"Ethnic Resilience" and Indigenous Religion: A Transnational Perspective on Vietnamese Immigrant Congregations in California

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Dr. Janet Hoskins will undertake research on the relationship between immigrant resilience and religious practices. Her focus will be a case study of renewed interest in three distinct religions born in Vietnam: the syncretistic and hierarchical Caodaism, the ascetic and egalitarian Hoa Hao Buddhism, and the spirit possession performances of Dao Mau or "Mother Goddess Religion." These religions were practiced by 15-25 percent of the people of South Vietnam before 1975. Recently, Vietnamese immigrants have been re-establishing these religions in California, and they also are re-emerging on the public stage in Vietnam where there has been a resurgence of religious activity in the post-1995 renovation era. Hoskins will investigate (1) how followers of indigenous religions situate themselves as moral actors in their home country and in the United States; (2) how their religions are institutionalized in two such different contexts; and (3) how religious practices relate to the ways in which people who are first seen as refugees and exiles come eventually to be defined as immigrants and members of ethnic groups. The researcher will employ a combination of ethnographic methodologies. She will collect and analyze individual life histories and family histories; delineate and analyze institutional networks; compare religious publications in English and Vietnamese; and observe religious centers and ceremonies in California and Vietnam. These data will allow her to explore the possibility that cross-generational persistence supports immigrants and ideas of ethnic resilience, even in situations where modes of worship are reinvented and revitalized, and immigration is an impetus for religious innovation. This research will contribute to theory that realigns the analysis of religion in home and destination countries, and to better understanding of the subtle dimensions of successful immigration. The project also supports the education of a graduate student.