Customary law of the lach ethnic group in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province and it's influence on modern life

Customary law of the lach ethnic group in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province and it's influence on modern life

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES CAO THI THANH TAM CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE LACH PEOPLE IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT, LAM DONG PROVINCE AND IT’S INFLUENCE ON MODERN LIFE Major: Vietnamese Studies Code: 60.31.60 MASTER THESIS SUMMARY Hanoi, 2012 The thesis was completed in: Institute of Vietnamese studies and development sciences Vietnam national university, Hanoi Scientific instructor: Assoc.Prof.Dr Lam Ba Nam Reader 1: Reader 2: The thesis will be defended in the meeting of Thesis Council at the Institute of Vietnamese studies and development sciences, Vietnam national university, Hanoi At …… o’clock on the date of……: Month………….: Year: 2012 The thesis can be found at: Library and Information Center, Vietnam national University, Hanoi Thesis-related publications: Cao Thi Thanh Tam, Some thoughts from weddings ritual among Co ho Lach group (Lam Dong), Social sciences of the central region review, No 01, 2012, page 72 – 78 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Reasons for research topic selection Purpose of the research Subject and scope of the research Research methods Contribution of the thesis Thesis outline CHAPTER BACKGROUND, LITERATURE REVIEW, OVERVIEW ON THE RESEARCH LOCATION AND LACH ETHNIC GROUP 1.1 Background 1.1.1 Definition of Customary law 1.1.2 Origins and basis of Lach customary law 1.2 Literature review 1.3 Overview on the research location 1.3.1 Natural conditions 1.3.2 Founding history 1.4 Typical feature of Lach group 1.4.1 Names, origin, residential history and population facts 1.4.2 Economic features 1.4.3 Belief and religion features 1.4.4 The traditional social organizations 1.5 Sub-conclusion of Chapter CHAPTER CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE LACH ETHNIC GROUP IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT, LAM DONG PROVINCE 2.1 Forms of the Lach customary law 2.2 Content of the Lach customary law 2.2.1 Ways of trial and punishments in the Lach customary law 2.2.1.1 Ways of trial in the Lach customary law 2.2.1.2 Punishments in the Lach customary law 2.2.2 Customary law of the Lach ethnic group and some contents related to life 2.2.2.1 “Norms” of Lach customary law as to people's behavior toward natural environment 2.2.2.2 The Lach customary law and community institutions 2.2.2.3 The Lach customary law on marriage and family 2.2.2.4 The Lach customary law on ownership and inheritance of property 2.2.2.5 The Lach customary law on civil disputes 2.3 Comparison of the Lach customary law with that of other ethnic groups in other places in Lam Dong province 2.3.1 Similarities 2.3.2 Differences 2.4 Sub-conclusion of Chapter CHAPTER EFFECTS OF THE LACH CUSTOMARY LAW IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT, LAM DONG PROVINCE ON MODERN LIFE 3.1 Changes of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.1.1 Causes of changes 3.1.2 Changes of Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.2 Role and disadvantage of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.2.1 Role 3.2.2 Disadvantage 3.3 Sub-conclusion of Chapter CONCLUSION REFERENCES ANNEX………………………………………………………… ……….110 INTRODUCTION Reasons for research topic selection Lach people is one of the local ethnic group of Co ho ethnic goup This is one of the local group contains many typical cultural values, including customary law (N’ri) Oral customary law, generated in an undifferentiated society in term of class, sophisticatedly influenced by matriarchy, though it had never been recorded in any document, just as any other ethnic group in Truong Son – High Land area, sustain an incredibly latent and powerful vitality in present life However, the modern life in the globalization is currently penetrating in every corner even a distant area has brought not only benefits but also negative impacts, says, the collapse of traditionally cultural values Amongst those values, customary law of Vietnamese minor ethnic groups in general and those of Lach people in particular are also in the threat of fade From the reality, we select “Customary law of the Lach people in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province and it's influence on modern life” as the research topic for our graduation thesis of Vietnamese study major Hopefully, via the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches, this thesis shall restore, at the best possibility, a real picture of Lach people’s customary law for the purpose of preserving one of the traditional cultural values of Lach people in front of the fading threat Purpose of the research Research this topic, we would like to introduce, at our best knowledge, the customary law of Lach people in every expressing forms and contents Besides, via analysis of the law, we also wish to discover roles and limitations of Lach people’s traditional customary law in the present life in order to identify the advantages to encourage as well as the restrictions to be dismissed On the other hands, because the customary law exists in the oral forms (which face the threat of loss), we would list what currently survives, what has been changed and lost and as well propose some personal opinions to preserve and develop the positive values of the Lach customary law for the sustainability of one traditional culture of Lach people Subject and scope of the research Research subject: The research subject is Lach group belonging to Co ho ethnic group Research spatial scale: The research will be mainly carried out in Lac Duong District where Lach group mainly resides; special attention will be paid to Lat commune and Lac Duong Town Research chronological scale: The research content is limited in the period from 1975 to present Research methods Research on this topic, we use the method: synthesis - analysis, practical fieldwork, comparison – compare, etc Contribution of the thesis The research shall provide precise information of scientific values, which can be used as a reference in study and teaching issues related to minor ethnic groups Via some proposal and suggestion of the topic, hopefully, the author can help the local authority in making suitable policies to preserve and develop the cultural values of Co ho people customary law in general and that of Lach people in particular Thesis outline Besides the Introduction, Conclusion, Reference and Appendices, the thesis focuses on resolutions of the issues in 03 chapters: Chapter 1: Background, literature review, overview on the research location and Lach people Chapter 2: The customary law of Lach people in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province Chapter 3: Effects of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district – Lam Dong province on modern life CHAPTER BACKGROUND, LITERATURE REVIEW AND OVERVIEW ON THE RESEARCH LOCATION AND LACH PEOPLE 1.1 Background 1.1.1 Definition of customary law Discussing on definition of customary law, there are many different ideas, such as: According to Prof., Ph.D Ngo Duc Thinh, customary law is a unique form of folk knowledge, including unwritten social standards and conventions (and in some cases, written such as Thai’s customary law, Viet’s village rules), forming in the long history of each community via the behavioral experiences to natural and social environment, transferred from one generation to the other by oral communication in order to instruct, adjust and stabilize the social relationships (among individuals, between individual and community and between one community with the others) It is accepted by the entire community, creating unity and conservative structure of each community In Lac Duong district, people follow main religion, namely Buddhism, Catholism and Protestant 1.4 Typical feature of Lach group 1.4.1 Names, origin, residential history and population facts Lach people have many different names such as Làc, Lạt, M'Lates Discussing on the origin of Lach people, there are two hypotheses The fisrt one indicated that this group and other local groups of Co ho tribe such as Sre, Co Don, Cil, Nop, etc.) are parts of M’nong residents at South Daklak The second hypothsis that Lach and Cil people are Lac Viet people, fleeing from Northern reign, staying too far from their fatherland without any contact and finally becoming minor ethnic group The above hypotheses weren’t based on any reliable facts, which need further study About residential history of Lach people, before 20th century, Lach people often lived in the area surrounding Dalat city Undergoing many historical ups and downs, at present, Lach people chiefly live in Lat commune and Lac Duong town (Lac Duong district) and others live in Ta Nung commune, Măng Lin hamlet (Ward VII) in Dalat city, Tan Van commune (Lam Ha district), Hiep An commune (Duc Trong district) in Lam Dong province The Lach’s population is 4.371 people and 1.6 times higher than that in 1993 1.4.2 Economic features The traditional economy of the Lach people is the selfsufficient economy and water-rice cultivation is considered as the main economy In addition, activities of breading, hunting, gathering, traditional handicrafts, trading exchanges still play an important role in their lives 1.4.3 Belief and religion features The Lach people's traditional beliefs are polytheistic based on the concept of "animism" In the years of 1928 - 1929, the American pastor put the first basis for propagating Protestantism in the residential area of the Co ho in Lam Dong province Since 1954 onwards, Protestantism widely developed in the Lach's residential areas In addition, until the years of 1952 - 1953, Catholicism entered into the Lach's community Today, most people in Lac Duong district follow two these religions 1.4.4 The traditional social organizations The traditional social organization of the Lach people was a primitive neighboring commune Female line played an important role in managing and running family works, which was the popular feature of the Lach matriarchal society in particular, as well as other ethnic minorities in Truong Son - Western Highlands in general CHAPTER CUSTOMARY LAW OF THE LACH PEOPLE IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT - LAM DONG PROVINCE 2.1 Forms of the Lach customary law In terms of form, customary law of Lach people exist through passing down orally without being documented They are singings, prose or verse passed-down orally and handed down from through generations By the nature of the Western Highlands residents - who have a habit of thinking and expressing by the specific images, the Lach people like using things to refer to Man They borrowed such familiar images as grasses, flowers, birds to express the legal concepts In addition, Lach customary law in particular and the same of other ethnic groups in general have a great number of articles of law with various length, some are tens of sentences while others are only - sentences 2.2 Content of the Lach customary law 2.2.1 Ways of trial and punishments in theLach customary law 2.2.1.1 Ways of trial in the Lach customary law In the Lach people's community, when a member breaks the provisions of customary law, a board of "customary court" is immediately established Members who participate in the trial include: Kuang bon and board of village patriarchs (who are prestigious and play an advisory role for Kuang bon) and witnesses (if any) In addition, the line head, maternal uncle, relatives of both families (plaintiff and defendant), and the other members in the village shall also attend to the trial The trial usually takes place in the victim's house The trial time shall be fixed and noticed a few days in advance so that members can arrange their work Although Lach customary law were for the main purpose of conciliation, deterrence, creating public opinions to correct the behaviors, the provisions of sin and punishments also appeared such as warning punishment, punishment of compensation, the penalty of expulsion from the village, etc 2.2.2 Customary law of Lach people and some contents related to life 2.2.2.1 “Norms” of the Lach customary law as to people's behavior toward natural environment The Lach people, forests, lands and water resources are invaluable assets with survival meaning for the people, so, in the old days, people set out regulations to protect these very precious natural resources Therefore, if someone who dares to cut down trees of the old forest or polluting the water resources shall be strongly punished 2.2.2.2 The Lach customary law and community institutions Referring to clan, the clan master plays a very important role He decide critical events in the wife’s clan such as asset division, dicision on marriage, sales or transfer of land, etc Besides, the Lach customary law also refer to rights and obligations of members in the clan Referring to village, the Lach’s older have important role in village management He represents the villagers to undertake important tasks such as tackling of work, judging cases in the village, land division, and guest reception, etc Morover, the Lach customary law pays attention about the relationship between members of the community The customary law encourages people in the village to support and assist each other Therefore, if any actions prejudice of the community such as failing to obey the law or inciting others to disobey, dragging the villagers to something without informing to the older and the owner, etc considered offences and shall be punished consequently 2.2.2.3 The Lach customary law on marriage and family Review the "terms" of Lach customary law, can be seen that basically the traditional marriage practices in the ethnic group under matriarchy is settled residing in the Central Highlands, including the provisions relating to conditions of marriage as marital regime foreign national, married a wife, a husband and wife marriage parties resides Therefore, if someone violates the above principles, shall be strongly punished, particularly incest, adultery Acoording to Lach customary law, the bride’s family have to give a consensus on gifts to the groom’s family (pơnđap/pơjền) with the implication that the groom’s family has raised and cared for him to adulthood These gifts are buffalo, antique jar, antique gong, blanket, dress, etc The marriage rites of Lach people often have four main steps: house visit ceremony (Tơng gết trơsh tơ hiu nhã), engagement ceremony (Lọt hoang bô), small wedding (Tơm-bô- ét) and large wedding (Tơm-bô- đờn) Referring to family, the Lach customary law firstly mention to norms in spouse relationships, relationships between parents and children and vice versa, between brothers and sisters in the family After becoming spouses, the Lach customary law provides that the couple must love each other and must be absolutely faithful The Lach customary law stipulate that parents bring up and educate children on their duty; in contrast, when growing up, children are responsible for obeying their parents and care for them later; siblings to love and help each other Moreover, the Lach customary law pays much attention to role of grandmother’s younger brother 2.2.2.4 The Lach customary law on property ownership and inheritance Public property, according to rules, like forest land, water resources, paths, etc., belong to public ownership These are properties used by all villagers so customary law prohibit actions such as business or exchange of public properties For private properties, according to customary law of Lach people, girls were always valued above boys Therefore, when the property is divided, men, although, are a main labor force making the wealth, they own no any property according to the custom The youngest daughter was always entitled to more assets than others, because in the Lach’s opinion, the youngest daughter who will be responsible for caring parents will take the position of her family manager when she dies and takes charge of funeral expense payment and grave maintenance In case of divorce, according to the customary law, the person who asks for divorce first has to compensate for the other Therefore, if the husband sues for divorce first, he not only must bear all costs of compensation for honor of his wife and her family, but also return his parents’ home with empty hands If the wife asks for divorce first, the family’s property will belong to the husband Neverthless if the husband marries another girl, the property shall belong to their children Where the wife unfortunately predeceases the husband has to return his parents’ home and leave the property to their children In case the husband predeceases, a part of the property shall be given to the mother’s relative of the deceased 2.2.2.5 The Lach customary law on civil disputes For cases of land disputes or conflict, friction Acording to customary law, all violations will make a peace ceremory The offerings usually include a chicken and a small wine jar, after this ceremony, the conflict is deemd to be removed For murder cases, the customary law shall consider whether intentional or unintentional offense causing the murder In case of intentional offense, the person provoking war first shall compensate 30 or more buffaloes to victim’s family In case of unintentional offense, the customary law shall halve penalty, i.e the person picking a quarrel first shall compensate 15 buffaloes to victim’s family In addition, the offender is also responsible for the funeral of the victim Without the buffalo, the offender can pay a fine of small jar or gong with the equivalent value For offenses of theft or deliberate destruction of property of another person, or borrowing things of other person without returning, under the customary law, for these offences, the offencer shall compensate property and bear the cost of a ceremony of reconciliation In the opinion of Lach people, “ma lai” (a kind of ghost with the head out of the body eating guts of the dead or animals) are those who harm to the fate of others, even cause epidemics, death for the whole village Therefore, if someone is suspected as a “ma lai”, he/she will suffer heavy consequences, even shall be killed by villagers 2.3 Comparison of the Lach customary law with that of other ethinic groups in other places in Lam Dong 2.3.1 Similarities In terms of the form of customary law, the four customary law of ethinic minorities are expressed in the rhymes, borrowing natural images such as plants, flowers, birds to talk about human behavior in relationships Although the structures of such customary law are different, it has the same characters - it is the collective feature of customary law Many articles of customary law of native ethnic minorities in Lam Dong have features as the sum of production experience of the people The form of customary law, there are provisions for applied offenses and punishments The purpose of such punishments is to deter the criminals, and toward a stable society 2.3.2 Differences Besides similarities, the customary law of the Lach, Ma, Chu ru and Raglai also have differences The most obvious difference is the punishment for offenders Depending on the customary law of each minority, there are different punishments Example is incest: The Lach customary law force that the two generations related to incest must bear all expenses for the sacrificial ceremony, sorry the gods and village, even criminals can be expelled from the village As for Ma customary law, when occurring an incest in the village, the village must avoid everything bad within fourteen days Compensation for the village by two violated people is: a buffalo, a goat, a duck, a pig For Chu Ru customary law, if there is an occurrence of incest, villagers will seize, tie up and put violated people into a basket and drop into the river For Raglai customary law, such two offenderers will be locked into a pigpen in which pig food is available Villagers will use rod to fight and drive two offenders to pigpen and make them eat pig food; after that they must worship the heaven and earth for forgiveness In summary, besides the similarities with the customary law of ethnic minorities in Lam Dong province, Lach customary law also contains distinct characters They are shown clearly in punishment methods to offenders This shows typical features in the culture of each ethnic minority, contributing to diversify the traditional cultures of Vietnam in general CHAPTER EFFECTS OF THE LACH CUSTOMARY LAW ON MODERN LIFE 3.1 Changes of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.1.1 Causes of changes There are many different reasons to chang the appearance of the Lach people due to material and spiritual life, including customary law Firstly, it is the historical change, especially French colonial policies when French carried out the invasion in the Central Highlands Secondly, under the U.S invasion, new religions derived from the West, particularly Catholicism, Protestantism were introduced into Lach people community Thirdly, there was the appearance of the Vietnamese people who settled with local people here Fourthly, after the complete liberation of the Southern, a process of changes of politics – economy – sociality happened in Highlands in general and Lam Dong province in particular This important factor changed Lach customary law dramatically Finally, it is the issue of Law on Marriage and Family for ethnic minorities dated on 09 June 2000 and Decree of Government (No 32/2002/NDCP) dated on 27 March 2002 on Prescribing the application of Law on Marriage and Family for ethnic minorities 3.1.2 Changes of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life First of all, judgement and punishment in Lach customary law nowadays are changed more or less Currently, Lach people still apply traditional judgement but the chairman of judgement is not necessary to be village patriarch but may be a quailified or prestigious person In the past, according to the customary law, everybody in the village presents to witness the judgement but nowadays assigning a representative of family to joint About punishments for offenders, if the offense is serious case, it will be fined under law In the past violators had to implement the apology formality for Gods, now it is removed The violators only have to make a ceremony to invite members and relations participating in the judgement and must compensate to victim as per agreement To natural environment, at present, the Government has issued and given information about forest protection provisions and people are conscious to obey, so the previous forest protection provisions are not applied anymore Nowadays, in community management of Lach society, apart from the owner of the village, new positions such as head of village, pastor, board of security, board of commune’s public security, etc have appeared in the board of patriarchs Althought, role of the village owner is more or less replaced by the local government levels, but it is not reason that local government levels can replace the “respectful owner of village” of the Lach people On marriage and family: Firstly, it changes in marriage priciples such as marriage with uncle and aunt’s son/daughter situation is removed and marriage to other village, other ethnic group is much open Currently, Lach girl and boy is free to love, understand each other leading to marriage Marriage age of Lach people increases remarkably compared with the previous years Normally, marriage age average for female from 18 to 20 years old and from 23 to 24 years old for male Prior to wedding, they must inform to head of village, Lach boys and girls go to Commune People’s Committee to register marriage as regulated The custom of askings for gifts in wedding is existed and all offerings in the past are converted into money and gold According to our survey, level of “asking for offering” depends on the situation of family, typically from 10 to 20 millions VND for uneducated men and from 50 to 60 millions VND or more for well-educated men Morover, ceremonies in marriage had a lot of changes Currently, Lach’s wedding consists of traditional engagement ceremony (lọt lúp) and large wedding (tơm pô đờn) The visit ritual and small wedding are cut For wedding format, Lach people’s wedding is similar with Kinh people’s such as using wedding modern clothes, using videomakers, photographer, and soiree dishes However, in the present wedding of the Kinh people, it appears may problems especially modernized commercial in “Sell banquet for money” Along with marriage, Lach families in Lac Duong district also have many altering Firstly, the scale of matriarchy form is more and more narrowed and its stability is also broken The relationships in Lach family have a few changes, especially husband’s role in the family is considered more positive In case of asset division for children in the family, Lach people have paid little attention to the son although when dividing property, the parents give priority to daughter; the son is only divided small part Asset division after divorce is implemented under legal law but the children lives with the mother, the father have liable to provide finance the wife to bring up their children Morover, in case the wife passed away earlier, the husband does not need to return his parents’ house but stay in his own house to take care and educate children For civil disputes, the customary law’ influences are narrowed Other important aspects of life such as land, forest ownership disputes or settlement of criminal cases such as asset stealing, murder, etc are basically transferred to law agents to resolve The effects of the customary law are limited in small disputes, mainly handled by community’s conciliation 3.2 Role and disadvantage of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.2.1 Role Today, Lach customary law in Lac Duong district have a great progressive points in the various fields including natural resource exploitation and protection, marriage and family, social relationship regulation and settlement as well Lach customary law to adjust behaviors and actions of human, guide everyone to follow life standard such as not making sin and separating goods or bads, rights or wrongs Together with laws, the customary law play the role of contributing to regulate social relationships, maintain and stabilize social order and ensure the community to exist and develop 3.2.2 Disadvantage The customary law is the product of the closedly tradional society with self-managed characteristics; therefore, when it is put into morden social conditions, many customary laws are out of date, unsuitable or even negative such as wedding-presents exaction, funeral, gender inequality, etc that need to be adjusted or removed from the modern life CONCLUSION Customary law of Lach people has been created in unwritten form It was formed by folk song or oral rhythm poetry over generations The content of customary law of Lach people refers to respects of human life, including behavior toward landscape environment, organization, social institution, family marriage, property allocation, civil dispute, etc The customary law stipulated the system of rules for members of community on good speech and behavior to build an equal, safe, and stable society For the time-being, with the development of market economy and effects of new conditions such as policies of Party and State, role of unions and Christianity, Protestantism, traditional customary law of Lach people in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province either preserves traditional factors or makes clear changes These changes are able to be seen in laws on natural environment, traditional social organization, family marriage, property possession and inheritance, etc However, the Lach customary law still plays an importance role in modern life through progressive provisions of law regarding to solidarity, environmental protection, respect for social norms, prevention of moral violation in family and society, etc However, apart from positive values, there are still limits such as weddingpresents exaction, funeral, gender inequality, etc, that need to be adjusted or removed from the modern life Through ups and downs over time and impacts of socioeconomical factors, especially free emigration and residential redistribution in the whole country over years; like traditional culture of Vietnamese other ethnic minorities in general, Lach customary law are liable to be lost in oblivion or modified with changes of modern life From this fact, personally, we want to offer some suggestions to contribute to maintain and develop positive values of Lach law in particular, customary law of ethnic groups in Truong Son – Central Highlands in general: To enhance preservation and development of positive aspects of customary law in which the gathering rules of customary law of Lach people is needed It is advisable to strengthen organization of activities of recording sounds and videos Besides, it is necessary to print bilingual documents on customary law and popularize among ethnic community, which shall provide young people with more knowledge to preserve It is important to encourage village patriarch generations, heads of village who keep customary law in their mind to teach and give customary law to young people, simultaneously educate the young ethnic generation about the consciousness to know how to respect traditional cultural values It is necessary to strengthen organization of field trip research activities in ethnic people’s localities not only for historical-cultural researcher but also for students with social and scientific major in all local universities It is advisable to cleverly combine local customary law with State law in current village management The details mentioned above are individual thoughts, comments, and proposals after studying customary law of Lach people, through survey of documentation sources and countryside of these ethnic people Hopefully, these above opinions shall contribute to maintain and develop positive values of customary law, as well as preserve traditional culture of Lach people and all ethnic minorities Because of requirement of topic, we have no chance for studying various values of the Lach customary law, even aspects of culture, knowledge of individuals are still limited Hence, it is obviously that this topic has shortcomings With suggestion of teachers and researchers, we hope that we shall improve in studying customary law of Lach people in particular and ethnic minorities of Central Highlands in general ... Changes of Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life 3.2 Role and disadvantage of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province on modern life ... overview on the research location and Lach people Chapter 2: The customary law of Lach people in Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province Chapter 3: Effects of the Lach customary law in Lac Duong district... GROUP IN LAC DUONG DISTRICT, LAM DONG PROVINCE 2.1 Forms of the Lach customary law 2.2 Content of the Lach customary law 2.2.1 Ways of trial and punishments in the Lach customary law