{"title":"Rule by glorification: The imposition of state honours and ‘grateful coerced subjects’ in contemporary Vietnam","authors":"Lam Minh Chau","doi":"10.1177/0308275x241254021","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"By bestowing honours, states produce subjects. But what kind of subjects are created if those honoured do not seek state honours, because they find the honours not worth the responsibilities they have to shoulder, or because they do not internalise the state's values that the honours embody? Building on ethnographic materials from Vietnam, this article explores how some who receive honours are “grateful coerced subjects” on whom state honours are imposed through social pressure, persistent persuasion, or as a matter of fait accompli they cannot refuse. The bestowal of honours exposes them to pressure from the wider society to comply with state's goals and values to prove themselves worthy of the honours, in ways they find physically burdensome and morally problematic. Yet the coerced subjects do not hold a grudge against the state, and even feel grateful to the state for conferring honours on them.","PeriodicalId":46784,"journal":{"name":"Critique of Anthropology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critique of Anthropology","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275x241254021","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
By bestowing honours, states produce subjects. But what kind of subjects are created if those honoured do not seek state honours, because they find the honours not worth the responsibilities they have to shoulder, or because they do not internalise the state's values that the honours embody? Building on ethnographic materials from Vietnam, this article explores how some who receive honours are “grateful coerced subjects” on whom state honours are imposed through social pressure, persistent persuasion, or as a matter of fait accompli they cannot refuse. The bestowal of honours exposes them to pressure from the wider society to comply with state's goals and values to prove themselves worthy of the honours, in ways they find physically burdensome and morally problematic. Yet the coerced subjects do not hold a grudge against the state, and even feel grateful to the state for conferring honours on them.
期刊介绍:
Critique of Anthropology is dedicated to the development of anthropology as a discipline that subjects social reality to critical analysis. It publishes academic articles and other materials which contribute to an understanding of the determinants of the human condition, structures of social power, and the construction of ideologies in both contemporary and past human societies from a cross-cultural and socially critical standpoint. Non-sectarian, and embracing a diversity of theoretical and political viewpoints, COA is also committed to the principle that anthropologists cannot and should not seek to avoid taking positions on political and social questions.