The Ethnography of Vietnam's Central Highlanders

This book looks at ethnographic discourses concerning the indigenous population of Vietnam's Central Highlands during periods of christianization, colonization, war and socialist transformation, and analyses these in their relation to tribal, ethnic, territorial, governmental and gendered discourses. Salemink's book is a timely contribution to anthropological knowledge, as the ethnic minorities in Vietnam have (again) been the object of fierce academic debate. This is a historically grounded post-colonial critique relevant to theories of ethnicity and the history of anthropology, and will be of interest to graduate students of anthropology and cultural studies, as well as Vietnam studies.

Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Ethnography, Anthropology and Colonial Discourse 2. Missionaries, Explorers and Savages: The Construction of an Evolutionist Discourse 3. Leopold Sabatier: Colonial Administration and Cultural Relativism 5. The Return of the Python God: Multiple Interpretations of a Millenarian Movement 6. War and Ethnography: Territorialization, Ethnicization and Cultural Relativism 7. Romancing the Montagnards: The Role of Anthropology 8. The Dying God Revisited: The King of Fire and Vietnamese Ethnic Policies 9. Conclusion: French, American and Vietnamese Ethnographies in Comparative Perspective Maps and Charts Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index