selected bahnar epic and its fate in the contemporary society

INTRODUCTION Reasons for choosing the thesis topic Bahnar1 ethnic group has an unique culture with various forms of art including epic (h’mon) Being an achievement of a group of age-old inhabitants in Indonesia, h’mon is imbued with indigineous characteristics, less or not affected by foreign factors like a large proportion of epic of other ethnic groups of Southeast Asia Therefore, leanrning about the relationship between h’mon and Bahnar society in the past will help us beware clearly typical endogenous art products of the ethnic people The changes in many aspects of economy and society, and impacts of the wave of contemporary culture in the past few decades have led to the dissolution of Bahnar traditional cultural structure at different degrees in areas The existence of h'mon in particular and of epics of other ethnic groups in Highlands in general has faced many challenges in the new context What the future of h'mon is merits consideration However, researches on above mentioned issues, that is, finding out about Bahnar epic in the past and current political and socio-economic context, or in other words, putting it in the angle of interdisciplinary approach of culturology, have not been carried out systematically Thus, additional appropriate researches are necessary to fill this gap With the above-mentioned reasons and my desire to contribute my voice, we selected Bahnar epic and its Fate in the contemporary society as our research topic Definition, research purposes, research objects and research scope Definition: 1) Bahnar epic: Oral narrative works of Bahnar people mainly revolve around a hero named Dam Giong who is considered to be a symbol of the community of the ethnic people in the history; 2) Fate: life; 3) Contemporary society: the society of Bahnar people since after Renovation (1986) These definitions are presented based on definitions of Vietnamese Dictionary published in 2003 by Da Nang Publishing House and The topic uses Bahnar instead of Bana or Ba Na, etc., because it is the familiar name commonly-used by Bahnar people and in the phonetic aspect, this word is more accurate than other words For those materials that use other words instead of Bahnar, we would like to replace them with Bahnar Lexicography Center Epic:“A big work of narrative literature describes the career of heroes and major historical event“ – basically, this definition is consistent to that of some dictionaries/ encyclopedias that currently catch attention in the world such as Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature (1995), A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (1998), Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism (2000) ; Fate: “Life, existence given for each person and each thing”; Contemporary: “of the present time” Research purposes: Specify the essence of h’mon as a work of a specific historical context, wherby identifying its fate in the contemporary life Research objects: 1) Contents, forms and roles of h’mon as the results of the interaction between the work and the historical context that formed this work; 2) Life of h’mon in the community of Bahnar people at present Research scope: H’mon and its life in Tay Nguyen before and after Renovation Research areas are Gia Lai and Kon Tum where basic h’mon is collected and subject ethnic people reside These two localities, especially Gia Lai, also keep Bahnar traditional cultural imprint relatively clear In addition, they are also where changes in all aspects of the ethic people today are obviously shown To ensure representativeness, research points include rural, urban and mixed areas Contributions of thesis This theme systematically studies Bahnar epic under cultural perspective in order to determine the nature of the object in relation with the historical and social context that created it and point out the fate of this unique cultural form in a contemporary society In terms of theory, through addressing issues, the study theme gives proposals for a more precise application of a theory that has been used for a long time in epic studies in Vietnam but this application remains many shortcomings In terms of practice, the theme proposes solutions to Bahnar epic and works that belong to intangible cultural heritages of the Central Highlands, attract the public’s undivided attention, and act as reference materials for policymakers Structure of the thesis In addition to Introduction, Conclusion and References, the thesis consists of three chapters CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF ISSUES RELATED TO THE RESEARCH TOPIC 1.1 Some characteristics of the ethnic people of Bahnar epic 1.1.1 Historical process of the ethnic people Bahnar people belong to Indonedien type It is the ethnic group ranking second in speaking Mon-Khmer language in Vietnam and living in the longest period in Tay Nguyen History of the Bahnar people connects closely to that of ethnic groups of Tay Nguyen After centuries of self-rule, land of the Bahnar people was more or less affected by external political and military forces in the period from the twelfth century to the early twentieth century However, traditional socioeconomic structure until before 1945 was quite sustainable After 1975, the Bahnar ethnic group became a member of the great community of ethnic groups of unified Vietnam 1.1.2 Charateristics of natural environment of the residence Residence of Bahnar people was created by valleys, highlands and mountains Land of the area includes three groups: bazan, alluvium and granite The climate in the residence of Bahnar people is humid tropical monsoon with differrent sub-areas Water resources including rainwater, surface water and underground water are a big potential for production activities 1.1.3 Socio-economic life In this part, the writer has referred to information from the work named Folklore Bahnar with To Ngoc Thanh being a chief editor, published in 1988 by Gia Lai Department of Culture and Information and the work named Bahnar ethnic group in Vietnam with Bui Minh Dao being a chief editor, published in 2006 by Social Sciences Publishing House 1.1.3.1 Economic life Main activities to earn a living of Bahnar people are cultivating, breeding, doing crafts, exploiting and exchaning natural resources Bahnar people are residents making their living by cultivation on burntover land In addition to rice as the main crop, they also cultivate a lot of catch crops In the past natural conditions, with the closed technique of nomadic farming, burnt-over land of Tay Nguyen is assessed to be a sustainable farming system Currently, due to population pressure, open alternative plots of land of Bahnar people, that is, continuous cultivation on a piece of field is replacing closed alternative plots of land However, dry fields and wet fields are currently paid more attention to develop than before Notably, self-sufficiency polyculture gardens of households in many localities have been transferred into industrial tree plantation gardens Breeding is one of important production activities of Bahnar people In the past, livestock and poultry were often raised without being caged but being let wander freely or both with caging and without caging, while at present, breeding is increasingly becoming a commodity production activity Old techniques of breeding have been replaced with new ones (caging, inoculating against an epidemic, feeding according to a stable diet, etc.) The most familiar handicrafts of Bahnar people are bamboo weaving and fabric weaving Bamboo weaving products are made from materials such as rattan, bamboo, neohouzeaua, etc Fabric is weaved from cotton yards which are grown in the moutain field Handicrafts are currently in recession, partly because of lack of materials and partly because of the advantage of industrial products Bahnar people previously exploited resources from the nature such as hunting, fishing and gathering vegetables The birds were usually hunted in the dry season The fishing took place all year round and provided food sources more often People also found and picked vegetables and fruits, and dug starchy tubers in the forest in order to meet the needs of a meal Currently, due to changes in the natural conditions, the hunting and gathering are lost in oblivion Several decades ago, the trade of Bahnar people did not develop as they earned their living mainly by cultivating on their burnt-over land There was no paper money and barter and exchange one thing for another was common Exchanged things were livestock, poultry, food, woven products, gongs, salt, ironwork, etc Due to the decrease in the natural resources meeting the closed life and impacts of the market economy and transport development, selling and buying services have been expanded 1.1.3.2 Social life Villages of Bahnar were previously managed by a village chief and a board of patriarchs who were experienced elders Duties of the village chief were to deal with general issues related to internal and external affairs Each village also had a military leader responsible for commanding young people in case of occurring conflicts within the village or with other ethnic groups At present, the village is no longer a unique social organization Roles of the village chief and board of patriarchs have been narrowed The family of Bahnar people is form by members who are descendants of an ancestor within his or generations A family of Bahnar people is former a family of different generations before transferring into the small family model In addition to the disappear of some traditional marriage forms, the trend that a couple has a private life after marriage instead of taking it in turns to reside according to the bi-generational marriage form has become more popular Economic functions of a household are changing according to the direction of decreasing self-sufficiency activities and increasing the commodity production Meanwhile, educational functions are shared with the society 1.1.4 Culture Bahnar people previously followed the animistic belief Their belief was shown in different rituals and taboos Main rituals of Bahnar people were agricutural ritual, ritual of a life cycle and community ritual They also performed quite a lot of taboos that were strictly stipulated in production, fights, village establishment, house construction, pregnancy, birth-giving, sickness, funeral, etc Bahnar folk art is imbued with the identity of the ethnic group Bahnar music is diverse both in instrumental music and in vocal music Musical instruments is assessed to be more abundant than those of other ethnic groups in Vietnam Bahnar dances are usually performed in community festivals, and more or less represent the production and natural exploitation Sculpture and decoration art of Bahnar people are inspired by the landscape of the rainforest, and shown at the communal houses, grave houses, as well as on woven fabrics and weaving products Bahnar literature includes many epic genres, fairy tales, folk songs, proverbs, riddles, etc., but the most prominent is epic - the major works depicting the heroic deeds Like in many other ethnic groups of Tay Nguyen, the culture of Bahnar people currently witness major changes Polytheistic faith has faded The traditional art forms such as dances, folk songs, grave statutes, epic telling, etc, are all in a gradual recession, especially in areas with many religious people Along with the explosion of modern mass media, the import of new cultural waves has made significant changes in the demand for the spiritual life of the local people 1.2 Research situation of Bahnar epic 1.2.1 Some features about the research situation of Tay Nguyen epic After a relatively long period of learning about Tay Nguyen epic, there are certain findings Generally, researches aims to generalize epic of the whole region or of a specific ethnic group other than a particular epic This suggests that identifying Tay Nguyen epic with its system in recent years has still been a matter of concern However, these research works relatively lean on surveying the aesthetical aspect of the research object, whilst epic is not only an art form but also an overall cultural phenomenon that should be studied more from the interdisciplinary perspective 1.2.2 Research situation of Bahnar epic H’mon has become a research object of related scientific sectors in the past 30 years Although epic works of one of ethnic groups living in a longest period in the Highlands have attracted the interest of the scientific circles, the number of works surveying these epic works in fact is limited, especially works of large volume In general, except for those articles that introduce the works in the Project of Surveying, collecting, conserving, translating and pulishing the Tay Nguyen epic treasure (2001 – 2007), researches on Bahnar epic, similar to those on Tay Nguyen epic in general, often mention to h’mon system of the whole ethnic group rather than a particular work In case of referring to a particular work, they aim at general issues In terms of the approach of these researches, there are two angles: basic researches and applied researches Firstly, those researches that approach h’mon from the basic angle include 1) researches for specific purposes, and 2) interdisciplinary researches First of all, those researches for specific purposes are ones that study objects in reference to literary works These researches focus on specifying issues on genres, topics and prosody of epic works In terms of determining the literary genre of h’mon, there are some typical articles such as “Some thinkings about the epic genre in the oral literature of Bahnar ethnic group” (1995) of Phan Thi Hong, “Try to explain the phenomenon of a lot of Bahnar epics all named Dyông” (2005) of Phan Dang Nhat, and some articles introducing epic works announced in the period of 2005 – 2007 of the Project of Surveying, collecting, conserving, translating and pulishing the Tay Nguyen epic of Vo Quang Trong, Nguyen Viet Hung, Phan Hoa Ly, Le Thi Thuy Ly, etc Regarding topics of h’mon, there is the article named “Topics of Bahnar epic” (2001) of Nguyen Thi My Loc With regard to prosody of h’mon, there are some works and articles such as “Epic group of Bahnar ethnic group (Kon Tum) (2006) of Phan Thi Hong; “Action without end in the epic named “Tiger kidnaps Giong in his childhood” (2008), “Storyline and characters of Bahnar epic” (2009), and “Narrative in Bahnar epic” (2009) of Le Thi Thuy Ly; “Variation of the storyline type, that is, the fight to save a beautiful woman in Bahnar epic” (2012) of Phan Thi Hong In addition to researches approaching h’mon from specific purpose perspective, there are researches of different levels aiming at approaching the object from the interdisciplinary angle They are following works: Folklore Bahnar (1988) of To Ngoc Thanh and his coworkers, Epic of Bahnar people of Talo group in Kon Chro District, Gia Lai Province (2006) of Nguyen Quang Tue, “First steps to learn about names of characters in Bahnar epic” (2006) of Nguyen Quang Tue, “The animal world in Bahnar epic (2008) of Ngo Thi Hong Van, “Premitive cultural factors in the phenomenon in which a hero seeks for his wife in a remote area, characters’ selection of movement directions, and the essence of the competitions to seize beautiful women in Bahnar epic (2008) of Nguyen Giao and Le Thi Thuy Ly, “Based on magic elements and taboos in Bahnar epics to think about the formation time of these works” (2009) of Le Thi Thuy Ly, “About the h’mon work named Jip Bo Ling gives birth to a Te Te bird” (2012) of Bui Thien Thai, etc Secondly, researches approach h’mon from applied research angle These researches are ones finding out about real situations of h’mon in the contemporary life, showing causes of these situations and/or proposing solutions to conserving and exploiting Examples are “Gia Lai with Tay Nguyen epic” (2008) of Vu Ngoc Binh, “Epics in Gia Lai Province” (2008) of Cham Huong Viet, “Fate of Tay Nguyen epic in the social conditions of contemporary society ” (2008) of To Ngoc Thanh, “Some issues on collecting, translating, researching and popularizing Giarai epic and Bahnar epic in Gia Lai” (2008) of Nguyen Quang Tue, “Không or a sad story” (2010) of Nguyen Quang Tue, Tay Nguyen epic in the contemporary life (2010) of Phan Dang Nhat - Chu Xuan Giao and coworkers, etc In brief, Bahnar epic has been studied in several aspects, both from basic and applied research angle Even so, in terms of our research topic, in the research portfolio, there is no overall research, because researches that more or less mentioned to this topic were not carried out intensively or overally Originating from the new situation of the materials in recent years, we want to survey systematically, in terms of culturology, the characteristics and movement processes of Bahnar epic in the relationships with the historical and social context, and on that basis, making our own judgments about its fate 1.3 Theory and research methods With questions of the topic being “What is Bahnar epic? and what is its fate in the contemporary society?“, main theories used by us are the historical materialism of K Marx and the cultural materialism of M Harris (Marx’s theory has various contents, but from a culturology thesis perspective, we are concerned only about the content discussing about the relationship between infrastructure and superstructure of the society, a content that is considered to be a cultural theory by culturology) Marx and Harris who was inherrited some Marx’s opinions all affirmed decisive impacts of material conditions on social consciousness While Marx focused on relations of production that created infrastructure and decided superstructure, Harris concentrated on technology and ecology Dispite of some certain arguements over their views on cultural autonomy, both theorists, particularly Marx, have been widely acknowledged by the scientific circles that they created a number of notable impacts in the field of cultural studies as well as many other areas of social science humanities Acceptable features of these theories are that they require a necessary attention to roles of material conditions in social consciousness, including cultural products Epic is a product closely connected to collecitve psychology, and a key origin of collecitve psychology is the collectiveness in the production activities, so studying it in the relationship with material conditions of the society is appropriate In addition to critics about their opinion to accurately apply theory, with the selection of Marx’s theory and his inherriter, we want to, by our own findings, affirm the accuracy of previous scientists‘ opinions on Tay Nguyen epic in general and Bahnar epic in particular who mainly used materialis theory in their research Method used to research the topic is the interdisciplinary method, a typical method of culturology With above-mention method, at the level of detail, we use the following research tasks: text surveys (h'mon), intensive interviews, analysis and synthesization of existing research results Specifically, we compare and contrast contents of h'mon text with ethnographic materials, combining with interviewing local people to answer the first aspect of the research question (what Bahnar epic is) Then, basing on my own investigations and analyzing and synthesizing research results of previous authors to answer the second aspect (what its fate is in the contemporary society) Sub-conclusion From specific social and natural conditions of Tay Nguyen, Bahnar people have create a typical culture for ethnic groups in the region, of which h’mon is a special achievement Since being detected, a lot of h’mons have been collected, translated and introduced Subsequently, the survey on them has been promoted both from the basic scientific angle and from apllied scientific one, but mainly from the arts studies Our topic, by approaching culturology, aims to find out about the essence of h’mon as a cultural product of a particular historical and social context and its Fate in the contemporary life CHAPTER 10 BAHNAR EPIC – THE SPECIFIC CULTURAL PRODUCT OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY In this chapter, we analyze the relation between Bahnar epic and traditional society of the subject by learning the influences of society on the formation of characteristics of h’mon as well as h’mon’s effects, that means the internal and external relationship of the work Based on definition of tradition in Vietnamese dictionary of the Institute of Linguistics (2003), we use the clause traditional society to refer Bahnar society before 1975, when it basically brings “natures inherited from the previous generations” From the theoretical perspective used in the topic, we regard the most important “natures inherited from the previous generations” of this society as unspecialized communist preoduction Recently, traditional society has been seen problem term (that mentioned societies virtually are unchanged while they have changed little, therefore, that leads to romanticization or discrimination of the target) and got around by many researchers For our part, we see that, a “traditional society“ has certain mobilization and a modern society has reserved traditional elements, however, the key feature is that the something new is the key property On the other hand, if you call the thing(s) by its or their real names, it can lead to romanticization or discrimination, because of their reason is to not correct recognize the target In our opinion, basically, the unspecialized communist society of Bahnar people before 1975 is traditional society 2.1 The content and form of Bahnar epic and its social context reflection 2.1.1 Content 2.1.1.1 Military conflict and ware heroes Military conflict in h’mon reflected historical reality of Bahnar people, though not directly, refracted by the prism through thinkings of folk art First of all, h’mon sees that after external causes of battles in h’mon being pretty diverse, the indirect causes are property appropriation and detention of prisoners of war, which creates a typical phase of “military democracy” of 11 Bahnar people And then, by the picture of war, h’mon clearly reflected the organization of contemporary society being very suitable for regular military conflict Moreover, h’mon also shows the central role of hero’s clan, who dominates all power elite of the community with exceptional physical strength and military ruling abilities 2.1.1.2 Labor and cultural heroes H’mon portrayed a vivid picture of labor life of Bahnar people Main living activities in labor life of Bahnar people are such as agricultural production, handicraft and exploitation of natural resources in works Labor, not only regularly appears, but also are main or unique topic in many works, and in these works, the main characters are cultural heroes They show their roles to the community by guiding people to work well 2.1.1.3 The roles of women Women in h’mon play a special role in the war Standing by the justice force, they enthusiastically participate in battles by fighting capacities not less than the male heroes, even in many cases, they also decide war situations Moreover, women in h’mon are a specific symbol of power We can see it by learning the nature of contests in h’mon with the prize of beauty – the contests are organized to look for a military coalition object The roles of women in h’mon somewhat show the imprints of machiartry of the nation 2.1.1.4 Beliefs and customs H’mon reflects magic and animism beliefs and many customs and habits of Bahnar people which mostly relate to the beliefs mentioned above First of all, h’mon reflects magic beliefs in which you or not something for the other to happen or not happen And then, it reflects animism beliefs in which all things and phenomena in the natural have souls and may impact on people’s lives On different levels, traditions, rites of worship of these gods are demonstrated in h’mon, especially rituals in life cycles and community spirit Beliefs and customs in h’mon show commitment with traditional world outlook of Bahnar people regarded as polytheism memories of Dong Son people 12 2.1.1.5 Folk knowledge H’mon is effective tool for Bahnar people in keeping and transferring folk knowledge as an oral encyclopedia of life H’mon reflects Bahnar people’s knowledge on nature (topography, land, climate, water source and flora) Furthermore, h’mon also shows people’s knowledge on social culture, life culture, spirit culture and experience on community management Finally, h’mon focuses on Bahnar people’s knowledge on living activities (farming, handicraft, exploitation of natural resources and commodity exchange, etc.) In general, h’mon reflects the real picture of traditional Bahnar society Although some factors in this picture exist so far, it has basically changed 2.1.2 Form 2.1.2.1 Building storyline and characters form Regarding storyline, as other narrative works, h’mon often describes that the main characters penetrate into opposite environments to improve, suppress or cancel it However, for some h’mons, the contrast of opposite spaces is not clear, works own low storyline because they are in favor of education or knowledge providing, and listeners approach them to mentioned values rather than aesthetic ones Regarding characters, there are action and non-action characters, anthropological-shaped and anthropological-unshaped characters in h’mon Especially, the diverse existence of anthropological-unshaped characters clearly shows the ancient epic nature in h’mon, in which the reminiscence of people is assessed to bring mythical characteristics rather than to be shown by describing characters and historical events 2.1.2.2 Description form Regarding the relation between words and fictional entities of h’mon, we can see the dominant of direct description, the interleaving between acceleration and deceleration of storytelling action, the frequent occurrence of repeating cases and the presence with many times of assessment bringing implicit ethics, etc Regarding the relation between texts and fictional world of texts with storytellers, there are situations such as: the narrator appears but does 13 not participate in described world and the narrator does not appear, the second situation is more popular Regarding the relation among elements in the texts, three basic section combination types of narrative style consist of integration, continuation and interleaving type in h’mon although their frequency are not equal Moreover, some h’mon contain several incomplete sections 2.1.2.3 Oratorio form To carry out oratorio of long-winded texts as h’mon, artists have to go through a process of learning, training for a long time and dominate capacities of memories and health They may tell epic in large houses or any houses in the village It happens in quiet and order places, with all people in the village H’mon oratorio language has main elements such as lyrics and music Lyrics are alternating combination between prose and verse or symmetrical pair prose Music basically is vocal music, as most other ethnic groups in the region, Bahnar people not use musical instruments when showing epic The storytellers try to avoid telling inconclusively because they are afraid that ancestral spirits along the stories coming back to them will feel unsatisfied It can be said that historical – social context leaves its mark in building storyline – characters, narrative way and oratorio of h’mon 2.2 The social roles of Bahnar epic, meeting specific historical requirements 2.2.1 The role of community links Former Bahnar communities belong to mechanical link type; social link type is organized based on belief and common love of all members, in which collective consciousness mostly dominates people’s actions H’mon, the typical cultural product of people, is very effective means in maintaining and developing the integrity of these communities Being shown and perceived as true stories about ancient glorious of the clan, h’mon sparks members’ pride on the past and reminds them of locating their existence, not as a private but as a part of community On the other hand, the role of social cohesion h’mon is inside and outside of the works Because h’mon is often told for a large number 14 of people, that members of the villages meet each other through oratorio is very suitable condition to maintaining and reconstructing community love and relationship 2.2.2 The role of reserving and providing practical experiences There are many folk knowledge in h’mon, especially living and social knowledge In the thesis, we only study issues which are the closest to Bahnar people’s life including “farming”, “eating” and “wearing” Regarding “farming”, using land considerably, cultivating effectively and starting seasons at the right time are experiences usually referred in h’mon About “eating”, the cuisine culture of Bahnar people in epic reflects adaptation with the conditions of ecological environment being characterized by unique and diverse flora and fauna That is the result of natural differentiation of climate and soil into various sub-regions, as well as the full utilization of small production enclosed to burnt-over land On “wearing”, beauty experiences by Bahnar people’s costumes show subtlety such as colors, accessories, but have to conform to gender, situation, age and “position” In general, folk knowledge in h’mon has practical meanings for the ancient Bahnar people 2.2.3 The role of ethic and aesthetic education Most h’mon brings educational content in it Because of not forming school system, traditional Bahnar society attaches great importance to the education of families and community Families and the community are involved in “setting social norms and values”, “developing personal behavior capacities” and “indoctrinating symbol and model systems to explaining culture” Epic is one of the prominent education tools, not only for children, but also for all other objects The ethnic education content of h’mon is to build self-consciousness in complying with social order for each individual i.e to maintain compliance with behavior patterns recognized by the community; while the aesthetic education content of h’mon is to foster emotional capacities, build tastes – ideals and promote harmonious development of recepting people through aesthetic categories such as beauty, greatness, sorrowfulness and humorousness 15 In general, h’mon plays an important role in its society which is characterized by unspecifized communist production – by strengthening community cohesion block as the basis for this product, provides necessary experiences to pratice it as well as build equivalent ethnic – aesthetic value system Sub-Conclusion There is a spcecial close relationship between Bahnar traditional society and h’mon War, labor, women’s roles, beliefs, customs, folk art, etc are realistic in h’mon with typical artistic forms and shown through building storyline – characters, narrative way and oratorio; h’mon also has considerable influence on Bahnar traditional society in binding community, reserving and providing knowledge, educating ethics – aesthetics for members preserving, protecting and promoting it H’mon, in essence, is specific cultural product of traditional Bahnar society CHAPTER END OF INHERENT EXISTENCE FORM – THE FATE OF BAHNAR EPIC IN A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY 3.1 The road from the past to the present of Bahnar Epic 3.1.1 Bahnar Epic before Vietnam's Southern Liberation Day (1975) Before 1945, Tay Nguyen’ epic virtually remained intact its life At that time, a traditional communist economy played a main role When French appeared, they changed Tay Nguyen but did little citizen’s life Although established on about 10% of total red soil area in Tay Nguyen by the colonial government, this almost did not have positive impacts on socio-economic situation of ethnic minorities in place because employees were mainly recruited from other places A traditional culture remained its strong impacts and people’s epic performance in Tay Nguyen still occurred as a familiar activity In 1945 – 1954 period, the above context is generally continued 16 1954 – 1975 period saw big changes due to wars in Tay Nguyen Despite these changes, new forms of production relations didn’t control the economy of compatriots of various ethnic origins Mutual aid teams in liberation areas or capitalist, agricultural, industrial and forestry economic facilities with small scale of propertied class in areas under the control of the Saigon government were only formed in certain areas The economy in Tay Nguyen was characterized a natural production economy and a traditional social mechanism wasn’t swayed The h’mon singing and telling still happened 3.1.2 Bahnar Epic afterVietnam's Southern Liberation Day to before Reform (1986) Since 1975, the State has begun to implement the Reform in Tay Nguyen from a self-sufficient economy to a socialist economy After 10-year liberation, co-operative movements were basically completed, new production relations were established, and the traditional economy of minority groups here was transferred into a socialist planned economy This gradually disintegrated an old socio- economic model that was a basis for the founding and existence of epic works because as we know, with a society organized on the basis of labor specialization, individuals’ consciousness will grow more than the consciousness of a traditional community where any individual is a member In addition, a policy conducting in parallel three revolutions in Tay Nguyen took place in this period and its consequences towards the epic was very clear Along with a revolution in production and scientific-technological revolution, an revolution in thought and culture significantly changed people’s traditional worldview here Because the natural power was clean up, artistic forms having special relationships with beliefs such as epics encountered big challenges to survive Specially, towards the improvement of production methods in Tay Nguyen, the State implemented a policy on moving people in large numbers from Northern Delta, Central Part and Northern mountains to carry out business 17 and production activities in state-owned economic units A spontaneous migration flows was formed in Tay Nguyen That caused the disorders in minority groups’ cultural life in place On the other hand, big changes in terms of ecosystem-forest loss – also have great influences on the epic performance In addition, forest area was declined with rapid speed due to inconsistent forest policies of the State, ethnic minorities here also encountered a "serious forest loss" when a village community’s traditional collective ownership of forest land was rejected by the public ownership of land that managed by the State, which makes the forest that has been inherent in a culture and Bahnar Epic, step-by-step strange for people here As such, it can be said that by the Reform period, Bahnar epic was basically no longer existing environment in a correct sense, in which changes in production relations played a decisive role 3.1.3 Bahnar Epic from Post-reform period (1986) to present Along with a market economy established in the country, once again production models in Tay Nguyen have experienced changes On the one hand, the State has dissolved cooperatives and production groups, rearranged farms and forestry farms and adjusted the migration schedule to new economic zones as well as fixed residence and resettlement; on the other hand the State has issued many policies to encourage the household economic development associated with gardens specializing in industrial tree cultivation As a result, an agricultural- forestry economy specialized has increasingly developed in these areas: Tay Nguyen has become one of the most dynamic economic regions in the country despite social and political unrest The epic has had no appropriate infrastructure for itself Besides, globalization wave has also resulted in a faster declination of the epic The fact that cultural elements from outside have increasingly appeared caused rapid changes in people’s cultural and spiritual life in Tay Nguyen The universalization of power network and expansion of coverage area of national 18 TV stations as well as local TV stations have allowed families to use modern audiovisual media in a more convenient way; and in particular, from the beginning of the 21st century, the Internet has had greater impacts These factors have promoted the traditional cultural loss Results of interviews conducted among Bahnar people including farmers, intellectuals, freelance, students, etc with different age and education levels, with or without religious beliefs, in urban and rural areas showed that h’mon – although it is beloved by those who have deep experience with it – hasn’t attracted the Bahnar community’s attention and recreational interest Many phenomena of the globalization process have effects on the fate of Tay Nguyen epic and a change in belief is a remarkable phenomenon A number of Bahnar people who believe in a new religion – Protestantism have rapidly increased over the past years Because change belief is a constant change of culture, the fact that highland people haven’t performed and enjoyed epics containing a worldview that they gave up is unavoidable To sum up, Bahnar Epic hasn’t had suitable conditions to continue to be a live epic with its inherent nature, so far 3.2 Conservation, exploitation and promotion of Bahnar Epic heritage 3.2.1 Relevant guidelines and policies From 1989 to present, UNESCO has done a lot to strengthen the importance of intangible culture and created joint action programs worldwide to preserve and promote them In Vietnam, in 2001, Law on Cultural Heritage was published in which mentioned terms of the intangible culture Many programs related to the conservation of the heritage of this type have also been directed to implement by the State However, positive guidelines and policies aren’t always in parallel with an ideal reality like in Bahnar Epic 3.2.2 The real situation of conservation, exploitation and promotion of Bahnar Epic heritage 3.2.2.1 The real situation of conservation activities of Bahnar Epic heritage 19 Firstly, dynamic conservation is a type of conservation of phenomena in an environment where they emerge and exist Activities towards preservation of Tay Nguyen epic in general and Bahnar epic in particular including dynamic conservation have been implemented in recent years Notably, in 2001 – 2007 period, along with Project “Examination, collection, preservation, translation and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic treasure conducted by the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in collaboration with provinces in Tay Nguyen, Institute of Cultural Studies (under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences) has organized many classes teaching epics for young generations in Tay Nguyen in order to build a long-term existence of epics in the community It can be said that this is the most important activity in conservation efforts of Tay Nguyen epic, so far However, the above activities haven’t proved their effects in practice There are some reasons for this Subjectively, today Bahnar people donot see epics as meaningful things in their daily lives Most of their entertainment forms are switched to modern ones Objectively, the implementation of conservation for this kind of heritage from cultural workers also has shortcomings Some people use Marx’s comments on the allure of ancient Greek art on modern people to explain policies on restoring traditional epic performance activities in Tay Nguyen society with a belief that this epic works along with their inherent properties can still exist in a contemporary society However, Marx's comments need to be put into a certain context to consider He said that modern humans loved artistic works in humankind’s childhood and had desires to "regenerate the truthfulness of that childhood in a higher level", but in fact he still wanted to talk about an agreement between infrastructure and superstructure The difference in perspectives of h'mon value between cultural workers to its current subject is a reason for the failure of recovery effort of heritage performance activities in the inherent form Secondly, static conservation is a type of conservation of phenomena outside an environment where they emerge and exist The static conservation of 20 h'mon (collection, compilation, book and tape publishing, domestic and foreign promotion, advertisement on television and mass media, etc) mainly depends on cultural workers In the thesis, we have focused on collecting documents – forms of static conservation for h'mon that have been the most important ones, so far Over the past time, H'mon has been collected by free collectors; officials of Department of Culture and Information; and participants in Project “Examination, collection, preservation, translation and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic treasure” In particular, a maximum number of works published the most have been taken from Project “Examination, collection, preservation, translation and publication of the Tay Nguyen epic treasure” However, the project has not announced any new h'mon of Gia Lai where is home to Bahnar people, while epic volume here is expected to be large Maybe if there was a comprehensive cooperation between cultural workers at central and local level, the h'mon collection of the Project achieved better results because after the Project ended, an local official said that h’mon still existed and urged competent authorities to allocate an additional fund for continuing collection We would like to give information in details After exchanging with some members of Project Management Board and project Secretary, in 2006-2007 period they complained that although some local cultural workers participated in the Project, they kept artisans’ information secret in this area Therefore, the Bahnar epic conservation both static and dynamic aspects needs to be considered 3.2.2.2 The real situation of exploitation and promotion activities of Bahnar epic In a certain degree, this has not been done One of the ways to exploit and promote Tay Nguyen epics is that Tay Nguyen epics are transferred into new forms of audio-visual culture in order to meet demands for enjoying modern art of minority groups which is a desire of native people we interviewed However, until now this has not pay due attention 21 In addition, there is another important direction of promoting epics which exploits epics for the purpose of tourism, an meaningful activity not only introduces cultural quintessence of ethnic groups in Tay Nguyen but also offers a practical economic benefits and source of revenue for citizens and the budget respectively Nevertheless, Tay Nguyen epics haven’t been exploited in mentioning aspects 3.3 The current development trends of Bahnar epic and directions of upcoming conservation, exploitation It should be noted that h'mon hardly survives in a real world with a full range of its traditional attributes Therefore, efforts to restore its life with inherent form in the community is not feasible – it is necessary to have another solution Based on solution experience for intangible cultural heritage from some countries in the region, the real situation of h'mon conservation, exploitation and promotion, we present some proposals as follows For conservation In terms of static conservation, h'mon investigation and collection works should have a close cooperation between concerned departments and organizations Cooperation with a lack of comprehensiveness between central and local levels should be avoided In terms of dynamic conservation, identifying the nature of h'mon plays an important role in giving out appropriate solutions It is inadvisable to set goals of maintaining h'mon survival with its inherent nature when the necessary context no longer exists The fact that time and budget should be invested synchronously in all stages of investigation, collection, compilation, publication or preservation, etc in order to ensure scientific classification and efficiency play more important role in this type of conservation For exploitation and promotion Besides, continuing efforts are poured into introducing h'mon collection results as well artisans are encouraged to teach epics to appropriate objects, h'mon should be planned to put into extracurricular educational programs in the 22 locality in order to enhance young generations’ awareness Furthermore, works should be transferred to new forms to meet the needs of the local community, accordingly popularize ethnic cultural heritages It is necessary to call for the participation and response of organizations –individuals inside and outside this locality On the other hand, we should combine cultural activities with economic activities, which create favorable conditions for native people to exploit them for tourism - a direction consistent with current trends Sub-conclusion With changes in production methods, a social platform for h’mon performance activities is degraded Futhermore, globalization – modernization trends also have great impacts Despite the State’s positive policies on conservation acitivies of intangible cultural heritage, h'mon conservation is facing limitations due to the appearance of conflicts in terms of values and interests The exploitation and promotion of h'mon for contemporary needs have not been paid due attention Restoration of inherent forms of h’mon in the community is not feasible; therefore, our success and failure along with related experience of other countries in the region is a necessary basis for appropriate solutions to this heritage CONCLUSION The culture of Bahnar ethnic group is typical for ethnic minority groups of Tay Nguyen, and also a product of specific mountainous natural and social conditions with various forms of arts such as sculpture, music, poetry, dances, etc Of which, epics (h’mon) telling uninterruptedly about the deeps of the hero of the community in the construction and protection of the village are favorite works Since being discovered, Bahnar epic is step by step collected, translated and introduced, especially via the Project of Surveying, collecting, translating and publishing Tay Nguyen epic (2001-2007) The survey of h’mon 23 has been carried out in the past few decades and brought certain results both from the basic and applied research angle This topic, that is, Bahnar epic and its fate in the contemporary society, adds a more systematic research work to the research portfolio from the culturology perspective in order to specify the essence of h’mon as a product of a specific historical and social context and to identify its fate in the current life In terms of the content and form, h’mon is art works reflecting characteristics of the society from which it came into being Realities of the traditional society such as war, labor, women’s roles, belief – custom, fork knowledge, etc, have been presented in the h’mon in the typical art form They are shown specifically via storyline – character building, narrative methods and performance (small concentration on storyline, special abundance of characters who not bear anthropological body, the decisive role of direct narrative style, singing method without attaching with many performance means ) As regards roles, h’mon has considerable impacts on strengthening community relationships, disseminating knowledge of nature and society as “an oral encyclopedia”, as well as educating about moral and aesthetical values in the previous Bahnar society Being a product of the traditional historical-social context closely associated with the communism production without specialization, the existence of h’mon meets needs that the historical-social context requires Through the promoting collective solidarity block, providing members with necessary skills to effectively operate the production and providing values to build a compatible society, h'mon’s role is not only to maintain but also to protect and strengthen this production Existence basis of h’mon has witnessed big changes since traditional economy switched to socialist economy and then to the market economy, and experienced considerable changes in ecological conditions These are main reasons why h’mon no longer has a context to continue to exist with its old nature In addition, increasingly strong penetration since after the Renovation 24 of the globalization is a factor fostering the end of the performance of h’mon more quickly Although there are active policies of the State on conserving intangible cultural heritage, the conservation of h’mon encounters a lot of limitations, especially due to the appearance of conflicts in the acknowledgement of its value in the current life The exploitation and promotion h’mon’s value according to modern forms such as adaptation into new recreational forms, tourism trading, etc., have almost not been done With reference to trend, together with the disintegration of traditional socio-economic context, h’mon with incident attributes is difficult to exist The conservation of h’mon is a pure art activity to meet enjoying demands of people at present It has not shown any prospects However, exploitation of this heritage according to new directions in order to meet demands and benefits of the community, as well as to diffuse cultural quintessence of the ethnic group to the world merits consideration./ 25 [...]... community, reserving and providing knowledge, educating ethics – aesthetics for members preserving, protecting and promoting it H’mon, in essence, is specific cultural product of traditional Bahnar society CHAPTER 3 END OF INHERENT EXISTENCE FORM – THE FATE OF BAHNAR EPIC IN A CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY 3.1 The road from the past to the present of Bahnar Epic 3.1.1 Bahnar Epic before Vietnam's Southern Liberation... which are the closest to Bahnar people’s life including “farming”, “eating” and “wearing” Regarding “farming”, using land considerably, cultivating effectively and starting seasons at the right time are experiences usually referred in h’mon About “eating”, the cuisine culture of Bahnar people in epic reflects adaptation with the conditions of ecological environment being characterized by unique and diverse... the typical cultural product of people, is very effective means in maintaining and developing the integrity of these communities Being shown and perceived as true stories about ancient glorious of the clan, h’mon sparks members’ pride on the past and reminds them of locating their existence, not as a private but as a part of community On the other hand, the role of social cohesion h’mon is inside and. .. collecting, translating and publishing Tay Nguyen epic (2001-2007) The survey of h’mon 23 has been carried out in the past few decades and brought certain results both from the basic and applied research angle This topic, that is, Bahnar epic and its fate in the contemporary society, adds a more systematic research work to the research portfolio from the culturology perspective in order to specify the. .. also are main or unique topic in many works, and in these works, the main characters are cultural heroes They show their roles to the community by guiding people to work well 2.1.1.3 The roles of women Women in h’mon play a special role in the war Standing by the justice force, they enthusiastically participate in battles by fighting capacities not less than the male heroes, even in many cases, they also... meanings for the ancient Bahnar people 2.2.3 The role of ethic and aesthetic education Most h’mon brings educational content in it Because of not forming school system, traditional Bahnar society attaches great importance to the education of families and community Families and the community are involved in “setting social norms and values”, “developing personal behavior capacities” and “indoctrinating.. .BAHNAR EPIC – THE SPECIFIC CULTURAL PRODUCT OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY In this chapter, we analyze the relation between Bahnar epic and traditional society of the subject by learning the influences of society on the formation of characteristics of h’mon as well as h’mon’s effects, that means the internal and external relationship of the work Based on definition of tradition in Vietnamese... historical and social context and to identify its fate in the current life 3 In terms of the content and form, h’mon is art works reflecting characteristics of the society from which it came into being Realities of the traditional society such as war, labor, women’s roles, belief – custom, fork knowledge, etc, have been presented in the h’mon in the typical art form They are shown specifically via storyline... production methods in Tay Nguyen, the State implemented a policy on moving people in large numbers from Northern Delta, Central Part and Northern mountains to carry out business 17 and production activities in state-owned economic units A spontaneous migration flows was formed in Tay Nguyen That caused the disorders in minority groups’ cultural life in place On the other hand, big changes in terms of ecosystem-forest... and historical events 2.1.2.2 Description form Regarding the relation between words and fictional entities of h’mon, we can see the dominant of direct description, the interleaving between acceleration and deceleration of storytelling action, the frequent occurrence of repeating cases and the presence with many times of assessment bringing implicit ethics, etc Regarding the relation between texts and