Ronald J. Cima, ed. Vietnam: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. http://countrystudies.us/vietnam/
The Country Studies website provides online versions of books published by the Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress under the Country Studies/Area Handbook Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Army. The Vietnam country study is broken into several sections, including history, the society and its environment, the economy, the government, and a bibliography. The section on religion provides a nice overview of religion in Vietnam and is from a trust, reputable source. It gives a general introduction to religions practiced in Vietnam and their relationship with the Communist State. Good for general information.
Laura Clark and Suzanne Brown. “Buddhism in Vietnam.” Asian Studies Department, Pacific University. http://mcel.pacificu.edu/as/students/vb/
This website is geared towards teachers of secondary and post secondary students to use as resource when teaching about world religions. A good deal of the information is pretty basic and about Buddhism in general, however, there are a few links specifically about the practice of Buddhism in Vietnam. Included on this page are several links for information about Buddhism during and after the American War and an annotated bibliography.
Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien, ed. Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities. Ithaca, NY: SEA Program Publications, Cornell University, 2006.
As can be evidenced by the number of studies being published lately, popular ritual is experiencing a great revival in contemporary Vietnamese society. This edited volume contains multi-disciplinary articles that focus on the revitalization of spirit possession rituals (len dong)—the most popular rituals in Vietnam. Spirit possession rituals are associated with the Mother Goddess religion (Dao Mau), which is considered one of the oldest religious traditions in Vietnam. The articles in this book can be divided into two approaches—the first looks at the individual experience of how and why people become spirit mediums and the stories and personal histories of those that participate in spirit possession ceremonies; the second views spirit possession as a socio-cultural phenomenon by looking at the history of Dao Mau, the rituals themselves, regional variations, etc. Also, several essays examine how len dong as a ritual was able to survive, as practitioners were often arrested and harassed by government officials, and how it continues to thrive, considering the practice is still not officially allowed.
Daniel Goodkind. “State Agendas, Local Sentiments: Vietnamese Wedding Practices Amidst Socialist Transformations.” Social Forces 75, no. 2 (December 1996): 717-742.
This article examines the state’s attempts to simplify and devalue marriage practices in Vietnam through a field survey of a northern and a southern province in 1993. As socialist transformations in Vietnam appear to parallel those that occurred in China, the question Goodkind seeks to answer is whether Vietnam’s socialist reforms have left a lasting impact on Vietnamese society as appears to have occurred in China. Following China’s post-Mao free market reforms, a resurgence of wedding practices that had previously been discouraged was seen—and yet certain other practices have not been revived. Goodkind seeks to apply this model to Vietnam in order to gauge the efficacy of Vietnam’s socialist reforms. The author concludes that the ‘socialist marriage pattern’ gained a foothold in the northern province only, mostly due to the fact that attempts to transform societal and cultural practices first began in the North in the 1940s and 1950s, whereas these reforms were not replicated in the South until after reunification in 1975.
Hy V. Luong. Revolution in the Village: Tradition and Transformation in North Vietnam, 1925-1988. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1992.
In this study Hy V. Luong examines the revolutionary processes in the village of Son-Duong in the Red River Delta from the 1930s until the 1990s (from the colonial to the socialist era) through oral histories taken during field research and archival research in France and North Vietnam. In this case study of Son-Duong, Hy V. Luong addresses issues of how the socialist government affected village ritual life, including agricultural, death anniversaries, funerals, weddings, etc. She also examines the various village associations that existed prior and those that were later phased out by the new government.
Ann Marie Leshkowich. “Woman, Buddhist, Entrepreneur: Gender, Moral Values, and Class Anxiety in Late Socialist Vietnam.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1, nos. 1-2 (February/August 2006): 277-313.
While doing fieldwork in Ho Chi Minh City with female cloth and clothing traders, the author had the opportunity to interview a woman (Hien) who was the president and co-owner with her husband of a garment factory outside of HCMC. Leshkowich sought to explore how political connections, gendered subjectivities, and economic strategies might differ for women who developed small- to medium-scale businesses compared with women who developed large-scale businesses. From her interview with Hien, a self-proclaimed devout Buddhist, the following questions surfaced: “Why did Buddhism appeal to her [Hien] as an entrepreneurial ethic? How did her claims relate to broader discussions of entrepreneurship and moral values in Vietnam and throughout the region? What role did gender play in Hien’s embrace of Buddhism? What does her performance of piety reveal about the tensions surrounding late socialist, economic transformation and class stratification?”[1] The author concludes that Hien’s position as a pious Buddhist/successful female entrepreneur parallels the goal of the nation, in that market-oriented development is encouraged, however the state does not want accrued wealth to challenge its position as the political and moral authority of Vietnamese culture. Also, through Buddhism Hien is able to protect herself as female entrepreneur in that it creates a socially acceptable space for women to interact (and be successful) with a male-dominated business world.
Philip Taylor. Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004.
Taylor is a Professor of Anthropology at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Goddess on the Rise is an ethnography about pilgrimages and popular religion in Vietnam—particularly the most popular pilgrimage site in Vietnam, the Lady of the Realm (Bà Chúa Xứ), which is located on Sam Mountain near the Vietnam-Cambodia border. The Lady of the Realm is considered a local protector deity and legends affiliate her with key events in local history. Taylor’s study of the Lady of the Realm is representative of the growth in goddess worship in Vietnam—a number of interpretations, identities, histories, and symbols become associated with various deities and all of these differing attitudes co-exist without conflict (including official state definitions). Taylor points out that pilgrimage sites and other places of religious worship and ritual pose questions related to religious freedom and state control in Vietnam. Is the Party losing relevance in contemporary society? Do such practices reflect a general increase in wealth and consumption in Vietnamese society? Can popular religion be read as cultural nationalism during a time of increased globalization inundation of western values?
[1] Ann Marie Leshkowich, “Woman, Buddhist, Entrepreneur,” 278.
No comments:
Post a Comment