Revisiting agency and marginality in Northern Vietnam: Thái Xòe between cosmology, heritage performance, and politics
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: In Vietnam, ethnic minorities and local communities are typically portrayed as passive subjects of top-down heritage policies. By ethnographically examining the practice of xòe, a Thái dance recognized as intangible cultural heritage, we seek to challenge commonly held narratives of top-down imposition unveiling the many layers of agency and localized meaning creation involved. The article shows how processes of state-driven governmentalization and standardization coexist with diverse ritual practices grounded in Thái cosmology and social diversity. By offering a historical account of how meanings of xòe have changed over time, the paper presents an alternative history of heritage agency through fine-grained analysis of power relationships surrounding xòe. We explore forms of Thái agency using xòe as a vehicle for cultural reassertion, ritual practice, and cosmological agency. While critiques of heritage discourse that emphasize the power of experts, state agencies, and international institutions are valid, they neglect complex layers of meaning creation, local agency, and culturally embedded everyday heritage politics.
DOI: 10.5167/uzh-291372
Authors: Hoàng, Cầm, Larsen, Peter Bille
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7128720145
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: