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Since the late Neolithic period hill ribes of Austronesian and Austro-Asian origin have almost exclusively peopled the Tay Nguyen Highlands of South Central Vietnam. Although during the last 2,000 years mostly hostile contacts existed between these peoples and the lowland populations, until the 19th century there had never been any real threat to their cultural independence.With the French occupation of Vietnam in the second half of the 19th century, the Christian mission, resettlement schemes and the setting-up of large-scale plantations, Tay Nguyen became more and more infiltrated by Kinh-Vietnamese, a process which continued on a massive scale during and after the Vietnam War.Nowadays the different hill tribes form a minority of about 20 % in their own autochthonous area and their culture is more threatened then ever before.It seems easy to condemn such a development, but it should be emphasized that similar projects were initiated by all colonial powers, and they have been continued by the independent countries of Southeast Asia irrespective of their political systems. As a result we find different degrees of inter-ethnic influences, from dominance to physical destruction of ethnic groups.

When in 1939, M. Jefferson introduced the term of "primate city" into the geographical literature, it was defined as the demographical predominant urban centre of a country. In the meantime an expanded concept is now used by other scholars of socio-economic subjects. Up to now, however, the reasons for the existence and further growth of such "primate cities" could be confirmed only in a quite general way with references to some special functions. In the present article the same procedure has been adopted in analysing the development of Phnom Penh until the first years of Cambodia's independence. The dramatic evacuation of the city in 1975 and the data collected since its revival from 1979 onward enable us to give detailed reasons for the rapid socio-economic development in comparison with other urban centres and the rural areas of Cambodia. These facts may even be generalized, so that a "primate city" is defined as that city in a country in which all the basic needs of a society are located in the most differentiated way and with the greatest socio-economic dynamism. With all these functions the "primate city" exerts a stronger attraction than other urban and rural areas which contributes to an enormous population increase. Phnom Penh is the first example, for which extensive figures have been available for a more detailed analysis on this object. (Asien/DÜI)