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Hmong Christian elites as political and development brokers : competition, cooperation and mimesis in Vietnam's highlands
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Rumsby, Seb (2021) Hmong Christian elites as political and development brokers : competition, cooperation and mimesis in Vietnam's highlands. Social Anthropology, 29 (3). pp. 701-717. doi:10.1111/1469-8676.13090
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.13090
Abstract
This article focuses on the role of new Hmong religious leaders – predominantly young men – who have played an important role in spreading Protestant Christianity across Vietnam’s highlands over the past 30 years. These pastors and evangelists have directly challenged the authority of previously established Hmong local elites, whose legitimacy rested on traditional religious authority and/or state patronage, causing significant social conflict along the way. Some new Christian pioneers have gained local elite status as political and development brokers for their community, enjoying a potent combination of spiritual authority, strong external networks and financial success. As such, international religious networks can function as alternative patrons to the state for well-placed Hmong Christian elites to tap into and redistribute to their communities – to varying degrees. Contextualising such leadership dynamics within wider anthropological scholarship of upland Southeast Asia affirms the ‘pioneering ethos’ of local elites in challenging, complying with or mimicking state forms of governance in their attempts to draw in and channel external potency. This highlights the degree of political manoeuvring space available to non-state actors in a supposedly authoritarian state, as well as ongoing tensions and controversies facing pastors who negotiate ambiguous relationships with powerful external forces.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion | ||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Hmong (Asian people) -- Religion, Hmong (Asian people) -- History, Christianity -- Vietnam, Vietnam -- Politics and government -- 1975-, Rural development projects, Religion and politics -- Vietnam | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Social Anthropology | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Wiley | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0964-0282 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | August 2021 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 29 | ||||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 701-717 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1111/1469-8676.13090 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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