, no. 173; Kleinen, 1999, no. 174; Luong, 1992, no. 178; and Kerkvliet, 1995, no. 181. Data on politics and political development are found in: Hammer, 1947, 1951, nos. 38 and 73; Michaud, 1949, no. 39, and Cima, 1989, no. 191.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in the file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

This culture summary is a revised version of the article “Vietnamese” by Neil Jamieson, in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 5, East and Southeast Asia, 1993. Paul Hockings, ed. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. Information on economy, demography, marriage, political organization and religion was updated in February, 2009 by Carol Ember with guidance from Neil Jamieson. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in March 2006.

Association of Elderly Pagoda Women – use "CONGREGATIONS (794)"

Bo (Dao) – province – use "PROVINCES (635)"

Bonzes – Buddhist monks – use "PROPHETS AND ASCETICS (792)"

Brevets – royal awards – use "STATUS, ROLE, AND PRESTIGE (554)”

Brigade – teams of cooperative work groups within a commune –- use "COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)" with "MUTUAL AID (476)"

Cadre – use "SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND GROUPS (571)" and/or "POLITICAL PARTIES (665)"

Canton ( Tong) -- a political unit consisting of several villages all headed by a chief – use "TOWNS (632)", sometimes with "DISTRICTS (634)"

Commanderies – use "TERRITORIAL HIERARCHY (631)"

Communes – use "COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)"

Corvee – labor as a form of taxes – use “PUBLIC WORKS (653)" with

"LABOR RELATIONS (466)"

Cuu quoc – national salvation associations – use "PRIVATE WELFARE AGENCIES (747)"

Dinh – communal house –use "PUBLIC STRUCTURES (344)", and/or RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES (346)" (depending on context)

Doi – housing clusters of former production teams in a village (see also Brigade) – use "COMMUNITY STRUCTURE (621)", “COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)" with MUTUAL AID (476)"

Fatherland Front, The – an organization set up by the Communist Party in 1954 - use "POLITICAL PARTIES (665)" with "SODALITIES (575)", and/or "COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)",

(depending on context)

Ngoi Kinh – a clairvoyant – use “REVELATION AND DIVINATION (787)" with "MAGICIANS AND DIVINERS (791)"

Duyen – fate - use "LUCK AND CHANCE (777)"

Giap – territorial and voluntary associations; essentially a mutual aid society - use "SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND GROUPS (571)", possibly with "SODALITIES (575)" and/or "LINEAGES (613)"

Ho (Nha) – households - use "HOUSEHOLD (592)

Ho Bo Hau – an elderly men’s association – use "SODALITIES (575)", with "AGE STRATIFICATION (561)"

Ho Gia Dinh – the nuclear family – "NUCLEAR FAMILY (594)"

Hoi Dong Hao Muc – councils or notables or village elders – use "COUNCILS (623)"

Hoi Dong Toc Bieu – the Council of Lineage Representatives – use "COUNCILS (623)", with "LINEAGES (613)"

Huong-Hoa – worship endowment; family worship property – use "CULT OF THE DEAD (769)" with "INHERITANCE (428)"

Huyen – district – use "DISTRICTS (634)"

Ly Truongs – village chiefs use - "COMMUNITY HEADS (622)"

Mandarins – civil and military officials – use "ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES (647)",

"STATUS, ROLE, AND PRESTIGE (554)" with "CLASSES (565)"

Ngoi Kinh – a clairvoyant – use "REVELATION AND DIVINATION (787)" with "MAGICIANS AND DIVINERS (791)"

Pagoda ( Chua) – a religious or memorial structure - use "RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES (346)" with “SACRED OBJECTS AND PLACES (778)"

Peoples General Committee – use "COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)", with "POLITICAL PARTIES (665)"

Phien (or Phe) – voluntary organizations based largely on age – use "SODALITIES (575)"

Prefecture – use "PROVINCES (635)"

Royal dynasties – use "CHIEF EXECUTIVE (643)" with "TRADITIONAL HISTORY (173)"

Thay Cung – the village priest – use "PRIESTHOOD (793)"

Thay Phap – Doctor of Magic – use "MAGICIANS AND DIVINERS (791)"

Thon (Lang) – village – use "COMMUNITY STRUCTURE (621)"

Work points – a unit of non-monetary payment for work done by collective members of the commune – use "WAGES AND SALARIES (465)"

Xa – village, administrative village, or commune – use "COMMUNITY STRUCTURE (621)," with"COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION (474)"

Country Ranks. (2005). http://www.photius.com/rankings/index.html. Accessed April 15, 2005.

General Statistics Office of Vietnam (2006). http://www.gso.gov.vn. Accessed April, 2006.

Glewwe, Paul. (2004). An Overview of Econommic Growth and Household Welfare in Vietnam in the 1990s. In Paul Glewwe, ed. Economic Growth, Poverty, and Household Welfare in Vietnam. Washington DC: World Bank Publications.

Gourou, Pierre (1936). Les paysans du delta tonkinois. Paris: École Francaise d'Extrême-Orient, 1936. Translated as Peasants of the Tonkin Delta. 1955. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files.

Hickey, Gerald C. (1964). Village in Vietnam. Chicago: Aldine.

Hy Van Luong (1989). "Vietnamese Kinship: Structural Principles and the Socialist Transformation in Northern Vietnam." Journal of Asian Studies 48: 741-756.

Hy V. Luong (2003). "Postwar Vietnamese Society: An Overview of Transformational Dynamics." In Hy V. Luong, Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society. Lanham: Roman & Littlefield.

Le Thi Que (1986). "The Vietnamese Family Yesterday and Today." Interculture 92:1-38.

Malarney, Shaun Kingsley (2003). "Return to the Past? The Dynamics of Contemporary Religious and Ritual Transformation." In Hy V. Luong, Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society. Lanham: Roman & Littlefield.

Rambo, Arthur Terry (1973). A Comparison of Peasant Social Systems of Northern and Southern Viet-nam: A Study of Ecological Adaptation, Social Succession, and Cultural Evolution. Monograph Series, no. 3. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Center for Vietnamese Studies.

Rambo, Arthur Terry (1982). "Vietnam: Searching for Integration." In Religion and Societies: Asia and the Middle East, edited by Carlo Caldarola, 407-444. Berlin: Mouton.

Rambo, A. Terry and Neil J. Jamieson. (2003). "Upland Areas, Ethnic Minorities, and Development." In Hy V. Luong, Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society. Lanham: Roman & Littlefield.

United Nations Development Program. (2006). http://www.undp.org.vn/undp/unews/future.htm. Site accessed April 15, 2006.

United Nations Development Program. (2009). http://www.undp.org.vn/UNDP/About-Viet-Nam/Viet-Nam-at-a-Glance. Accessed February 25, 2009.

U.S. Census Bureau. International Data Base. (2009). http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbrank.pl. Accessed February 25, 2009.

World FactBook (2009). https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html. Accessed February 25, 2009.