Hmong Christian elites as political and development brokers: competition, cooperation and mimesis in Vietnam’s highlands

Seb Rumsby*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article focuses on the role of new Hmong religious leaders – predominantly young men – who have played an important role in spreading Protestant Christianity across Vietnam’s highlands over the past 30 years. These pastors and evangelists have directly challenged the authority of previously established Hmong local elites, whose legitimacy rested on traditional religious authority and/or state patronage, causing significant social conflict along the way. Some new Christian pioneers have gained local elite status as political and development brokers for their community, enjoying a potent combination of spiritual authority, strong external networks and financial success. As such, international religious networks can function as alternative patrons to the state for well-placed Hmong Christian elites to tap into and redistribute to their communities – to varying degrees. Contextualising such leadership dynamics within wider anthropological scholarship of upland Southeast Asia affirms the ‘pioneering ethos’ of local elites in challenging, complying with or mimicking state forms of governance in their attempts to draw in and channel external potency. This highlights the degree of political manoeuvring space available to non-state actors in a supposedly authoritarian state, as well as ongoing tensions and controversies facing pastors who negotiate ambiguous relationships with powerful external forces.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)701-717
Number of pages17
JournalSocial Anthropology
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 Sept 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I would like to thank the guest editors Oliver Tappe and Rosalia Stolz, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their input. This research was enabled through my PhD funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Social Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of European Association of Social Anthropologists

Keywords

  • brokerage
  • Christianity
  • elites
  • Hmong
  • Vietnam
  • courtage
  • conflit
  • ethnicité
  • légitimité
  • religion

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Anthropology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science

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