The ethnicity of efficacy: Vietnamese goddess worship and the encoding of popular histories

dc.contributor.authorTaylor, Philip
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-13T22:25:38Z
dc.date.available2015-12-13T22:25:38Z
dc.date.issued2002
dc.date.updated2015-12-11T08:17:27Z
dc.description.abstractThis article examines the reasons for the popularity of spirits of different ethnic backgrounds in the southern Vietnamese plain. The official approach is to induct the cults to these spirits into defence of the nation and its culture, a construct which privileges ethnic Kinh views of history. However, the 'Lady of the Realm', a goddess in the Mekong delta, illustrates the more complex ethnicity of this symbolism. Popular views denying her Khmer origins naturalise the Vietnamese colonisation of Cambodian lands. A preferred lineage in some quarters is to regard her as Cham, a view which disputes a more popular view of her as a Chinese belief, particularly influential in circles where ethnic Chinese business practices have become the norm. This play of interpretations indicates that conventional motifs of cultural resistance or survival are inadequate to understanding religious symbols which speak to the more complex identity of this region of the country.
dc.identifier.issn1463-1369
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/73347
dc.publisherCarfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Group
dc.sourceAsian Ethnicity
dc.titleThe ethnicity of efficacy: Vietnamese goddess worship and the encoding of popular histories
dc.typeJournal article
local.bibliographicCitation.issue1
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage102
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage85
local.contributor.affiliationTaylor, Philip, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU
local.contributor.authoremailrepository.admin@anu.edu.au
local.contributor.authoruidTaylor, Philip, u3789652
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.description.refereedYes
local.identifier.absfor160104 - Social and Cultural Anthropology
local.identifier.ariespublicationMigratedxPub3653
local.identifier.citationvolume3
local.identifier.doi10.1080/14631360120095883
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByMigrated
local.type.statusPublished Version

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