The Impact of Missionary Christianity Upon Marginalized Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Hmong

Tapp, Nicholas

doi:10.1017/s0022463400019858

Cited by 40 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In Southeast Asia, it is ethnicity, not class, that drives many marginal ethnic groups, among them Dayaks, to convert to Protestantism, if not necessarily Pentecostalism. In converting, these groups strengthen their cultural identity vis‐à‐vis their dominant non‐Christian ethnic neighbors (Hefner 1998; Kammerer 1990; Tapp 1989). Brodwin points out that, by focusing on conversion's sociological consequences, many analyses ignore the intentions and religious commitments of converts and thus risk confusing the consequences of conversion with its causes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Forbidden intimacies: Christian–Muslim intermarriage in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Connolly

2009

American Ethnologist

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As a disadvantaged minority, Dayaks have turned to Christianity as a way to maintain their ethnic identity in the face of threats from their Muslim neighbors. Given Indonesian state policies' compelling conversion in the case of interfaith marriage, most anthropological analyses would attribute the anguish Christian Dayaks experience over such marriages to the threat it poses to their community‐building efforts. But Dayaks themselves anchor their concerns about intermarriage in religious and familial obligations, not in the maintenance of collective religious and ethnic identities. Drawing on the work of Fredrik Barth, I argue that understanding the nature of interfaith marriage and the fears it arouses requires anthropologists to consider not only the macrolevel of state policies and the median level of collective identities but also the more intimate emotional and experiential level of the family and the individual. [marriage, Indonesia, Islam, Christianity, ethnicity]

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confidence: 99%

Forbidden intimacies: Christian–Muslim intermarriage in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Connolly

2009

American Ethnologist

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“…These "dichotomizing discourses" (Gal 1991: 444) associate a lack of writing with backward, primitive or traditional status, indirectly indexing the modernity of those "with writing". The Lahu oral literature which Nishimoto refers to as "narratives of inferiority" (1998) includes discussion of the loss of writing, and the loss of writing myth is ubiquitous among those Tapp (1989) has labeled aliterate, indicating Lahu participation in this dichotomizing discourse.…”

Section: Judith Ms Pinementioning

confidence: 99%

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Pine¹

2015

PRAG

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Literate Lahu, speakers of a Tibeto-Burman language in the ethnically and linguistically diverse uplands of Southeast Asia and southwest China, inscribe their language in an ecology of literacies shaped by the imbrication of a number of ideologies. As members of the larger category of chao khao or mountain people, the Lahu belong to a group which is persistently labeled as Other. (Laungaramsri 2001: 43-4). Lahu are also a people-without-writing (Pine 1999), despite the fact that at least three writing systems exist for Lahu, with a fourth in somewhat limited use and at least one other system in development. The ideological diversity of the entextualization of Lahu benefits seeing it within a particular historical and ecological context. This paper historicizes particular literacy practices within the context of the development of a particular form of written Lahu. It also traces the influence of a phenomenon termed "proprietary orthographies" which permeates the ecology of literacies in mainland Southeast Asia and, I argue, has a significant impact on Lahu language literacy practices. Focusing on a subtle issue of the representation of tone, and also drawing on self-reporting of literacy, as well as making use of Keane's concept of "semiotic ideologies", I argue that orthographies enjoy a complex form of indexicality in this region which differs in small, but important, ways from other areas.

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“…There are parallels with the adoption of world religions by Indigenous communities in other countries. What Tapp (: 94) wrote about Christianity could have also been written about appropriation of the Indigenous identity by the Kuy in Cambodia: ‘The adoption of Christianity by an ethnic minority in effect enhances their status as an ethnic minority.’ Another factor in the relative statuses of the Kuy and Indigenous identities is that Khmer continue to make plays on the word ‘Kuy’ or make disparaging remarks about others by comparing them to Kuy (as I have described above). When I asked some key informants if they preferred to identify as Kuy or Indigenous, one said, ‘the word “Kuy” doesn't sound so nice.…”

Section: Kuy Indigenous Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Changing ethnic identities among the Kuy in Cambodia: Assimilation, reassertion and the making of Indigenous identity

Swift

2013

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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The Kuy are one of the largest Indigenous groups in Cambodia. Though they are extremely similar to the Khmer in terms of physical appearance and material culture, a significant distinction between the two groups continues to be maintained. At the same time, assimilation into the Khmer identity has been a dominant trend among the Kuy for a considerable time and appears to be related to the relatively lower status of the Kuy identity. However, over the past decade or more, some people have begun to reassert a Kuy identity, driven by awareness of benefits of identifying as Kuy and a lessening of the stigmatisation of the Kuy identity. Following the introduction in Cambodia of the concept of Indigenous Peoples, 'Indigenous' has become an ethnic identity that more and more Kuy are assuming and within which they are becoming prominent. It is associated with a broader Indigenous community inside and outside of Cambodia which is becoming increasingly respected. The Indigenous identity has been able to inspire pride and confidence in a way that the Kuy identity has not and has played an important role in letting people of Kuy ancestry 'become Kuy' .

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The Impact of Missionary Christianity Upon Marginalized Ethnic Minorities: The Case of the Hmong

Cited by 40 publications

References 5 publications

Forbidden intimacies: Christian–Muslim intermarriage in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Forbidden intimacies: Christian–Muslim intermarriage in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

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Changing ethnic identities among the Kuy in Cambodia: Assimilation, reassertion and the making of Indigenous identity

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