ABSTRACT
The Lao, who in language and culture closely resemble the neighbouring Thai, inhabit north-east Thailand as well as the Kingdom of Laos. The political entity of Laos thus includes only part of the Lao people. In Laos the Vientiane Plain is an important agricultural area, and almost all of the significant settlements in southern Laos are located there and elsewhere on the Mekong.2 This discussion has reference to the Buddhist, valley-dwelling cultivators of irrigated rice in the Vientiane region and in the area of Luang Prabang in north central Laos. For the most part their villages are situated along the Mekong River or its tributaries. Most villages are composed of several dozen houses, and some have as many as several hundred people. Households are generally nuclear families, although the ideal pattern is one of matrilocal residence. In addition to the cultivation of glutinous rice, they raise some vegetables along the river banks, do a little fishing and grow fruits such as mangoes, bananas and coconuts. A few chickens and pigs are kept. In the Luang Prabang area numbers of Lao farmers engage in trade with the surrounding groups such as the Meo (Sinicized hill people of northern Laos) and Khmu (indigenous tribal group). A few villages are reached by jeèpable roads,
and jeep buses provide a means of taking goods to market. Others are accessible by dugout canoe occasionally powered by outboard motor. Walking is still the most common means of travel.
