Vietnamese culture and religious traditions place the utmost importance on dying well: in old age; body unblemished; with surviving children; and properly buried and mourned. More than five million people were killed in the Vietnam War; many of them young; many of them dying far from home. Another 300;000 are still missing. Having died badly; they are thought to have become angry ghosts; doomed to spend eternity in a kind of spirit hell. Decades after the war ended; many survivors believe that the spirits of those dead and missing have returned to haunt their loved ones.In War and Shadows; the anthropologist Mai Lan Gustafsson tells the story of the anger of these spirits and the torments of their kin. Gustafsson's rich ethnographic research allows her to bring readers into the world of spirit possession; focusing on the source of the pain; the physical and mental anguish the spirits bring; and various attempts to ameliorate their anger through ritual offerings and the intervention of mediums. Through a series of personal life histories; she chronicles the variety of ailments brought about by the spirits' wrath; from headaches and aching limbs (often the same limb lost by a loved one in battle) to self-mutilation.In Gustafsson's view; the Communist suppression of spirit-based religion after the fall of Saigon has intensified anxieties about the well-being of the spirit world. While shrines and mourning are still allowed; spirit mediums were outlawed and driven underground; along with many of the other practices that might have provided some comfort. Despite these restrictions; she finds; victims of these hauntings do as much as possible to try to lay their ghosts to rest.
#473937 in Books Cornell University Press 2001-10-25Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.75 x 1.56 x 7.00l; 2.04 #File Name: 0801439779432 pages
Review
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful. An excellent early Slavonic historyBy Baraniecki Mark StuartBarford deals with the difficult subject of early Slav history in a thoughtful and non-political way. In the absence of Slavonic written history (writing only came with Christianity in the 9th and 10th centuries) he carefully uses scarce Byzantine; Carolingian and Arab references together with linguistic; archeological and ethnographic sources.The interesting picture that emerges is of closely related Slavonic groups (linguistic evidence) probably originating in the Southern Polish; Czech; Carpathian area; cooperating with invading Huns from the East; and moving into land abandoned by the movement of earlier Germanic tribes (who in turn had moved to occupy the collapsing Western Roman Empire). Linguistic evidence also shows wide ranging contacts with German and Iranian influences overlaying the earlier Proto Balto Slavonic.He emphasizes the importance of Christianity (from both Rome and Byzantium) in bringing stability; "promoting social unity and aiding the authorities of the early state in their struggle against decentralizing tendencies in a way that no pagan religion could have done". Christianity also developed a class of educated people able to read and write and give Slavonic kingdoms a place in the newly forming Medieval world.7 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Fills a big gap in English literatureBy SnehurkaThis is a great overview of the origins of the Slavs and their ancient customs. The book fills a big gap in English historical literature - most history books I've read in English on Eastern Europe only begin with the early Middle Ages; but don't say much about the origins of the Slavic people and the displacement of the Celts and Germanic tribes in the region. For this reason; I think the book is a must read for anyone interested in the region who can't speak the local languages. For those who can; this book provides an impartial view; or rather overview; of competing theories among Communist scholars. The downside is that it reads very much like a textbook; which makes for dry reading. Only true nerds interested in the subject can read through the whole thing without being bored.4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Detailed and insightfulBy Ronald OstrowskiI am currently working my way through this work which highlights the very complex tapestry of Slavdom. The author has obviously researched this important topic in some detail and shows that over the centuries Slavonic cultural forms and languages subsumed different ethnic tribes and nations to the point that the Slavic tongue in Europe and Eurasia is the most dominate of the Indo-European (or Aryan) languages.
