The Ruc people and the process of integration into the ethnic communities in Vietnam

Abstract

The Ruc people are the last discovered community among ethnic groups in Vietnam. In 1959, during a patrol, Ca Xeng Border Guard soldiers stationed in Thuong Hoa commune, Minh Hoa district, Quang Binh province discovered a group of "forest people" living in caves in the mountainous area bordering with Laos. After a period of approaching the Ruc people, the army and local authorities could call for them to leave caves to live and settle in villages in Thuong Hoa commune. Before leaving the cave, the Ruc people lived in isolation for a long time in the deep mountains and were isolated from other ethnic groups, so they still preserved their ancient socio-economic cultural features. Since the Ruc people settled down until now, the State has implemented many policies to help stabilize their life and develop this community. Nowadays, the Ruc people are gradually integrating into the Vietnamese ethnic community. Their integration process has created the two opposites: on the one hand, it allows this ethnic group to have access to the outside world to learn and absorb good things and humanity’s new sources of knowledge to promote the development; on the other hand, it also imposes challenges in the context that this ethnic group’s "endogenous strength" is not ready to enter the integration process. The influence of modernization and the process of contact with other cultures lead the Ruc to be at risk of losing their ethnic cultural identity. The study was conducted by the methods of in-depth interviews and participatory observations during the field trips in the Ruc community in 2018 and 2019, and telephone interviews in 2022. This article presents the integration process of the Ruc community in economic, cultural, and social aspects and discusses opportunities and challenges for the Ruc community in the integration process. On that basis, the article offers solutions to develop the Ruc community in a sustainable way.