The father and son, Ho Van Thanh, 81, and his son Ho Van Lang, 42, who were recently found living in total isolation deep in the jungle in central Quang Ngai Province, have attracted a lot of attention from the media both at home and overseas.

Following the surprise and curiosity about their escape from the war 40 years ago, the local community does not really know how to treat them both properly.

Approaching the issue from a cultural perspective, the The thao&Van hoa (Sports&Culture) newspaper spoke to Dr Nguyen Van Vinh, former Vice Director of the Research Institute of Economics, Society and Development as well as the Educational Technology Institute.

Many people say that we should take them back to the forest where they are able to survive and live in peace. What do you think?

We should think calmly about this. It would be heartless and irresponsible to let them go back to the forest, however the mountain inhabitants possess the all skills and competence necessary to live well in the forest. Furthermore, in Viet Nam plants in the forests grow all year around so the fact that the two Tarzan's managed to survive in the forest is not something that extraordinary. What we need to do is to look at the issue from a cultural perspective as I said before, and we should place them back into their own community.

The son has lived in the forest ever since he was one year old, so his concept of communicating with anyone seems to be zero. Is this a special case where you can't apply your "person of the community" theory?

There always exist socially implicit memories in each human being, that have been hereditary through the generations. For instance, besides hunting and picking fruit and other things to eat, Ho Van Lang and his father did some farming with tools they made themselves. This is a skill that a person inherits from a community.

The point is that Loan was stopped from communicating with the community at a certain period of time, or to be specific, in the first 40 years of his life. That's why I stressed on the need to educate him from the beginning. If they don't have any abnormal psychological signs, this won't be too hard.

Are they finding it hard, particularly Lang, to integrate into the community?

First of all, we should not frighten them and should help them overcome the hardest part – the culture shock – and then they will gradually get used to it. The local authorities should apply more flexible treatment methods whilst cultural experts and psychologists need to help out with their integration.

So what if they themselves want to return to the forest?

Forty years living away from society has left them knowing nothing about the outside world. They feel that they are new and strange to their surroundings so it's natural that they want to return to the forest.

They don't understand what a civilised world could offer them. Hence, we need to tell them what they need to know and what would benefit them. Once they can apprehend that, they can decide to stay or leave.

Tragedy often occurs when you become aware of your circumstances. Once the Tarzan's understand the community but can't adapt to it, they will return to the forest and start to deal with their situation. If this happens, will it be our fault for trying to integrate them back into the community?

In reality, those living in mountainous and rural areas have simple needs. With a little assistance from the community to build them a house and provide them with some arable land, both of them will have means of existence and can live a life similar to others in their local community. By then, if they still prefer to live in the forest, it's their choice. — VNS