Revolutionary and Christian Ecumenes and Desire for Modernity in the Vietnamese Highlands

TY - JOUR

T1 - Revolutionary and Christian Ecumenes and Desire for Modernity in the Vietnamese Highlands

AU - Salemink, Oscar

PY - 2015/8/8

Y1 - 2015/8/8

N2 - Inspired by a critical reading of James Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed (2009) which argued that Highlanders in Southeast Asia have intentionally evaded ‘state capture and state formations’, I offer a contrasting vision of Highlander motivations and desires from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I argue that, in pre-colonial times, lowland states and Highland regions have been mutually constitutive through trade, tribute and feasts. Economic, political and ritual exchanges and connections were far more important for both uplands and lowlands than is usually acknowledged, not only in scholarship but in such phrases as ‘remote and backward areas’. For postcolonial Vietnam, I show that Highlanders were often motivated by the desire to become modern, and enacted such desires by joining ecumenes that embody modern universals, in particular revolutionary and Christian ecumenes, exemplifying oppositional pathways to modernity that contrast with those offered by authors Tania Li and Holly High.

AB - Inspired by a critical reading of James Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed (2009) which argued that Highlanders in Southeast Asia have intentionally evaded ‘state capture and state formations’, I offer a contrasting vision of Highlander motivations and desires from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. I argue that, in pre-colonial times, lowland states and Highland regions have been mutually constitutive through trade, tribute and feasts. Economic, political and ritual exchanges and connections were far more important for both uplands and lowlands than is usually acknowledged, not only in scholarship but in such phrases as ‘remote and backward areas’. For postcolonial Vietnam, I show that Highlanders were often motivated by the desire to become modern, and enacted such desires by joining ecumenes that embody modern universals, in particular revolutionary and Christian ecumenes, exemplifying oppositional pathways to modernity that contrast with those offered by authors Tania Li and Holly High.

U2 - 10.1080/14442213.2015.1054866

DO - 10.1080/14442213.2015.1054866

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1444-2213

VL - 16

SP - 388

EP - 409

JO - Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

JF - Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

IS - 4

ER -