ABSTRACT

This chapter explains the commercialization of the highland agriculture failed to lead to social and economic changes away from involution and toward modernity. It also explains the peasants' anger grew out of the loss of the surplus and, articulated by the Communists, who came to mobilize them in a revolution against the old regime of the military and gentry. In spite of population increases, the highlanders had enough to eat, and the majority of them were owner-cultivators and part-owners. Socially, the majority of the highlanders lived outside cities, towns, and even villages or fortresses. Unprotected by militia or police, uncared for by lineage or government, and uneducated, they had to fend for themselves and rely to a considerable degree on the wisdom of their oral tradition, which was both martial and romantic. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.