essay theory of anthropology

My case study is Philip Taylor‟s ethnographic writing about popular religion and pilgrimage in Vietnam through a focal analysis of the pilgrimage to the Lady of the Realm shrine in a vil

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Question

Choose an ethnographic text; compare the multiple analytic facets of the author‟s work

in the text Do they combine into a satisfactory whole? From this example critically examine the relationship between theoretical ideas and ethnography?

Abstract

This essay addresses the relationship between theoretical ideas and ethnographic text

It focuses on the questions of whether it is possible to integrate multiple analytic concepts into a satisfactory whole, and whether an ethnographic text can contribute to anthropological theory through a case study

My case study is Philip Taylor‟s ethnographic writing about popular religion and pilgrimage in Vietnam through a focal analysis of the pilgrimage to the Lady of the Realm shrine in a village of southern Vietnam‟s border with Cambodia (Taylor, P.,

Goddess on the rise: pilgrimage and popular religion in southern Vietnam, 2004)

In this essay I argue that it is necessary to apply multiple analytic concepts into the study of such a complex religious phenomenon as the pilgrimage to the Lady of the Realm‟s shrine in southern Vietnam I also argue that it is possible to add merit to theoretical ideas by an analysis of a specific phenomenon

Table of content

Introduction

Philip Taylor‟s „Goddess on the rise‟

Theoretical base in „Goddess on the rise‟

A specific view on pilgrimage motivation and meaning

Max Weber and the theory of social action

Victor Turner and the theory of pilgrimage

From „Goddess on the rise‟ critique the relationship between theoretical ideas and ethnographic text

Conclusion

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Introduction

As a social science, anthropology approaches and analyses human life in a distinct way Based on long term fieldwork with deep engagement into everyday life and human interaction, anthropology provides a „thick description‟ (Geertz 1973) of social life To

do that work of interpreting life and culture, anthropology seeks its basic theory in sociologists such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim

Being attracted by a particular field site, engaging in the “here and now” life in the field, anthropologists then apply theoretical ideas to explore, analyse and explain field data Then the writer reflects from the fieldwork back to theory to articulate meaning

Thus, one can imagine various ways of “writing anthropology” (Clifford & Marcus 2010) The order of steps may differ, but this kind of undertaking anthropological fieldwork usually involves questions such as: how can various theories be used to explain what we see in the field, and how can the writing of ethnography contribute to the theoretical development of the discipline

In this essay, I will give my answer to the two questions through my analysis of an ethnographic text I am interested in the rapid increase and spread of religious practice

in contemporary Vietnam, which is the focus of many works (Kendall 2003; Marr 1981; Ngo 1996; Nguyen 2006) Vietnam is a country that has endured radical changes and transformations in recent decades: changing from war to peace, from colonialism to modern times, from democracy to socialism, from agricultural to commercialization and industrialization, from a closed political and economical environment to a more open one, and so on Along with these processes, observers have seen an increase in religious practice

„Churches, pagodas and pilgrimage sites are crowded with devotees, offering signs of fervent faith and unmistakable religious vitality Religion commands a large share of the material resources of this increasingly prosperous society ( ) National leaders make incense offering to acquit their debts to national founding ancestors, soul callers establish the contact with the war dead and medium possessed by fame historical personages are patronized by the nouveau riche Doors open wide to encourage foreign investment and trade are also facilitate the foreign missionaries and the dissemination of new currents in Islam, Buddhism and Christianity to remote regions of the country‟(Taylor & Institute

of Southeast Asian 2007, p 1)

Among many studies have been done about this issue, I have chosen Philip Taylor‟s

book (2004, Goddess on the rise: pilgrimage and popular religion in southern Vietnam)

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as a case study I will later illustrate that the book offers a suitable alternative to explain the religious phenomena in Vietnam

Starting by introducing Taylor‟s case study, I will give a general description of what his book is about This is the background information for what I will then analyse, the key concept of his study and the relations to other concepts that he also applies Then by describing how Taylor treats pilgrimage as a social action, I will prove that to study such a complex religious phenomenon, the application of multiple analytic concepts is worthwhile and valuable; and that the explanation of the phenomenon leads Taylor to suggest to the discipline a new way to approach and explain social phenomena

Philip Taylor’s ‘Goddess on the rise’

“At the base of a small mountain on Vietnam‟s border with Cambodia stands a shrine to a goddess known as Ba Chua Xu, the Lady of the Realm This spirit is

a feminine likeness in stone and rendered cement and is dresses in regal costume Legends describe her as a local protector deity and relate her involvement in key events in local history She is housed in a magnificent shrine flanked by large halls that display the offerings people have made to her Every year at the start of the rainy season a round of ceremonies is held in her honor ( ) Each year in Vinh Te village, the rural settlement that holds these festivities,

is transformed into an instant metropolis Its canals are lined with passenger boats, the road into the village is choked with buses and minivans, and the road

to the nearby township of Chau Doc is as busy as a major urban thoroughfare The area surrounding her shrine hums around the clock with entertainments as diverse as cai luong (southern Vietnamese opera), all-singing, all-dancing drag beauty queen contest, a sideshow alley, magic acts, a house of horrors, karaoke, gambling, restaurants, cafes, bars, and brothels Inside the shrine pilgrims jostle, sardinelike, bodies superheating the air, incense tearing at their eyes, an endless stream of opulent gifts pouring toward the altar.” (Taylor 2004, p 1)

This phenomenon attracts many scholars, foreign and local The discussion of the phenomenon brings up lots of different views: considering the cult as rural custom, or border spirit, or agricultural spirit, or ethnic spirit; no particular one is dominant and the dialogue keeps going on The complex of the phenomenon as an aspect of contemporary religious practice of southern Vietnam attracts Taylor, and encourages him to take the phenomena as a focal point to look at popular religion and its link to Vietnamese society

Working on documentary research and conducting fieldwork, Taylor provides a multivocal dialogue about the symbol of the Lady of the Ream As a relatively recent object of worship (the past few centuries), the Lady of the Realm can be seen as the patron of business for both Chinese immigrants (p 75) and Vietnamese traders (pp 274-276); the patron of settlers (pp 61-62); the goddess of farmers (pp 111-112); and a supporter to the court (p 26) Describing the statute from an Indianized god

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„transmuted‟ into a Sinicized goddess, the book depicts this as a „marvel of creativity‟ (p 286)

A wide range of people put their belief on her ladyship and ask for her response These include different ethnic groups such as Khmer, Cham, Chinese, and Viet; different occupation of different classes such as farmers, workers, traders, intellectuals, and so

on Each group tries to tie the goddess‟ identify to a particular meaning Among that endless discussion, Taylor argues that there is no dominant voice; it is her indeterminacy that attracts various social groups and allows these „polyvalent quality‟ (p 207) to exist all together without any conflict

The focal point of the study is the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Lady of the Realm Among the wide range of pilgrims to the shrine, Taylor focuses on the majority, the urban pilgrims, who are generally female small entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City and who go the shrine annually during the particular time of the first few months of the lunar calendar Following pilgrims for long-term contact and trust, he shows that they find the pilgrimage somehow obligatory in order to ask the goddess permission to do business, to borrow her some money and to ask her support for good business deals (chapter 3) Being with them during the pilgrimage, this author shows how the sphere of consumption and urban everyday lifestyle emerge and dominate the pilgrimage (chapter 5)

Putting those findings in a larger context of „rapid social change‟ (p 288), the text provides an argument that the pilgrimage, as well as the „variety of popular religious practice‟ in contemporary Vietnam, has close links to the process of economic, socio-cultural transformation of the country, reflecting „in a particularly vivid way the divisions in Vietnamese society‟ (p 290)

The book, hence, does a good job of giving „thick description‟ to one of Vietnam contemporary religious practices, the worship of the Lady of the Realm in Vinh Te village On the other hand, it also provides a challenge to previous theories in the discipline

Theoretical base in ‘Goddess on the rise’

As shown by the title of the book, Taylor chooses to treat this practice as an example of pilgrimage Pilgrimage can be understood as a journey of a pilgrim to a site far from their ordinary living location to conduct activities/rituals with particular values and meanings It is „a variety of translocal religious action characteristic of societies that are geographically extensive and social complex‟ (p 13) Through the ethnography, various theoretical ideas have been mentioned and discussed Taylor himself „picks up‟ the suitable ideas to put in an agreement with his ethnographic data For example, he agrees with Turner (1974) that pilgrimage centre is distant from city but he argues that it is not

„liminal‟; the distance does not weaken „the causal link between magical efficacy and political and economic power‟ (pp 14-15)

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The most obvious way of integrating multiple analytic concepts in Taylor‟s ethnography

is the larger context that he put in pilgrimage with its cause and effect Taylor admits that this is not a new way and that there have been plenty of scholars using another concept to rethink pilgrimage:

„Anthropologists have variously described how pilgrimage is profoundly implicated in the constitution of political authority (Perry and Echeverria 1988), ethnicity (Sallnow 1987), caste (Messerschmidt and Shrma 1981); class (Eickelman 1976), national identity (E.Wolf 1958; Dubisch 1995), cultural structure (Sangren 1987) and gender (Dubisch 1995)‟ (Taylor 2004, p 14)

Following their steps, Taylor‟s book with nine chapters is a network (see the figure above) in which pilgrimage is looked at from various „gazes‟: pilgrimage as a sign of popular religion and cultural structure (chapter 1,2,8 and epilogue), pilgrimage with political authority (chapter 1,3,4,7 and epilogue), pilgrimage with ethnicity (chapter 2), pilgrimage with national identity (chapter 3,4,6 and 7), pilgrimage with gender (chapter 9), and pilgrimage with modernity (chapter 3,4,5,6,9 and epilogue) The pilgrimage is shaped by the state‟s project to control popular religion, oriented around a religious signal of tradition or national identity It is also a focus of ethnic authority discussion among the Viet, Cham, Khmer and Chinese people living in the region Taylor also claims that this is women‟s religious creativity to construct their self-representation And the most noticeable finding is his statement of the cult of the Lady of the Realm as the „religion of business‟

That last finding demonstrates the significant contribution that Taylor adds to theoretical ideas of studying pilgrimage which is the causal link that he deeply discusses between pilgrimage and modernity Adopted the theory of modernity from scholars like Appadurai (1996) and finding support from other scholars that share the same point of view (Preston 1992; Sangren 1987; Morinis 1984; Reader 1993), Taylor shows the effect of dimensions such as commercialization, urbanization and modernization on

Pilgrimage

Ethnicity

Cultural structure

National identity

Modernity Gender

Political authority

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pilgrimage to the Lady of the Realm‟s shrine Through his analysis in chapters 3,4,5,6,9 the reader can see the priory face of this religious phenomenon is its modern characteristic: the pilgrimage site is located near the border with Cambodia, in the trading route of people doing business through country‟s border as well as people do business from the Mekong delta to cities; the pilgrimage routine is full of restaurants, hotels, cafe‟s, karaoke, souvenir shops, etc.; the major pilgrims are entrepreneurs from the most economically powerful city (Ho Chi Minh City), going to the shrine to borrow money from the goddess, asking for magic power to create easy wealth or lucky trade; other pilgrims from rural areas go to the festival to enjoy the modernity of the urban sphere; Vinh Te village in the festival time becomes a temporary urban environment and the appearance of the shrine strongly supports its urbanization

Those findings can be only understood in the context of the rapid modernization that is happening in southern Vietnam The revival of religion is some kind of Vietnamese people‟s „reaction‟ to modernity The emergence of industrialization in Vietnam is like what has happened in South America in Taussig‟s description (Taussig 1980) However, the cult to the „devil‟ called Uncle Tio of miners in Bolivia is different from the worship

of the Lady of the Realm, since entrepreneurs in Vietnam get their active control when entering the commercialization, they might not be scared of the spirit of capitalism as South American peasants The two phenomenon are together make an illustration that the cause and effect link between religion and modernity is still need to be studied more

to value and contribute to prediction of previous theorists (Marx 1977 [1867]; Weber 1976)

The multiple analytic facets applied in Goddess on the rise illustrate the fact of applying

theories into case study in anthropology This is because a particular theory comes from generalization about a certain number of the phenomena, in a certain range of times and places; it might be inapplicable in other phenomena, in other time and place Applying different theories is also one way to have new findings of a research topic; since each framework usually limits itself in its „frame‟ while in fact social phenomena exist in the complex integration with society as a whole

To find out the multiple concepts in ethnography, the reader can be look at the text for different scholars mentioned by the author However, there are also scholars whose names may be not mentioned in the text because their concepts are so popular that they become basic terms in the discipline It would be interesting for the reader, especially for the learner who wants to have better understanding of the discipline, to trace a particular concept and find out how a concept was raised up and then took a long journey through variety of texts in relevant field of study

A specific view on pilgrimage motivation and meaning

Above I have analysed the first level of integrating theories in Taylor‟s ethnography That is the level of connecting pilgrimage to other analytic concepts There is another level, happening within the concept of pilgrimage That is the various theoretical ideas

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of studying factors of pilgrimage such as pilgrimage centre (or site), pilgrim, and pilgrimage motivation and meaning

One aspect that well reflects the complex of the religious practice that Taylor studies is the pilgrimage motivation (the reason why a particular pilgrim takes a pilgrimage) and meaning (which can be understood as the values, feelings or power that the pilgrim embodies during the pilgrimage) These two terms usually appear together as one aspect due to their close integration to each other There has been a lot of discussion about motivation and meaning in previous studies on pilgrimage, significantly in Victor Turner‟s works Going further to the foundation of the discipline, it has a longer tradition, stretching to Max Weber, one of founders of social science‟s theory in the

nineteenth century However, in Goddess on the rise Taylor neglects to trace the

genealogy of Weber‟s concept This is because the concept's origin is in anthropology and Taylor is an anthropologist So let's trace the genealogy of 'meaning' and see what this genealogical research reveals about Weber, Turner and Taylor

Max Weber and the theory of social action

Max Weber can be seen as the first scholar applied the term „motivation‟ and „meaning‟

in developing a theory distinctive social science, the theory of understanding social action According to Weber,

“Sociology is a science which attempts the interpretive understanding of social action in order to arrive at a causal explanation of its course and effects In action is included all human behaviour when and insofar as, by virtue of the subjective meaning attached to it by the acting individual it takes account of the behaviour of others and is thereby oriented in its course” (Weber, 'Economy and Society', p 4, in Morrison 1995, p 274)

There are four factors that need to be made clear to understand Weber‟s „social action‟: acting individual, subject meaning, action, course and effect „Acting individuals‟ are human being who „act in, and come to understand, the social world only through rational acts‟(Morrison 1995, p 274) „Subject meaning‟ is the meaning attached to human action „Human individuals „understand‟ the actions of others and depend on this understanding in order to act‟ (Morrison 1995, p 275) It is in fact the result of „valuing and judging‟ the outer world before when the actor conducts the social action Weber called this „subjective meaning‟ „in order to denote that it occurs in the actor‟s inner state and therefore out of range of the observation of others‟ (Morrison 1995, p 277)

„Action‟ here emphasizes the „means‟ or the how that action is conducted „Course and effect‟ is the „ends‟, the result or the action as well as its effect (to actor, to outer world) Developing from this, Weber suggested that the individual was the fundamental unit

of investigation (Lucas 2003) and that the central aim of sociology should be to interpret social action, or to understand the inner states of actors attached in their actions According to Weber, there are two types of understanding: direct

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understanding and explanatory or interpretive understanding In direct understanding, the meaning of the act can be understood from „direct observation‟ of the physical characteristics of the act Explanatory understanding is to understand the meaning of

an act only by „placing the action in a complex of meaning and by attaching a motive

to the act‟ (Morrison 1995, p 277)

This theory of interpreting social action has a great influence in social science and in anthropology particularly Turner‟s theoretical interest is also to „probe and describe the ways in which social actions of various kinds acquire form through the metaphors and paradigms in their actor‟s heads ( ), and, in certain intensive circumstances‟ (Turner

1974, p 13)

Victor Turner and the theory of pilgrimage

Turner seems to follow Weber‟s theory of interpreting social action: base on individual investigation, looking for the metaphors and paradigms (or symbolic meanings) in the actor‟s head, and putting action in „circumstances‟ (or its context) The differences are

in his detail theoretical ideas of pilgrimage as a form of social action

He suggested that pilgrimage as a form of social action „should be regarded not merely

an ideal model but as an institution with a history‟ So, the context necessary to study any pilgrimage is its vulnerability „to the history of its period‟ and „political geography‟ Developed from Van Gennep‟si theory of „rite of passage‟, Turner treated the phenomena as „rite of passage‟ in smaller scale society However, he argued that

“pilgrimage systems are more „liminoid‟ (open, optational, not conceptualized as religious routine) than „liminal‟ (belonging to the mid- stage in a religious processual structure consisting of rites of separation, limen or margin, and reaggregation)‟ (Turner

& Turner 1978, p 231)

Turner‟s ideas on pilgrimage motivation and meaning can be traced through his two ways of conceptualizing the temporal character of pilgrimages The first was to

„characterize them historically as typical of hierarchical, preindustrial, agrarian societies‟ (Taylor 2004) „Liminal phenomena are embodies in the collaborative „work‟

of a tribal or early agrarian society‟s annual ecological and social structural round, and are obligatory for all‟ (Turner & Turner 1978, p 231) In their work, Victor Turner and Edith Turner argued that „pilgrimages develop as largely spontaneous events through the actions of pilgrims who „vote with their feet‟ in response to reports of miracles‟ (Turner & Turner 1978)

Second, Turner characterized the experience of pilgrimage as liminoid phenomena in the „simpler societies‟ It is „a journey in non-ordinary time and space that allows participant release from quotidian roles and relationship, divisions and hierarchies‟ (Taylor 2004) Pilgrims can be urban people, being „generated by the voluntary activity

of individuals during their free time‟ (Turner & Turner 1978, p 232) Consequence of the voluntary choice of individual pilgrims is the „developing, secular leisure domain

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becomes crowed with liminoid genres such as fine arts, the folk arts, and critiques of social structure, as well as apologies for it‟ (Turner & Turner 1978, p 232)

Taylor, in his case study, shows both a similar and different way of treating social action compared to the two previous scholars His writing is an effort of understanding pilgrimage as a social action of pilgrims in southern Vietnam He studies the context of the action by locating the shrine, tracing the goddess‟s identity, defining pilgrims, engaging the route, and so on He puts in the study‟s focus the diverse understanding and interpretation of pilgrimage meaning and motivation

The pilgrimage to the Lady of the Realm‟s shrine in Vinh Te village still has the meaning and motivation that pilgrimage traditionally offers to pilgrims but in different ways compare to phenomena observed by Turner

On one side, the pilgrimage to festival in Vinh Te village reflects Turner‟s „liminoid phenomena‟ Observers can also see the attractions of this rural festival is „being a flaneur, a part of a crowd, washed by fleeting, hectic sensations and constantly shocked

by the new‟ (p 20, see also in Chapter 6) which brings secular leisure to pilgrims (who, however, are rural citizens around the site)

On the other side, reflecting the individual experience of Hoa – a gold shop owner (Chapter 3) and some fruit traders (Chapter 7) going to the shrine of the goddess, Taylor states that the pilgrimage conducted annually is to give thanks to the goddess that has supported prayers in that year It is therefore obligatory, often in the start of lunar new year (for Hoa) or before and after a trading season (for those fruit traders) The

„collaborative work‟ can be found in groups of pilgrims from Ho Chi Minh City, and their reflection shows that to them the journey is not „fun‟ but is instead „duty‟

Furthermore, the fieldwork data challenges Turner‟s view that pilgrimage allows people

to step outside of normative frameworks (Turners 1978) Chapter 5 expresses the attempt to „emphasize the quotidian and normative dimension of pilgrimage itself, to downplay the exceptionality of these journeys‟ (Taylor 2004, p 20) The ending part of this chapter provides a detail description of a pilgrimage of a group of entrepreneurs in

Ho Chi Minh City to Vinh Te village The preparation of food, the consumption of urban and modern goods during the pilgrimage, the shortage of the pilgrimage, the ignorance of these pilgrims to any rural sight, rural environment, or rural people shows that this is an „extension‟ of urban sphere, and that the pilgrims continue to consume their daily lifestyle, just in another place

With fieldwork data, Taylor also challenges Weber‟s theory of social action‟s rationality and his prediction about the decrease of magic in modernity Weber used „rationality‟ to describe an orientation to reality which systematically weighs up means and ends for purposes of efficacy „Weber believed that different types of rationality become dominant at different periods of social development and, as they do, they tend to eliminate other orientations to reality, such as magic or prayer‟ (Morrison 1995, p 279) Taylor‟s analytic confounds Weber‟s expectation of the displacement of „magical‟

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elements of human thought In the practice of Vietnam, the upsurge of pilgrimage to the shrine of the Lady of the Realm and the rapid increase of number of urban pilgrims every year to Vinh Te village shows the increase of „magical‟ beliefs beside the rapid speed of modernization in southern Vietnam The close link between increasingly popular pilgrimage and the process of modernity is demonstrated in a wide range of ethnographic data when Taylor defines most popular pilgrims, the nature of their pilgrimage, their prayers to the goddess and the obligatory meaning for their repeated pilgrimage to the shrine of the Lady of the Realm

In his further discussion on the meaning of pilgrimage, Taylor found that most of pilgrims are female and the pilgrimage has special meaning to them reflecting the self-presentation of Vietnamese women in the modern time Follow the pilgrims, the world

of Taylor‟s informants is the female world with wide range of names and economic-social positions: Hoa – a successful gold trader, Nga – seamstress outworker, the café owner, Nguyệt – runner of a mall cosmetic stall in local market (Chapter 3); Cẩm – a migrant running a fruit stall (chapter 4); Thuý - a petty trader and aunt Six – a market stall owner (chapter 5); Hiền – a Buddhist neighbour, Hương – a Catholic neighbour, Thuỷ, Hạnh, Yến – friends (chapter 8); Linh – a saleswoman, Như – a successful businesswoman (chapter 9), as well as numerous women that are not specifically named

in the text Being struck by these women‟s role in daily life, their frequent pilgrimage and their endless narrative of miracles of the goddess, Taylor comes to the statement:

„The dialectic of oppressing versus emancipation might itself be a constraining framework through which to view such figure‟s relationship to women‟s lives ( ) in drawing on these symbolic resources, women have learned on their own self-representations when in need They have placated, cajoled, bribed, and bargained with these figures to secure what they have required ( ) In such a sense, it might be said that southern Vietnamese women have indeed moved beyond authorized interpretations to constitute deities who encode their achievements, condense their histories, provide them support, symbolize their longings, and offer them fulfilment.‟ (Taylor 2004, p 294)

This is one of the most meaningful findings of this ethnography, as it gives rich fieldwork data to support an idea that not many scholars have mentioned (see Taylor

2004, p 251) Drawing a line from women‟s daily activity, daily duty as the people taking after the whole family life and their traditional social position as a secondary rank under men‟s shadow, Taylor shows how these women „placated, cajoled, bribed, and bargained with these figures to secure what they have required‟ This is the statement for those women in a continuing integration with spirit and society for a self-presentation