海岸複合地形における砂丘上村落の農業開拓(<特集>20世紀メコン・デルタの開拓)

Abstract

According to N.H. Chiem, an agronomist familiar with the Mekong Delta, the region is divided into several geographical parts from the point of rice agriculture. Among them, the "coastal complex" is a unique area, composed of sand ridges, coastal flats, inter-ridges, and mangroves. This paper focuses on the development of land use in one particular village in the coastal complex division in order to gain a better understanding of the history of multiethnic society in the Mekong Delta. The research village is in the east of Tra Vinh City, which is characterised by multiethnic society : the Khmer (Cambodian) people, who occupied the sand ridges from an earlier time, the Kinh (Vietnamese) people, who began living along the small rivers, and the Hoa (Overseas Chinese), who have mixed intermittently with both groups. First, intensive field research involved observing the natural conditions of agriculture, the geographical distribution of ethnic groups, and how land use in the village determined the process of settlement and land clearing by the different groups. Second, based on accounts of Buddhist monks and village elders of both ethnic groups in local hamlets, and considering the origins of Buddhist temples (Theravada, Mahayana) and old community buildings, the writer assumes the process of village development. It is supposed that Khmer society was found there earlier than the 16th century. The Kinh advanced from the right side of Cochien river to the north area in the sand ridge at the beginnig of the 19th century and was organized along with the Khmer people in the same administrative unit under French colonial rule in the late 19th century. Changes in the population shares of each ethnic group and landholding from the French colonial period until today are analyzed through the results of interviews with village elders and also the use of related colonial documents held in the National Archives. At last, the writer presents a history of the village giving attention to the historical relations in the ethnic groups, and finally points out how structural social problems were cased during French colonial time and one of the reasons for the revolution occured in the village during the Indochina war.