Missions and Conversions: Creating the Montagnard-Dega Refugee Community (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion)

254 Pages·2009·2.82 MB·English

by  Thomas Pearson

MISSIONS AND CONVERSIONS
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Missions and Conversions
Creating the Montagnard-Dega 4
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Refugee Community 11-
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MISSIONS AND CONVERSIONS
Copyright © Thomas Pearson, 2009.
All rights reserved.
Figures 2.1–2.3 used by permission of the artist,
Hip K’Sor (Raleigh North Carolina).
First published in 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 4
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. 3-
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Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, 11-
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Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. nn
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Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies e
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and has companies and representatives throughout the world. gra
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, P
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. sity -
ISBN: 978–0–230–61536–6 ver
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data a U
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Pearson, Thomas. g H
Missions and conversions : creating the Montagnard-Dega refugee un
community / Thomas Pearson. Ch
p. cm. — (Contemporary anthropology of religion) d to
Includes bibliographical references and index. e
s
ISBN 978–0–230–61536–6 (alk. paper) en
c
( V i e1t. nMaomnetsaeg npaerodpsl e(V)—ietRnealomceasteio pne—opNleo)r—thR Cealirgoiolinna. 2. 3. M. Moonntataggnnaardrds s m - li
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(Vietnamese people)—Cultural assimilation—North Carolina. ct.c
4. Vietnamese Americans—North Carolina—Religion. 5. Vietnamese e
n
Americans—Cultural assimilation—North Carolina. 6. Vietnamese on
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Americans—North Carolina—Ethnic identity. 7. Christianity and ve
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other religions—North Carolina. 8. Christianity and culture— gr
North Carolina. I. Title. pal
w.
DS556.45.M6P43 2009 w
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305.895(cid:1)93—dc22 2008043507 m
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A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. al fr
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. ateri
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First edition: July 2009 ht
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 yri
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Printed in the United States of America. C
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For my father—my first interlocutor. ns
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10.1057/9780230622524 - Missions and Conversions, Thomas Pearson
Contents
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Acknowledgments ix Co
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List of Abbreviations xi gr
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CIA Map of Ethnic Groups of South Vietnam xii y -
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1 Introduction and Afterword 1 Uni
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2 Representing the Montagnards 19 g
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3 The Conversion of the Dega 63 C
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4 Conversion to Refugees 93 se
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5 Sickness, Sin, and Animal Sacrifice 117 m - li
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6 Hearts and Minds 141 ct.
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7 The Conversion of the Special Forces 173 o
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Notes 197 al
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Bibliography 217 w
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Index 237 al fr
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Acknowledgments
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am enormously impressed by the resilient strength, optimism, and Co
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resourcefulness of the Montagnard-Dega refugees. Their lives dwarf av
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whatever I may have accomplished here. So I wish to thank, first of al
P
all, the many individuals in the Montagnard-Dega community, who y -
sit
befriended me and made this writing possible. I especially wish to er
v
thank Hip K’Sor, Nay Rong, Y’Guk Cil, Glick Rahlan, and Khiem Uni
a
Ktul. This book would not have been possible without their interest Hu
g
and cooperation. I only hope that I have been half as valuable to them n
u
h
in their projects as they have been to me in mine. My chief disap- C
o
pointment is that this book and my academic interests do not corre- d t
e
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spond well to this community’s political and social struggles. I en
c
acknowledge that I have probably not written the book they would m - li
have wanted. But at least, I think, I have done no harm. co
Similarly, I want to acknowledge my gratitude, appreciation, and ect.
n
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respect for the many Americans who agreed to speak with me about o
c
e
their experiences with the Montagnard-Dega people—missionaries, av
gr
nurses, resettlement workers, and soldiers. I was touched by the sincerity al
p
w.
with which they committed their efforts to help Dega refugees—who, w
w
obviously, universally, had in turn touched each of them profoundly. I m
o
am also appreciative of the fine work of the many American and French al fr
anthropologists such as Gerald Hickey, Jacques Dournes, and Georges eri
at
Condominas who studied these highland groups in Vietnam. I am ht m
especially indebted to the more recent scholarship of Oscar Salemink yrig
p
whose authoritative study, “The Ethnography of Vietnam’s Central o
C
Highlands,” was published while I was completing my manuscript and
reached many of my conclusions before me.
I am grateful for the funding I received through the University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: a Royster Fellowship, a Southern
Oral History Interview Grant, and a Perry Research Fellowship. And
I want to call out thanks to several academic colleagues in particu-
lar: Tomoko Masuzawa, Ruel Tyson, Thomas Tweed, James Peacock,
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