The Foreign Becoming Familiar

Ben Tre, Vietnam
Originally uploaded by Zakcq.

Sometimes it's hard to gauge how much I've been learning here in Viet Nam. Most of my learning is being done through experience and observation, which is a gradual process. I was re-reading some passages in an anthropology textbook (Village in Vietnam by Gerald Cannon Hickey, written in the sixties) that I had read the first week I was here, and I realized how much of a better understanding of Vietnamese culture I have now, two months after I arrived in Sai Gon.

I was re-reading some passages about death and ancestor worship in a village in the Mekong Delta because the passages are directly related to my Independent Study Project topic. When I first read the passage, I remember thinking the practices and concepts were so foreign to anything I knew. I really couldn't picture the rituals he was describing. However, now, two months, three death anniversary celebrations and numerous conversations later, I recognize almost everything the author describes in the passage.

For example, Hickey describes the ideal tomb as being "of stone or concrete, on a site selected by a geomancer (123)." Last weekend, my homestay sister, My, showed me the tombs of her grandparents. They are all made of concrete. The tombs of her father's ancestors were all recently restored and newly tiled- showing that the appearance of the tomb is very important. She explained that land that her mother's ancestor's tombs are on is very good land because it is high up.

Hickey also describes the altar devoted to the ancestors as containing a picture of the ancestor where the relatives place offerings, burn joss sticks and kowtow. Indeed, almost every home contains one or more altars to their ancestors where the family members place fruit and other food. I have seen vietnamese friends burn joss sticks and kowtow before the altars multiple times.

I attended My's grandmother's second year death aniversary a few weeks ago. Hickey says that the second year death anniversary marks the end of the mourning period. A ritual is performed before the altar and, afterwards, the mourning clothes are burned. I was able to watch from a distance as a monk performed the ritual and a few family members burned joss sticks and kowtowed. During the ritual, the family members were wearing white cloth wrapped around their heads. Afterwards, they burned the cloths in a small fire outside of the house.

Lastly, Hickey states that it is very important to the elderly to have land and a good home to contain the altar of the ancestors for after they die. Indeed, on both sides of My's family, no one currently resides in the houses that her grandparents owned. The homes contain the altar of the ancestors and are also used for storage, while the family members have homes right next to the old home. On the sixteenth death anniversary celebration of My's father's mother, the celebration was held in the grandparent's home, even though there was a newer, nicer home on the same plot of land.

It was interesting to re-read those passages and remember where I had been two months ago. It's reassuring to know that I've gained at least a basic understanding of this aspect of Vietnamese culture. Of course, I only have a superficial understanding of ancestor worship at the moment, but as a I prepare to do my ISP and as I begin doing research in May, I hope to go deeper into the perceptions that My's family has of these rituals and how the rituals have changed from generation to generation.