Meeker_ResearchPhoto

This project is an ethnographic study of the relationship between social belonging and moral personhood as expressed and constructed through contemporary ritual practice in northern Vietnam, with a focus on  Ngưu Sơn Village (a pseudonym). My research focuses on two broad questions: First, how is contemporary moral personhood negotiated, embodied, and constructed in and across popular Buddhist, communal, and lineage rituals in the village? Second, what do local ritual practices reveal about the relationship between heritage, place and identity in post-reform Vietnam?

Related publications:

2019. Being Witnessed Saving Others: Moral Personhood in Women’s Popular Buddhist Practice in Rural Northern Vietnam. The Journal of Asian Studies 78(2): 309-238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911819000068

Film:

Mother, Witness Me. Directed by Lauren Meeker and Phan Phuong Anh. (film preview)