Potters are at work in villages all along the Mekong River and its tributaries. Women potters make earthenware--porous pots used for cooking directly over a flame without shattering or for cooling drinking water by evaporation. Men make stoneware--nonporous jars valuable for long term storage. Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the few regions in the world where both kinds of pottery are still made and used in the context of everyday life.

A hypothetical village household along the Mekong may serve to demonstrate uses of earthenware and stoneware. Despite the rapid pace of modernization elsewhere, this home is not yet connected to electricity