Homo Sanctus: Religious Contestations and the Sanctification of Heritage and Human Rights in Vietnam

Salemink, Oscar

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-38050-2_7

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Over the last two decades, the flourishing religious diversity in Vietnam has attracted many foreign and overseas Vietnamese scholars who study the richness and liveliness of religious life in Vietnam either by focusing on particular religious practices or by looking at different overlapping religious traditions and ritual practices (e.g. In their desire to be recognized and registered as "religion" and thus to enjoy "religious freedom," loosely organized religious groups such as Ðạ o Mâ ̃u (Mother Goddess Worship), the Way of Jade Buddha Hô ̀Chí Minh or the Way of Hà Mòn, spirit possession-related practices, to mention just a few, continue to struggle with a "superstition" stigma and with suspicion of malpractice, swindle, and misappropriation of funds (Salemink 2020;Hoang Van Chung 2016;Hoang Van Chung 2017).…”

Section: Plurality Of Religions In Vietnam and Polytheistic Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

Roszko¹

2022

Exploring Religious Diversity and Covenantal Pluralism in Asia

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ccording to Ronald Inglehart et al. (2004), 81 percent of Vietnamese do not believe in God and for that reason Vietnam constitutes an "anomaly" among Southeast Asian countries which "contain almost no atheists." In 2019 the General Statistics Office of Vietnam published similar findings which stated that more than 86 percent of Vietnamese people are classified as nonreligious. The same demographic survey found that six percent of Vietnamese identify as Catholic, around four percent as Buddhist, and around one percent as Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Cao Ðài and Hoà Hão respectively. 1 Indeed, when asked what their religion is the majority of Vietnamese people usually answer that they do not follow any religion, and most of them have indicated "none" under the rubric "religion" on their identity card.These statements might come as a surprise, especially when one takes into consideration of thousands of Buddhist pagodas and spirit temples spread out across the country, or the fact that most Vietnamese engage in all sorts of ritual practices, such as ancestor worship at their home altar, or at the Buddhist pagoda. The reason for this "self-declared atheism" is not because the Vietnamese people are not religious or the Communist Part-State prefers the "no religion" declaration, but because they make a distinction between "religion" (tôn giáo) and "religious beliefs" (tín ngươ ̃ng) based on membership in a Abstract: Historically, Vietnamese approaches to religion are highly inclusive, with flexibly overlapping religious traditions and ritual practices built on a substratum of ancestor worship. As Vietnam was colonized and became independent, religion became politicized, institutionalized, and separated from the "secular" state, which sought to bring religious practices in line with new state orthodoxies. With a new understanding of "religion" predicated on the Christian model, Vietnam adopted a model of state-religion-society relations that emphasizes not only rights but also obligations, active cooperation between state and religion, and respect for all religions which are declared equal before the law, largely in response to international demands to incorporate the universal model of religious freedom. Yet, the Vietnamese state still perceives religion as a competing source of authority. Consequently, some religions are not considered for official recognition and their followers, such as highland ethnic minorities, are treated as sub-citizens by their own state. Occasionally, their conversion is misread by the rest of society as the rejection of Vietnamese culture. The failure to consider ethnic minorities as modern subjects and state citizens on a par with the Kinh (Vietnamese) majority prevents Vietnam from achieving fullfledged covenantal pluralism.

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Section: Plurality Of Religions In Vietnam and Polytheistic Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

Roszko¹

2022

Exploring Religious Diversity and Covenantal Pluralism in Asia

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In their desire to be recognized and registered as "religion" and thus to enjoy "religious freedom," loosely organized religious groups such as Ðạ o Mâũ (Mother Goddess Worship), the Way of Jade Buddha HồChí Minh or the Way of Hà Mòn, spirit possession-related practices, to mention just a few, continue to struggle with a "superstition" stigma and with suspicion of malpractice, swindle, and misappropriation of funds (Salemink 2020;Hoang Van Chung 2016;Hoang Van Chung 2017).…”

Section: Plurality Of Religions In Vietnam and Polytheistic Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

Roszko¹

2021

The Review of Faith & International Affairs

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ccording to Ronald Inglehart et al. (2004), 81 percent of Vietnamese do not believe in God and for that reason Vietnam constitutes an "anomaly" among Southeast Asian countries which "contain almost no atheists." In 2019 the General Statistics Office of Vietnam published similar findings which stated that more than 86 percent of Vietnamese people are classified as nonreligious. The same demographic survey found that six percent of Vietnamese identify as Catholic, around four percent as Buddhist, and around one percent as Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Cao Ðài and Hoà Hão respectively. 1 Indeed, when asked what their religion is the majority of Vietnamese people usually answer that they do not follow any religion, and most of them have indicated "none" under the rubric "religion" on their identity card.These statements might come as a surprise, especially when one takes into consideration of thousands of Buddhist pagodas and spirit temples spread out across the country, or the fact that most Vietnamese engage in all sorts of ritual practices, such as ancestor worship at their home altar, or at the Buddhist pagoda. The reason for this "self-declared atheism" is not because the Vietnamese people are not religious or the Communist Part-State prefers the "no religion" declaration, but because they make a distinction between "religion" (tôn giáo) and "religious beliefs" (tín ngưỡng) based on membership in a Abstract: Historically, Vietnamese approaches to religion are highly inclusive, with flexibly overlapping religious traditions and ritual practices built on a substratum of ancestor worship. As Vietnam was colonized and became independent, religion became politicized, institutionalized, and separated from the "secular" state, which sought to bring religious practices in line with new state orthodoxies. With a new understanding of "religion" predicated on the Christian model, Vietnam adopted a model of state-religion-society relations that emphasizes not only rights but also obligations, active cooperation between state and religion, and respect for all religions which are declared equal before the law, largely in response to international demands to incorporate the universal model of religious freedom. Yet, the Vietnamese state still perceives religion as a competing source of authority. Consequently, some religions are not considered for official recognition and their followers, such as highland ethnic minorities, are treated as sub-citizens by their own state. Occasionally, their conversion is misread by the rest of society as the rejection of Vietnamese culture. The failure to consider ethnic minorities as modern subjects and state citizens on a par with the Kinh (Vietnamese) majority prevents Vietnam from achieving fullfledged covenantal pluralism.

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“…246-247). A few years later, in 1998, Vietnam similarly embarked on a path toward culturalization of its policies and politics with Nghị Quyết V [Resolution V of the Central Committee on "building a progressive culture imbued with national identity"], creating the umbrella for a flourishing of cultural activities within society (Salemink, 2020).…”

Section: Neoliberal Societies?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The harvest of studies on ICH and heritagization in Vietnam is less rich than in China, but still considerable. Barley Norton (2009) and Lauren Meeker (2013) published monographs on musical traditionsquan hȯ singing and Mother Goddess songsthat are both inscribed on the UNESCO ICH list, while Salemink in a series of articles focuses on the process and socio-political consequences of heritagization, in particular of the ritual gong music of Vietnam's indigenous Central Highlands groups (Salemink, 2013(Salemink, , 2016(Salemink, , 2020. Particular mention must be made of the book edited by Lê Hô`ng Lý and Nguyê˜n Thi˙Phương Châm (2014), which offers a detailed description and critical analysis of the on-the-ground effects for local communities of heritage inscription.…”

Section: Intangible Cultural Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the various temple and village festivals are now subjected to a heritage regime mandated by UNESCO but enacted by the state, they draw in more actors that claim a stake in the management of and the benefits from the festivals, with wide-ranging effects: as community festivals are heritagized, the heritage becomes festivalized, as Valdimar Hafstein (2018, p. 139) puts it: "[A]s part of their safeguarding, those practices and expressions that are framed as intangible heritage are festivalized", thus becoming "a genre of display" and introducing an element of competition. Such festivalization is clearly visible when ritual practices are taken out of their religious context and performed on stage for an outsider audience as an art form as Salemink has described for the music and dance accompanying Mother Goddess possession rituals and the ritual gong music of the Central Highlanders (Salemink, 2013(Salemink, , 2016(Salemink, , 2020. With heritagization, the performance is increasingly done by professional troupes, and a competition element is introduced through festivalization as the occasions for performing are often festivals at which various performers from multiple locations compete with one another before a non-local public.…”

Section: Intangible Cultural Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

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Salemink

Cheung

2020

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Homo Sanctus: Religious Contestations and the Sanctification of Heritage and Human Rights in Vietnam

Cited by 4 publications

References 36 publications

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

Controlled Religious Plurality: Possibilities for Covenantal Pluralism in Vietnam

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