Readings: Cadiere, "Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Vietnamese"
Tai, "Religion in Vietnam: A World of Gods and Spirits" in Vietnam: Essays in History, Society, and Culture. New York: Asia Society, 1986
Kleinen, Facing the Future, Reviving the Past, 161-189
Le Hong Ly, "Praying for Profit: The Cult of the Lady of the Treasury" (available on-line)
Malarney, "The Limits of 'State Functionalism' and the Reconstruction of Funerary Ritual in Contemporary Northern Vietnam." 1986. American Ethnologist 23(3):540-560.

1. How were politics and religion related from the point of view of the 19th century imperial Vietnamese state? How was this relationship represented through ritual? What was the state's attitude toward non-Confucian beliefs, such as Buddhism, Catholicism, and millenarian sects? In your view, did these represent a threat to the state's power? Why or why not?

2. A friend who is not taking this course asks you whether Vietnamese follow Buddhism or Confucianism, or some other religion. How would you answer this question? What elements of Vietnamese religious belief and practices would you emphasize, and why?

3. Based on this week's readings, as well as our earlier explorations of village life, how do gender and class affect the practice of religion within the village? (Think for example of ancestor worship, the cult of the village god, and Buddhism.)

4. Drawing upon all of the readings for this week, discuss the ways in which the Vietnamese Communist state attempted to secularize Vietnamese society. What beliefs and rituals did the state try to eliminate, preserve, or transform, and how? Give concrete examples. Did the state succeed in its secularization project? Why or why not? How was the discourse surrounding religious rituals as well as their practice transformed? Take into account regional differences.

5. Rituals and their symbols often express ambiguous meanings and are thus open to multiple interpretations. Pick a specific ritual practice described in this week's readings and discuss how it reflects tensions between family and state obligations. To what extent was the state able to control the meanings of rituals after 1954?

6. Why does Le Hong Ly describe worship of the Lady of the Treasury as a "cult that is largely fueled by capitalist greed"? What other interpretations of the worship of this figure might be possible?

7. Why is Vietnam currently experiencing a religious revival? How has this revival been a selective one? What broader significance can we see in this process of selection?

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu