The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)

Abstract

In this paper, I present a short excerpt from an 18-hour-long Bru life history recorded in 1989 in the Central Vietnamese Highlands among the Bru/Vân Kiều of Quảng Trị. The excerpt sheds light on the circumstances of Christian evangelization among the Bru through the recollections of a Bru man who was not Christian himself but was in contact with the key protagonists of the events, the missionaries and the evangelized Bru people. The interview reveals on how the evangelized and non-evangelized viewed the evangelists. What were the ways of promoting evangelization? Were the Bru impressed by the world of the evangelizers? How did the Bru conceive of the evangelizers? How convincing did they find their arguments? Beside its immanent value, this intercultural encounter has a significance beyond itself insofar as it is situated in and reflective of the icy political and ideological milieu of the Vietnam War in the 1960s–1970s, the impacts of which were still lingering when the recording was made.

Full text

The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player
(Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
Acta Ethnographica Hungarica 65(1), 257–284 (2020)
DOI: 10.1556/022.2020.00010
1216–9803/$ 20 © 2020 The Author(s)
Gábor Vargyas
Instute of Ethnology, Research Centre for the Humanies, Budapest
Department of European Ethnology – Cultural Anthropology, University of Pécs
Abstract:
             


      






Keywords:        

              

          
 





             
          
           
  th  

Received: March 4, 2020 • Accepted: March 16, 2020
Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

258 Gábor Vargyas
         

         
    

   



              
        
             

      




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
Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

259
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)

            
          
      
     

       


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Figure 2         
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

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

260 Gábor Vargyas







        
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      
  
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        
    
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       
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






         

and the Summer
   

         



            
 


             
 


 and 

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

261
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)

   
      
    

     




of
    
    
   

     
the main protagonists of the story,
    
    
     

    
      


     
     
     
      
 See 
 rdEthnologue: Languages
of the World – 
 
.      

     
       
         
       

 







      

Figure 3
      

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

262 Gábor Vargyas
Figure 4-5           


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263
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
Figure 6-7

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

264 Gábor Vargyas
Figure 8 


Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

265
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
Figure 8              

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

266 Gábor Vargyas




 





Captured!

             
           


     




started from the north,   

 
  


     


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
  facsimile   
         
      
            

     Captured!




 
 and

 
 
Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

267
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)




           


 to found

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             
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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

268 Gábor Vargyas
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       th  
         
        
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       
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        
    
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     
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           
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       
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 Un épisode de l’annonce de la Bonne Nouvelle chez les Brus 
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 

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Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

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The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
    
           


    
        
   
     
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       
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
 achuaih

 Achuaih
 khỡi Sarăng

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

270 Gábor Vargyas



- Achuaih






here this achuaih
yĩang

  
yĩang tễngYĩang      



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
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
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 
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          
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
 kutễq blốh
 achuaih
Khỡi Sarăng’

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

271
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)


- 
 

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
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 th
 


khỡi Sarăng
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Figure 9.
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272 Gábor Vargyas
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coi như
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chín năm kháng chiến chống pháp, mười tám năm chống mỹ
  

achuaih


 achuaih

Khỡi Sarăng
 
 Khỡi Sarăng must

 
             Khỡi Sarăng 


Khỡi Sarăng

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

273
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)







          





        
young, mind you, this achuaih 



mpơaqmpơaq
       
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         
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 
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Mặt Trận Giải Phóng Miền Nam Việt NamFront National de Liberté
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274 Gábor Vargyas
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    Việt Nam Ðộc Lập Ðồng Minh Hội   
             
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 
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275
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
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 achuaih
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dống daoq
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       
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       
   
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     
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   
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
khỡi Sarăng
 bà  
khỡi Sarăng
    hoc     hop 
khỡi Sarăng
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276 Gábor Vargyas
      
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         
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hõphọp 
       achuaih
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  Achuaih
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         
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tha hồ 
   
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          
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 Khỡi Sarăng
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277
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
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





 In this episode, khỡi Sarăng

 

 khỡi Sarăng


 Khỡi Sarăng

 

Here khỡi Sarăng


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278 Gábor Vargyas






we both laugh

- 


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
Mpơaq 
Miller? Ông Chato the south?
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
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        

-  Viet: Tin lành  [I meant:
Catholic
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 tĩemtiêm
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
 
           

 Khỡi Sarăng
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 
Khỡi
Sarăngmục sư 

 
achuaih 
Unauthenticated | Downloaded 03/06/21 01:23 PM UTC

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The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)
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








       khỡi
Sarăng           
             
          

       
           
khỡi Sarăng
        




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



    
      khỡi Sarăng   
          

  
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       
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280 Gábor Vargyas
 khỡi Sarăng          

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       
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


      
Khỡi Sarăng

  
  khỡi Sarăng    








 

REFERENCES CITED

 
     

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281
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)

 Parnai O Tê Yiang Sursi:   


 

 Les aventurières de Dieu.nd

 Les Sœurs de Saint-Paul de Chartres.
, Georges
 Une fondatrice d’institut missionnaire. Mère Marie de la Passion et les
franciscaines missionnaires de Marie.

 Free in the Forest. Ethnohistory of the Vietnamese Central Highlands 1954–
1976.
 Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam’s Highland Peoples
during the Vietnam War. 
 Window on a War: An Anthropologist in the Vietnam Conict. 


 Sách hoc tiêng Bru Vân Kiêu. 

 Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War.

 Les Amantes de la Croix et l’Évangélisation du Vietnam, des origines de la
congrégation à 1975.

 Mon-Khmer Studies 
 Captured! st      
 nd        


 Bru - Viet - Anh. Bru Language Lessons


 Mon-Khmer Studies 
 Phonetica 
 Southeast Asia

 Brou - English - Vietnamese Dictionary   

 Bru Culture-Folklore Reader

 Bru Vocabulary        

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282 Gábor Vargyas
 Bru Ethnographic Texts


 Bru Phonemes, Psychophonemics, Word Lists


 Mon-Khmer Studies

 The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh

 Air Power and the Fight for Khe Sanh


 Cuộc di dân sắc-tộc Bru từ Quảng Trị vào Darlac



            
      


 A Short History of the Evangelical Church of Viet Nam (1911-1965)


 The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh.

 Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh. 

 The Battle for Khe Sanh. 
     


 The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War.


 A la recherche des Brou perdus, population montagnarde du Centre
Indochinois.        


 Histoire générale de la Communauté des Filles de Saint-Paul de Chartres,
enseignantes, hospitalières, missionnaires. 

 Les Filles de Saint-Paul en Indo-Chine.

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283
The Voice of the Lord from a Record Player (Vietnamese Highlands, 1960s)

 Từ Điển Bru-Việt-Anh. / Saráq Parnai Brũ-Yuan-Anh. / A Bru-Vietnamese-
English Dictionary
Gábor Vargyas is scienc councillor at the Instute of Ethnology of the Research
Centre for the Humanies, Budapest, and Professor at the Department of European
Ethnology – Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pécs, heading the Doctoral
Program. He specializes in the peoples and cultures of Southeast-Asia and Oceania with
special interest in religion, ethno-history, culture change, material culture and tribal
art. Besides shorter eld trips to Australia and Papua New Guinea (1981–82), Congo
(Brazzaville) and Angola (1987), Korea (1991), Irian Jaya (1993), Laos (1996), and China
(1999), he conducted extensive long-term ethnographic eldwork among the Bru in the
Central Vietnamese Highlands (1985–1989 and 2006–2007). He is the author of, among
others, A la recherche des Brou perdus (2000) and a number of arcles dealing with
dierent aspects of Bru culture. E-mail: mpaqtoan2@gmail.com
Open Access.             
      
  
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