Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
What is anthropology in Vietnam?
Atsufumi Kato
(Kyoto Sangyo University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the formation of anthropology in contemporary Vietnam from the viewpoint of Vietnamese anthropologists by focusing on the establishment of the faculty of anthropology (khoa nhan hoc) at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, in 2015.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines the formation of anthropology in contemporary Vietnam from the viewpoint of Vietnamese anthropologists by focusing on the establishment of the faculty of anthropology (khoa nhan hoc) at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University, in 2015. After the Doi Moi (Renovation) policy was launched in 1986, fieldwork-based anthropological research became possible for foreign scholars in Vietnam and Vietnamese students also began to study anthropology in Western countries, thereby creating opportunities for Vietnamese ethnologists to come into contact with Western-style anthropology. In recent years, the younger generation who obtained PhDs in Western universities have begun to play a pivotal role in the discipline, initiating a movement to introduce Western anthropological theories into Vietnamese academics and, more importantly, to convert the name of the discipline from ethnology (dan toc hoc) to anthropology (nhan hoc). Besides these shifts, however, there are several points that do not appear to be changing. For example, most field research is still conducted in Vietnam. It seems that anthropology in Vietnam is more like an empirical study of "home" than of "others." Also, domestic political issues, such as the improvement and preservation of ethnic groups' living arrangements, are still at the core of academic discussion. The intention of applied anthropology is another way of understanding anthropology in contemporary Vietnam. Based on the analysis of recent international conferences on Vietnamese anthropology organized in Vietnam, this paper explores how Vietnamese anthropologists understand these academic movements.
The interpretive turn and multiple anthropologies: seeking the potential of cultural anthropology in the modern world
Session 1