It well explains the communitarian nature of many East and SE Asian countries. A ruling one party state of any theoretical flavor would comfortably sit on top of that. I live in Japan and it seems there’s a difference between the rice growing areas where most people live and the mountainous areas which relied on buckwheat and timber. The latter were poorer, less communal and harder to control.
That's an interesting idea. It didn't occur to me to look at other smaller cultures. Within Vietnam, there are similar people in the central highlands to the Japanese mountain people. I wonder if they share the same independent spirit.
Hunters, lumberjacks, charcoal makers, hermits, shaman, heretics in hiding…..either trying to evade control or naturally existing outside of it. I live in the mountains north of Tokyo and as soon as you leave the plains…..not a single rice field anywhere.
I thought you were referring to a group of tribal people in the mountains. This makes more sense. The mountains are where a person goes when they want a little more freedom to express their individuality.
We were brought up to believe that Communism was a bad thing, but I can see where sharing and caring is a good thing except for the dictators who run the country and have far more than the ‘serfs’ could ever dream about. I may be wrong in my thinking, but today, here where we live, our state government has created so much debt and is now the taxing the life out of people to try and recuperate the money needed. We now feel we are been governed by a dictatorship also and a bunch of idiots.
It is a bit of a joke among some expat friends about social trends of the last twenty years. The capitalist West are turning into authoritarian Communists and the Communists are turning into Capitalists.
I came across a book by a mid-19th century Germany traveller in Russia, describing a similar system where the village headman divided up the farmland between each family. Can’t remember who the author was. Of course, they wouldn’t have been growing rice.
It was a while ago, but the one paragraph I remember went something like: “In a well-regulated house in Germany, the husband reigns while the wife rules. In Russia it is the opposite, the wife reigns while the husband rules.” He related a joke about a wife bullying her husband into brewing beer with buckwheat.
It well explains the communitarian nature of many East and SE Asian countries. A ruling one party state of any theoretical flavor would comfortably sit on top of that. I live in Japan and it seems there’s a difference between the rice growing areas where most people live and the mountainous areas which relied on buckwheat and timber. The latter were poorer, less communal and harder to control.
That's an interesting idea. It didn't occur to me to look at other smaller cultures. Within Vietnam, there are similar people in the central highlands to the Japanese mountain people. I wonder if they share the same independent spirit.
Hunters, lumberjacks, charcoal makers, hermits, shaman, heretics in hiding…..either trying to evade control or naturally existing outside of it. I live in the mountains north of Tokyo and as soon as you leave the plains…..not a single rice field anywhere.
I thought you were referring to a group of tribal people in the mountains. This makes more sense. The mountains are where a person goes when they want a little more freedom to express their individuality.
Apart from a few groups on the north island, there are no tribal groups in Japan - only Japanese.
We were brought up to believe that Communism was a bad thing, but I can see where sharing and caring is a good thing except for the dictators who run the country and have far more than the ‘serfs’ could ever dream about. I may be wrong in my thinking, but today, here where we live, our state government has created so much debt and is now the taxing the life out of people to try and recuperate the money needed. We now feel we are been governed by a dictatorship also and a bunch of idiots.
It is a bit of a joke among some expat friends about social trends of the last twenty years. The capitalist West are turning into authoritarian Communists and the Communists are turning into Capitalists.
I came across a book by a mid-19th century Germany traveller in Russia, describing a similar system where the village headman divided up the farmland between each family. Can’t remember who the author was. Of course, they wouldn’t have been growing rice.
Yeah, Russia had feudalism well into the 19th century. I am curious what that author had to say about life in feudal Russia.
It was a while ago, but the one paragraph I remember went something like: “In a well-regulated house in Germany, the husband reigns while the wife rules. In Russia it is the opposite, the wife reigns while the husband rules.” He related a joke about a wife bullying her husband into brewing beer with buckwheat.
That's an interesting joke. It would apply here in Vietnam too.