Embodying morality
Subtitle: growing up in rural northern Vietnam
By: Helle Rydstrøm
Publisher: University of Hawai'i Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Honolulu
Language: eng
Number of pages: 232
Subjects: Rural children -- Vietnam (Democratic Republic) -- Social conditions -- Case studies; Collective settlements -- Vietnam (Democratic Republic) -- Case studies; Moral development -- Vietnam (Democratic Republic) -- Case studies; Sociology, Rural -- Vietnam (Democratic Republic) -- Case studies
Genres: Case studies
Description: "One of the first anthropological studies based on extensive fieldwork in Vietnam in decades, Embodying Morality examines child-rearing in a rural Red River delta commune. It is a sophisticated and intriguing exploration of the ways in which a family system based on principles of male descent influences the moral upbringing and learning of girls and boys." "In Vietnamese culture, boys alone perpetuate the patrilineal family line; they incorporate the past, present, and future morality, honor, and reputation of their father's lineage. Within this patrilineal universe, girls are viewed as blank sheets of paper and must compensate for this deficiency by embodying tinh cam (sensitivity, sense). Such attitudes play a significant role in the upbringing of girls and boys and in how they learn to use and understand their bodies. Helle Rydstrom offers fresh data - from audiotapes, video-tapes, textbooks, observations in the home and at school - for identifying the transformation of local and educational constructions of females, males, and morality into body styles of girls, boys, women, and men. She highlights the extent to which body performances in daily life produce, reproduce, and challenge widespread northern Vietnamese ideals of femininity and masculinity."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-219) and index