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

珍妮特·霍斯金斯博士将对移民适应力和宗教习俗之间的关系进行研究。她的重点将是一个案例研究，以重新引起人们对在越南诞生的三种不同宗教的兴趣：融合和等级制的高教，禁欲和平等的和好佛教，以及岛茂或“母亲女神宗教”的精神附身表演。1975年以前，这些宗教在南越的人口中占15- 25%。最近，越南移民在加州重新建立了这些宗教，它们也重新出现在越南的公共舞台上，在1995年后的重建时期，越南的宗教活动有所复苏。霍斯金斯将调查(1)本土宗教的追随者如何在他们的祖国和美国将自己定位为道德行为者；(2)他们的宗教是如何在这两种不同的背景下制度化的；(3)宗教活动与最初被视为难民和流亡者的人最终被定义为移民和少数民族成员的方式有何关系。研究人员将采用民族志方法的组合。她将收集和分析个人生活史和家族史；描绘和分析机构网络；比较英文和越南文的宗教出版物；并参观加州和越南的宗教中心和仪式。这些数据将使她能够探索跨代坚持支持移民和种族弹性思想的可能性，即使在敬拜模式被重新发明和振兴的情况下，移民也是宗教创新的动力。这项研究将有助于重新调整对原籍国和目的地国宗教的分析，并有助于更好地理解成功移民的微妙方面。该项目还支持研究生的教育。

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.