The land ownership in the Maonan areas was highly concentrated before 1949. Land rent was mostly paid in kind at an exploitative rate. The Maonans with the same surnames and from the same clans usually live together in small villages with only a few households. The biggest village consists of not more than 100 households. Their houses and clothes are basically identical to those of their Han and Zhuang neighbors.
Houses have two stories, with mud walls and tile roofs.
The second floor is used as living quarters and the ground floor for livestock. The major staples of the Maonans are rice and maize, and then millet, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. They all enjoy tobacco, alcohol, tea and hot peppers. They pick out big sweet potatoes with no injuries, dry them in the sun and leave them in the open at night to be drenched by dew. Twenty or 30 days later, potatoes are put into cellars or above the cooking stoves.