The Hmong Society

When I was introduced to the Hmong culture in class I wanted to learn more about them. I found out that they inhabit areas like Vietnam, Laos, China and Thailand. They are a minority ethnic group. Their language can be associated with the Sino-Tibetan language family, and it was really interesting to find out that they had no recorded written transcripts until about nineteen fifties. As you can see their language was hard to trace and surprisingly enough so were they. The history of the Hmong was hard to find but they have been able to enclose and keep their own language, lifestyle, and traditional customs. They have kept the customs of their ancestors, and adopted new ways of life with the coming era. My mom found this culture very intriguing as well. I told her that they inhabited the areas of China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and the United States. She thought that it was very unique that they were also able to maintain a culture in the United States while being so far from the roots of their ancestors.

I also informed my mom about their subsistence farming. She thought that slash and burn had been forgotten, but I informed her that they still used this technique in everyday agriculture. Slash and burn can be known as swidden. They cultivated crops like rice, corn, cucumber, squash, soybeans, cabbage, peach, and opium poppy. They also had chickens, pigs, cattle and horses. They were also able to have hemp and cotton for cloth. They are really reliable on self resources and I think that it would be interesting to be able to experience their way of life. I told my dad about the Hmong and he said that when he traveled to Vietnam it was very rural. He also implied that a lot of the country had the same kind of subsistence and still relied on self sourcing.

The social organization is called a clan and it is the most common dominant organizing force in the Hmong society. The clans trace back to blood lines of a main ancestor like many other cultures. Clan leaders are suppose to keep the clan in order and are responsible to keep conflict in order. Leaders negotiate and make sure that the rest of the people in the clan keep up with religious rituals. Marriage is exogamous and many of them do not marry within their own clan. They must find a spouse that is from a different clan. Divorce is rare, and this is something that I think the American culture should adopt. If a woman commits adultery all of the children stay with the father.

Gender roles are kept traditional. A mans role is leadership, religious, and to keep his family healthy. The woman are responsible for keeping the food in order, feeding the children, feeding the animals and they also share a fraction of gathering. The only thing that I do not really agree with is that the women eat after the males have all eaten especially if there are guests visiting.

My grandmother lives in Vietnam and I am not allowed to travel to those regions because I get sick easily and it would take a long time to get back to the United States. For instance, if I were to go to my grandmother's house in the country it would take me almost two days of transportation to get to the city where I would have access to limited medical supplies. If I caught something from, or got really sick I would take a while to get home on a twenty plus hour flight. I've seen pictures from my dads vacations and my grandmother lives some what like the Hmong.

I hope that one day I can travel to Vietnam to visit her and the rest or my family. Many cultures have been preserved and I hope to be able to travel and expand my knowledge on different lifestyles. I enjoyed taking the class and reading about the different ways people live around the world.