Văn hóa ứng xử với người đã mất trong đời sống gia đình ở thành phố hồ chí minh hiện nay tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES L TRAN VAN HUAN BEHAVIORAL CULTURE TOWARDS THE DECEASED IN THE FAMILY LIFE IN HO CHI MINH CITY TODAY Major: Sociology Major code: 9.31.03.01 SUMMARY OF THE DOCTORAL DISSERTATION IN SOCIOLOGY Hanoi - 2019 The dissertation completed at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr Mai Van Hai Dr Truong Xuan Truong Reviewer 1: Prof Dr Dang Canh Khanh Reviewer 2: Assoc.Prof Dr.Sc Bui Quang Dung Reviewer 3: Assoc.Prof Dr Pham Van Quyet The dissertation will be defended at Graduate Academy Level Council of dissertation assessment at Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Time: ………… date ……… month …… …year 2019 The dissertation may be found at: - Vietnam National Library; - Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Library INTRODUCTION The urgency of the research topic After more than 30 years of Doi Moi, behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life in our country has been changing very strongly both content and form Of course, this change has brought about great impacts on the community and society on both positive and negative aspects Positively, just as scholar Vu Khieu wrote: “since the unification, everywhere in the country, especially in recent years, the family issue has been particularly concerned Almost every family reset the incense bowl to worship ancestors, churches and graves are rebuilt Family annals are retrieved, recorded and disseminated Due to the needs of family sentiment, people in the family are frequently visited each other The days of meeting or ancestral anniversaries attract many people” (Vu Khieu, 1996: 8) These positive changes contribute to the success of the movement of “all people unite to build a cultural life” and the movement of building “cultural family” were launched by the Party and State In addition to the positive aspects, in recent years, the practice of behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life also has many manifestations that are too far-fetched or deviant In the general context of the country, behavior towards the deceased in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is no exception Recently, under the impact of industrialization, modernization, globalization, international integration and market economy to the traditional culture, in which, behavior towards the deceased in the people’s family life is also changing with deviant manifestations and far away from fine habits and customs It is not a rare phenomenon that funerals organize singing through the night and take place in many days, as well as indulging in drink, playing cards, even fighting each other in the death anniversaries This fact is demanding to be thoroughly learnt by scientific methods, as a basis for setting out policies to manage and develop society in a sustainable manner, in accordance with the times Meanwhile, on the scientific front, studying on family culture has not kept up with what is happening in life The Japanese researcher Michio Suenari, through his studies in Hue, noted: “Regarding ancestor worship in Vietnam, most of the essays so far are on the thought level, therefore, there is a lack of information that tells us how the ancestors are being worshiped” (Michio Suenari, 2010: 103) Thenceforth, the author conducts research project titled “Behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life in Ho Chi Minh City today” as his doctoral dissertation, with the hope of bringing a relatively comprehensive, systematic and new understanding, contributing to solving the pending problems Research purpose and tasks 2.1 Research purpose General purpose: the study aims to bring a relatively comprehensive, systematic and new understanding on behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life in HCMC today Specific purpose: theoretically, the study tries to clarify and regularize all customs including funeral, grave and worship by a common concept of “behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life”, in other words, the behavior between the living and the dead – besides familiar terms such as the behavior between husband and wife, parents and children and among siblings each other Practically, the study contributes to raising people’s awareness and providing scientific arguments for managers in mobilizing the construction of “cultural families” in residential areas 2.2 Research tasks The author reviews previous research works and attempts to inherit the lessons learned, especially the detection of gaps to clearly see his new research direction; building a common concept that can contain all aspects of funeral, grave and worship The common concept is “behavioral culture towards the deceased”; analyzing and evaluating the practice of behavioral culture towards the deceased in families in HCMC today, and exploring the difference among social groups in behavior with the deceased; generalizing the analytical results as a basis for recommendation to solve the shortcomings and pending problems in practicing behavioral culture towards the deceased nowadays Research subject, object and scope 3.1 Research subject: behavioral culture towards the deceased (including aspects of funeral, grave and worship) in the family life in HCMC today 3.2 Research object: families in HCMC today 3.2 Research scope: Spatially, HCMC, namely, Ward 14, District and Tung An commune, Cu Chi district Regarding time, during last years The surveys are conducted in stages: stage was January 2018, stage took place in March 2018 Regarding research issue - behavioral culture towards the deceased in Vietnamese family life Methodology and research methods 4.1 Research questions How behavioral culture towards the deceased is taking place in families in HCMC today? Is there anything new in this behavioral culture compared to previous periods? If there is a new development than before, what are social reasons have led to such changes? Are these changes random, immediate or normative, and how does this affect the lives of families, communities and society? 4.2 Research hypotheses Compared to the past, behavioral culture towards the deceased in HCMC today has been changing dramatically all three aspects of funeral, grave and worship This is reflected by reconstructing the old model and adding more new features that had not existed ever These changes originate from many different reasons- that is the people’s economic life has been raised; the process of industrialization, modernization, market economy, globalization and international integration; the Party and State’s guidelines and policies, as well as local organization, management and customs These changes are not random or immediate but are normative It is an indispensable product of Vietnamese society that is transforming from traditional agricultural civilization to modern industrial civilization, from subsidized mechanism to market one with the influence of globalization trend and international integration 4.3 Methodology The study relies on Marxism-Leninism, namely, the historical-specific perspectives and the relationship between social existence and social consciousness as a methodological basis to describe, analyze and explain the posing problems in the research process 4.4 Research methods 4.4.1 Reviewing literature: including more than 100 documents such as published works, articles, theses, dissertations at home and abroad 4.4.2 Direct interview with questionnaires: including 575 cases in HCMC Respondents play a decisive role in their family, the sample size is distributed appropriately by gender, age, education level and so on 4.4.3 In-depth interviews: 30 cases are equally divided into areas, in which account factors such as gender, education level, age, living standards, resident place In addition, the interviewees also include 10 cultural staffs from ward and communal level to city level 4.4.4 Observation and taking notes: using camera and notebook to record related issues and images 4.4.5 Group discussion: discussions in areas, each group has participants, in which, account to their demographic characteristics New contributions of the dissertation By approaching perspective of sociology, the dissertation has given a relatively comprehensive, systematic and new understanding on behavior towards the deceased in the family life through components including funeral, grave and worship in both theoretically and practically Theoretical and practical significance of the dissertation 6.1 Theoretically To address the research purpose and tasks as mentioned above, the study attempts to conceptualize practical activities of funeral, grave and worship into a scientific concept that is behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life, thereby, enriching the treasure of concepts and terms of subjects such as family sociology, cultural sociology The application of subculture theory, rational selection and modernization also contribute to verify their popularity and accuracy in the concrete condition in Vietnam today 6.2 Practically On the one hand, the study contributes to raising people’s awareness and providing scientific arguments for managers and policymakers on “building the cultural families”; on the other hand, according to international practice, the dissertation’s results may be seen as premise for the repeated studies in the future Structure of the dissertation Besides the introduction, conclusion and recommendation, references and appendix, the dissertation includes chapters In which, chapter & review literature and build up theoretical and practical basis Chapter 3, & present empirical research findings, each chapter explores one aspect that is funeral, grave and worship This structure reflects the overall and integrity of the study while simultaneously maintaining the relative independence of the components Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Regarding published research results 1.1.1 The general conception on behavioral culture towards the deceased By reviewing domestic research works (by Dang Nghiem Van, Tran Quoc Vuong, Pham Xuan Nam, Pham Van Dong), as well as foreign research works (by G Mancacaritadipura, T Sugiura and so on), the author points out that the humane behavior towards the deceased is a universal cultural phenomenon of all humanity However, the phrase “the deceased” needs to be understood in both ways – being a person who deserves well of the people and the country and family’s relatives in particular 1.1.2 The origin of behavioral culture towards the deceased According to Russian researcher X.A Tocarev, behavioral culture towards the deceased has an ancient basis of all things, the instinctive fear of death, and it is also an attachment, does not want to be far away from fellow-creature’s corpses In the primitive cultural work, E Tylor argues that such behavior stemmed from the conception of animism of the ancient people In fact, since the Shang Dynasty in China, the worship has existed as a custom In Vietnam, Dao Duy Anh and Dang Duc Sieu argue that, according to the Vietnamese people’s folk beliefs, people have two parts including soul and body When someone died, the soul will leave the body but still surrounds descendants to protect them, so the descendants must worship Foreign scientists studying Vietnam such as L Cadière, E Diguet and O Salemink also have similar views L Cadière also affirms that "it is believed that the deceased still live close to the livings like people believe in sunlight or the weight of plumb-bob” 1.1.3 The basic components in behavioral culture towards the deceased On funeral: in Thọ mai gia lễ and Gia lễ nam showed that, in the funeral, there are many rituals such as chiêu hồn, mộc dục, phạn hàm, phạt mộc, nhập quan, thành phục, phường bát âm In modern era, there are new rituals such as death notice, celebrate the memory of the deceased, funeral ceremony Funeral associates with mourning clothes According to Phan Ke Binh “sons, daughters and daughters-in-law wear white mourning head-band and clothes with a belt by a banana yarn outside Paternal grandchild will wear mourning cap, while mourning head-band and while dress He also argues that, after the burial, descendants must also practice many rituals such as ngu tế, chung thất (49 days), tốt khốc (100 days), tiểu tường, đại tường and burning votive paper On grave: because of the conception of “living for graves”, Vietnamese people attach much importance to the grave, before burying, people often invite geomancer to choose land so that after years will rebury (also known as exhumation) Depending on the family’s circumstances, graves can be covered by soil or built in brick and stone On death anniversaries and festivities, descendants often visit to the graves, repair and burn incense on the deceased graves The graves are not only taken care by descendants but the State law (Gia Long law) also has very specific provisions to protect graves The worshipping ceremony: Tocarev argues that, in China, Korea and Japan, every family has an ancestor altar to celebrate the death anniversary, people who practice the ritual must be patriarchs According to Nguyen Duy Thieu, in Laos, this work takes place during the festival Boun Pi May In Vietnam, the worship of the ancestors takes place at the ancestral temple while family death anniversary takes place in each family; burning incense on the first day and the fifteenth day of the lunar months and offering votive paper and then burning them 1.1.4 Social impacts and posing problems: Researchers believe that behavioral culture towards the deceased has both positive and negative impacts: Positively, because it is a social development aspect (E Quiroz), protecting the diversity of culture (Chu A, Truong Chan Vi), turning the past power into the present power (Vu Tu Lap), as the expression of values and the unity of the group Negatively, it contains the division (R Janelli), easily commercialize (E Quiroz), causing trouble (Phan Ke Binh) This is not to mention the expensive banquets and feasts (Luong Van Hy, J Kleinen), environmental pollution and the deformation of beliefs (J Wang) 1.2 Preliminary comments on content and methods In general, the previous authors have built a pretty and vivid picture on behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life in three separate areas: funeral, grave and worship by both awareness and practice Theoretically, however, so far the concept of behavioral culture towards the deceased in family life has not been clearly defined for both internal and external aspects In terms of methods, someone uses quantitative method, another uses qualitative method while many people just approach research objects through books and their own experiences This means that, there is still lacks of a general and unified methodology 1.3 The inheritance and research orientation The dissertation is not only the inheritance of knowledge of previous authors, from the sociological perspective, the study also tries to contribute new knowledge to the picture Sub-conclusion of chapter 1: the dissertation considers reviewing literature as an indispensable work so as to withdraw lessons that not only help this study in the right direction but also avoid the situation of “trying to push the door but actually it was opened for a long time” Chapter THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASIS 2.1 Definition and interpretation of concepts 2.1.1 The concept of family life: Every person, as well as community and society is always living in environments: natural environment, social environment and inner life The family life also consists of three areas: economics- material (corresponding to the natural environment), behavior among members (social environment) and spirit-spirituality-beliefs (inner life) 2.1.2 The concept of behavioral culture: in the context of society, people need to have appropriate behavior So behavioral culture can be understood to be the way of communication, protocol and rituals, patterns of human behavior In short, it is the objectification of the common thoughts and feelings of a group of people, whereby the community and society can operate smoothly 2.5 Historical background of the country and analytical scheme The historical - specific viewpoints of Marxism - Lenin affirm that we cannot understand any social phenomenon if it is separated from the historical context that it is operating Thenceforth, the dissertation has made a diagram of the relationship of the variables as follows: Socio-economic context Social impacts - Positive - Macro elements: 03 elements: Industrialization, modernization, globalization - Micro elements: local regulations, indigenous Behavior al culture towards the deceased - Funeral - Negative - Posing problems - Graves - Worship Policies and solutions customs, different social groups Sub-conclusion of chapter 2: The above theoretical and practical basis serves as a theoretical model of the study, which makes the empirical information obtained significantly and the explanation about them becomes logical meaning and explanation about them become rational and logical 11 Chapter BEHAVIORAL CULTURE TOWARDS THE DECEASED THROUGH FUNERAL 3.1 Overview of Vietnamese funeral customs in history Compared to other cultures in the same region, the funeral in Vietnam's history is quite unique and interesting When getting age, old people have often pre-bought a coffin for themselves without fear Not only the elderly, but those who died prematurely were also thoughtfully prepared funeral The Vietnamese idiom says “Nghĩa tử nghĩa tận” (the sense of the dead is that of the final), so when someone in a family passed away, everyone in the community comes to burn incense Due to the influence of Confucian culture, the rituals and conventions of funerals, mourning clothes and funeral rituals are very complicated and contained many superstitions but Vietnamese people not stereotype and adapt it to circumstances Even Tam Nguyen Yen Do, Nguyen Khuyen also made his testament so that descendants make his funeral simply Before Doi Moi – this was the period of “resistance war and national construction” and this was also the period of “new life” movement has been launched, so in the resistance war area and especially since the North has built socialism, the funeral is not only practiced simply and economically, against superstition but also eliminating the injustice between rich and poor funerals, and gender inequality (such as “father will see off, mother will pick up”, women crying on the road when her husband passed away) According to Toan Anh, in the temporary urban areas occupied in the South from 1945 to 30 April 1975, due to the influence of European and American culture, the funerals also not have many rituals and conventions 12 3.2 Funeral customs in Ho Chi Minh city today The surveys show that, although there are some differences in each social group, in general, the funeral custom in HCMC is changing drastically and take places in two contradictory trends: on the one hand, it is the restoration of old rituals and conventions, on the other hand, people not hesitate to add more new elements that never existed before For example, in funeral, in addition to the old rituals such as necromancy, phạn hàm, phạt mộc, it is the memorial service and deliver a funeral oration, besides phường bát âm, it is Western band; for mouning clothes, along with the mourning hed-band, people also wear black band; in offering to a deceased, besides incense, wreath, there is also envelop of money The interwoven between the old and the new is the inevitable consequence of transforming Vietnamese society More specifically, the change in behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life has its objective basis - that is the process of industrialization and modernization, market mechanism and the Party and State’s policies and also of the longstanding cultural tradition of the nation This change has both positive and negative impacts on family and social life Positively, the relatives who are living far away from home not necessarily to be in the funeral; most families just serve the deceased within 1-2 days, reducing rituals for week and a day-worshiping ceremony However, the funeral also shows many negative issues such as big banquets and feasts with a large number of people attending, burning too much votive paper This is partly due to the responsibility of the grassroots authorities Notably, through the data, the author has compared to confirm that the research hypotheses are correct, and the selected theories also show their usefulness and correctness in specific circumstances in Vietnam today 13 3.3 The funeral custom today from the people’s perspective The surveys show that, most of interviewees confirmed that funeral not only shows the relationship between the living and the dead, but also the relationship between the livings together Because the practice of these traditional rituals is to “educate morality to the descendants”, “strengthening community solidarity” so that “human’s spiritual life is more beautiful” even to “show the status of the family” However, people also believe that, in funeral, “there are still many cumbersome procedures”, “waste money”, “show off form”, even “taking place too long and polluting environment” Thereby, they also express their desire is to “reduce traditional rituals”, “supplementing funeral home” and “services” to help the bereaved to reduce confusion, especially, it is necessary to have “the unified sanctions for funerals” of the localities In general, the people’s aspiration is consistent with modern and industrial lifestyles, and the development of society today Sub-conclusion of chapter 3: this chapter not only reflects the operation and changes of each element, but also points out their social impact in both positive and negative aspects to our life nowadays But is does not stop at the practice, the logic of the study also leads to cover awareness, attitude, as well as the people’s thoughts and aspirations for the funeral custom today By applying this theory, especially to secularize the sacred and minimize ancient powers to help explain reason why though some old rituals are recovered, all have low proportion of practice 14 Chapter BEHAVIORAL CULTURE TOWARDS THE DECEASED THROUGH CONSTRUCTION, CARE AND PROTECTION OF GRAVES 4.1 Overview of Vietnamese grave in history The ancient Vietnamese attached much importance to the grave, “living for the grave/no one lives for the rice bowl” Throughout history, Vietnamese people believe that the grave and tombs are in peaceful, the land of the living is just prosperous Therefore, after burial, descendants and relatives must take care of and protect the graves On holidays and grave visiting festivals, the descendants must come to clean up, burn incense, even burning incense on the ownerless graves Not only family and clan but the State law also has provisions on protecting graves and severe fines for those who violate it From 1945 to the Doi Moi, the country witnessed many ups and downs Associated with many important events of the country, including the antiFrench and anti-American resistance wars, border war The devastation of the wars not only caused people to be separated, but also graves were lost, so far many Vietnamese and foreigner martyrs' remains have still not been gathered and left an unremitting regret for every Vietnamese person 4.2 The construction, care and protection of graves in HCMC This section explores many important aspects of graves - the grave sites (including burial and cremation), the types and styles of graves, the cost of construction, the time of visiting and taking care of the graves, especially the dissertation serves many pages to present the martyrs’ graves such as their position in the clan, the cemetery where they rest in peace, the gratitude of the livings, even the martyrs whose remains have not yet been discovered and gathered The surveys show that, the burial of the deceased had a big change: in addition to traditional burial, there is also cremation; in terms of type, it 15 seems that most graves were built (accounting for 92.3%); the cost of building graves is more expensive than before (VND 50-100 million and over 100 million accounting for 53%) But the most outstanding is the movement of gathering graves, not only the martyrs' graves, but also the graves were lost in the war, even the enemy graves In my opinion, this change comes from the people’s increasing economic life, the state’s policies of freedom of belief, the progress of science, technology and especially the tradition of charity of “Gratitude is the sign of noble souls”, “When drinking water, think of its source” of Vietnamese culture 4.3 The grave issue nowadays from the people’s perspective Always taking care of the grave of the dead, or in other words, always remembering their roots, but the people also oppose excessive things or what has become unsound customs For example, for reburial, up to 89.6% of people say it is the unsound customs; even rebuilding graves, many people think that this is a forced work (27.1%) or should not (23.8%) At present, people are also experiencing a lot of challenges, for example, due to planning, graves have to be relocated, the graves close to the house causing pollution, while the locality does not have enough land, even lack of money to build graves Thus, they hope the locality should reserve the land for the cemetery, if possible, they should plan the cemetery under the model of park Notably, cremation trend is gradually increasing Like funeral, in practice and thinking about the grave also have differences among different groups in society Specifically, for those who are young people, serve high education and living in urban area want to simplify procedures so that construction, care and protection of graves are both formal and consistent with social life in the modern era Sub-conclusion of chapter 4: by surveying, there have been a strong change of graves compared to before in both form of burial, gathering martyrs and civilians’ remains, the construction and cost In which, people 16 want the government pays more attention to serve the land for the cemetery, encouraging cremation; meanwhile the viewpoints of the advanced groups show that the grave will operate in a more modern and progressive manner Verifying the hypotheses and theories in this section also shows that the research hypotheses and theories chosen are correct and useful Chapter BEHAVIORAL CULTURE TOWARDS THE DECEASED THROUGH WORSHIP 5.1 Overview the custom of worshiping the deceased in Vietnam Worship in Vietnam is based on bloodline Vertically, considering Ego (me) as a center, the oldest generations at the top including parents, grandparents, forefathers; and the newer generations at the bottom including children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, if unfortunately, they passed away early Horizontally, there are brothers and sisters of Ego, uncles and aunts, if these people not have children The official death anniversary is death day, in addition, on holidays, festivals, the first and the fifteenth day of the lunar month, people also offer fruits, flowers and burn incense to commemorate Like grave customs, from 1945 to Doi Moi, on the one hand, due to the positive effects of the “new life” movement launched by the Party and the State, on the other hand, also due to the fierce of wars, the worship was greatly reduced However, as a traditional culture of the nation, in families and clans, worshipping the deceased (known as the ancestors) remains a stream, in spite of many challenges, it has never stopped 5.2 Worshipping the deceased in HCMC nowadays With the data, the author has described and analyzed comprehensively the research subject: from the worshipping objects to subjects, from form, the number of dead anniversaries to the cost of worshipping, from the time 17 of organizing to participants, from awareness, attitude to people’s aspirations for the worshipping ceremony in today’s family life Like the funerals and graves, the study shows that the worshipping of Vietnamese people has been changing strongly Interestingly, this change takes place in both opposite directions: on the one hand, it is the maintenance, even the restoration of the unsound customs, on the other hand, people also not hesitate to add more elements that their father generation had never known For example, the object of worshipping, if previously people just worshiped the father’s side, many families now are also worshipping the mother’s side For the responsibility of worshipping, if previously this work belonged to husband or a man in the family, nowadays wife or another woman who is also charged in the worshipping For offerings, in the past, the offerings were made entirely by the family, they can now use services Previously, on the alter, there was only glutinous rice, chicken, flowers, betel and areca, and wine bottle is pressed with banana leaf, then there is also foreign wine, beer and carbonated soft drinks originating from everywhere These changes are not a random phenomenon but its underlying causes In the past, due to the war and subsidy mechanism, the worshiping ceremony was greatly simplified, when peace was re-established, the people’s life has been constantly increasing, then they have tried to recover what their father had On the other hand, in the context of industrialization and modernization, especially under the impact of scientific progress and international integration, foreign goods from everywhere have poured in, so people also have more conditions to modernize old worshipping customs 5.3 Worshipping the deceased from the people’s perspective Of course, the changes of worshipping the deceased in the family life also have positive and negative impacts on the community and society 18 today Positively, as people said, it is to pay homage to the deceased, to educate their children and is also occasion of family reunion and improve friendships Negatively, it is wasting, consuming human strength and time, burning votive paper will lead to environment pollution and sometimes due to uneven contribution leading bad relations among family members Notably, in addition to describing the object by statistics, the dissertation also analyzes the differences between social relations The results show that, young people, high education and groups in urban area had more positive viewpoints on the worshiping in families today This shows that the belief of worshiping the deceased as part of behavioral culture towards the deceased, no mater what circumstances, always accompanies the nation and its development trend will become more and more healthy Sub-conclusion of chapter 5: This chapter has pointed out the operation and changes of the custom of worshiping the deceased have affected social life in both negative and positive aspects In which, on the positive side, it is more equal between men and women in worshiping and more democratic in the object of worshiping, are being supported by many people The general trend of worshiping in families is also more and more suitable with the social development In this chapter, the author does not forget to verify the research hypotheses and theories chosen to confirm their correctness and accuracy 19 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Conclusion By reviewing literature (chapter 1), as well as the well-prepared theoretical and practical basis (chapter 2), we have examined behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life in HCMC today (chapter 3, & 5) Thus, it is necessary to summarize the following basic issues: 1.1 The study showed that so far behavior with the deceased in the Vietnamese families in all three aspects of funeral, grave and worship is still constantly cultural flow Of course, over different period of history, this flow has had certain changes to adapt it The surveys show that, compared to previous period, this long-standing culture has changed drastically in all aspects: larger scale, many forms, consuming a lot of human strength and money For example, in funeral, it is the cumbersome and complex of rituals and mourning clothes, forms of burial and cremation, post-burial rituals are practiced sufficiently or shortly; for grave customs, that is reburial or just burial once, looking for and gathering martyrs’ grave; the construction of the family’s grave by many rare and expensive materials In worship, restoring ancestral temple, writing family annals, arranging the altar of the deceased and organizing death anniversaries not only include descendants, relatives but also neighbors and friends In each chapter, the author also compares the data obtained by fieldworks with hypotheses to confirm the correctness of the hypotheses 1.2 The operation and changes of the research object, after all, are not a random and immediate phenomenon, but it has direct or profound social reasons First, it is because of the peaceful country, people are able to restore their father’s cultural tradition that they had to restrict to match wartime life Second, after more than 30 years of Doi Moi, the living standards of all social groups have been greatly improved, thus people 20 have enough conditions to improve their spiritual and religious life so that corresponding to such advanced material and economic life Third, this is also the most important reason- it is also due to the Party and the State’s guideline for new period “building an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity” – because this guideline has opened a large space for people’s thoughts and actions, including the content and form of cultural development, in which, behavioral culture towards the deceased in the family life That is not to mention “buying high and selling low”, “abnormal success or un-success” in the context of market economy, the people return to pray for the blessing of the deceased through funeral, grave and worship are also understandable Moreover, in this study, the author also utilizes theories such as subculture theory, reasonable selection theory and modernization to explain the posing issues By combining theories and experimentation, or more accurately, verifying theories through experimental data, the author thinks that these theories have a common meaning and high accuracy because of their rightness and usefulness when applying for specific circumstances of Vietnam 1.3 By describing, analyzing and explaining, the study has discovered an important feature in the behavioral culture towards the deceased - that is, the restructuring of the old model, notably, the interweaving of the oldthe new, the backward-the progressive and the declining one - the future representative one, like John Kleinen’s book titled “Facing the future, reviving the past: A study of social change in a Northern Vietnamese village” For example, in funeral, besides old and superstitious rituals such as lying down on the road, be in mourning for one’s father/mother and inviting magician to eliminate evils, there are also new rituals such as death notice, celebrating the memory of the deceased, delivering a funeral oration and inviting the trumpet band For grave, along with the burial form, there is also cremation, inviting geomancer to see the land and burial places must 21 comply with general regulations of villages, communes or cities For worshiping, instead of worshiping in the whole year, many families just offer on the death anniversary and Lunar New Year Instead of the man who just has the right to worship, women today also could this work, on behalf of the family, they burn incense to inform the deceased the family’s works and participate in all stages of worship The interleaving between these two trends is sometimes expressed vividly in a specific action: while burning the votive paper but the heart does not want that If we put this restructuring into the context of the transition from agricultural civilization to industrial and modern civilization, from subsidized mechanism to market one, we will see the interleaving is inevitable 1.4 Regarding the social impact of the research subject, the dissertation has pointed out its manifestations on both positive and negative aspects Positively, so far most of people think that the thoughtful behavior with the deceased is a long-stand and beautiful cultural tradition of the nation which needs to be preserved, because it not only expresses the living’s love for the dead but also great significance among the livings together, such as educating morality to the descendants, re-approving the unity of the family or strengthening community solidarity In addition to positive aspects, there are still many negative aspects such as cumbersome procedures, show off form or overdevelopment such as restoring superstitious rituals that is inviting magician, “hire someone to cry”, funeral takes place too long, father’s grave is built bigger than graves of forefathers or disagreements and disputes between siblings on worshiping, especially burning too much votive paper and expensive spending In order to solve these problems, require not only authorities, the media, families, clans but also scientists through theoretical and practical studies to work together 1.5 Finally, it is necessary to note that, from perspective of family culture, as mentioned earlier, the dissertation has given the concept of 22 behavioral culture towards the deceased in Vietnamese family life besides familiar terms in sociological studies such as behavior between husband and wife, parents and children and among siblings together However, this scientific idea is just verified in one ward and one commune as a case study Therefore, although we have tried a lot, we also know that our research is just first overview of the scientific picture as it should be In order to have more general conclusion, this issue is probably necessary to have other studies not only in HCMC but also in the whole country Recommendation 2.1 For central management agencies: It is necessary to grasp, develop and issue regulations on funerals, graves and worship with a wide coverage nationwide as a legal basis for management at local level It is necessary to orient services such as cremation, cemetery parks, death ceremonies under the standards of civilized and modern society 2.2 For local management levels: It is necessary to promote propaganda about “the civilized and modern lifestyle”, particularly, to encourage people to cremate, gathering graves under the planning, reducing offerings and burning votive paper, and saving spending on death anniversaries In the master planning, it is necessary to devote a land area to address the situation of lacking burial-ground; at the same time, there must be a convincing solution on this issue in a long-term vision In each location, authorities also need to have specific and clear sanctions for spontaneous behaviors such as sumptuous banquets and feats, burning too much votive paper or funeral takes place too long 2.3 For unions: It is necessary to integrate regulations on practice of funerals, graves and worship into autonomous activities in order to create the unity of awareness and actions of the community 2.4 For families and clans: It is necessary to actively grasp and access information from the authorities, the unions and the media about funeral, 23 grave and worshipping issues under the common regulations of the Central and locality so as to apply simply and economically for their family life but not losing sacredness and beauty 2.5 For scientists: it is necessary to have more intensive research works on this topic, on the one hand, to enhance the people’s awareness, on the other hand, to provide scientific arguments for managers and policymakers in solving the pending questions – this means that their contributions to the long struggle for the latest thing wins the old things, the progressive thing wins the backward things and the future representatives win the ghosts of the past 24 The author’s published-works list Tran Van Huan (2016) “Studying on behavioral culture towards the deceased: From achievements to future tasks”, Political Science, No Tran Van Huan (2017) “Ancestor worship from origin to present, and some posing issues” in Dang Nguyen Anh (Ed.) Social change in Vietnam - Traditional and modern Social Science Publishing House, Hanoi 25 ... deceased On funeral: in Thọ mai gia lễ and Gia lễ nam showed that, in the funeral, there are many rituals such as chiêu hồn, mộc dục, phạn hàm, phạt mộc, nhập quan, thành phục, phường bát âm In... Sciences Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr Mai Van Hai Dr Truong Xuan Truong Reviewer 1: Prof Dr Dang Canh Khanh Reviewer 2: Assoc.Prof Dr.Sc Bui Quang Dung Reviewer 3: Assoc.Prof Dr Pham Van Quyet The... Central Government, the guidelines and policies of the State, the City Party Committee and the City People's Committee have also issued many circulars, directives and organized many practical activities