The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
Author(s): Gábor VargyasSubject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: ethnohistory; evangelization; communism and religion; Vietnam War; Central Vietnamese Highlands; Bru/Vân Kiều
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I present a short excerpt from an 18-hour-long Bru life history recorded in 1989 in the Central Vietnamese Highlands among the Bru/Vân Kiều of Quảng Trị. The excerpt sheds light on the circumstances of Christian evangelization among the Bru through the recollections of a Bru man who was not Christian himself but was in contact with the key protagonists of the events, the missionaries and the evangelized Bru people. The interview reveals on how the evangelized and non-evangelized viewed the evangelists. What were the ways of promoting evangelization? Were the Bru impressed by the world of the evangelizers? How did the Bru conceive of the evangelizers? How convincing did they find their arguments? Beside its immanent value, this intercultural encounter has a significance beyond itself insofar as it is situated in and reflective of the icy political and ideological milieu of the Vietnam War in the 1960s–1970s, the impacts of which were still lingering when the recording was made.
Journal: Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
- Issue Year: 65/2020
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 257-283
- Page Count: 27
- Language: English