Ancestors in the Street
Ancestors in the Street
This chapter provides general accounts of contemporary domestic death remembrance activities and discusses the dual structure of ghosts and ancestors within which these activities take place. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the memory of mass death does not fit within the traditional classification of death. The duality of death is manifested in Vietnamese ritual organization. Ghosts and ancestors constitute an elementary structure of Vietnamese domestic ritual. This horizontal, diametric duality of ancestral shrine versus external shrine for ghosts is a practical expression of the concentric dualism of inside versus outside. However, the Vietnam War made the traditional distinction between inside and outside practically meaningless and, in fact, turned the traditional communal “inside” into a fierce and confusing battlefield. Eventually, the renovation of the ancestral place, in the work of active remembrance, materialized its opposite symbol and revitalized the marginal identities represented by it.
Keywords: remembrance, mass death, ancestors, dual structure, Vietnam War
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
