Those who live in the lower areas cultivate dry rice and maize. They also grow opium poppies as a cash crop. Those living at higher altitudes grow maize, millet, or buckwheat rather than rice. The children work alongside their parents in the fields. The Hmong do not live with other ethnic groups, but have their own, separate villages.
Divination is used to determine the site of each new settlement.
This ensures that the villagers will live in harmony with the spirits that surround them. A typical settlement contains from seven to fifty households arranged in a horseshoe pattern. The villages are preferably sheltered by the forest and situated near a good water source. Within the village, the site for each house is chosen with great care, since the location must be acceptable to the ancestral spirits. Houses are usually built directly on the ground rather than on stilts.