This study looks at the multiple relations between the ethnographic representations of the Montagnard ethnic groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, the changing historical context in and for which the ethnographies were produced and consumed. There are two major arguments developed here. It is argued that economic, political and military interests within a specific historical context condition ethnographic practice. This is not, however, a one-way process. The author also argues that the ensuing ethnographic discourses in turn influence the historical context by suggesting and facilitating ethnic policies, and by contributing to the formation or change of ethnic identities through processes of classification. Ethnographic knowledge is not simply a more or less accurate reflection of indigenous society. Ethnography is a (textual) representation of a particular society constructed by outsiders, conditioned by their interaction with informants and by differing interests which influence ethnographic practice. Changing circumstances mean there is a constant reconstruction of ethnographic knowledge.
This book looks at ethnographic discourses concerning the indigenous population of Vietnam's Central Highlands during periods of christianization, colonization, war and socialist transformation, and analyses these in their relation to tribal, ethnic, territorial, governmental and gendered discourses. Salemink's book is a timely contribution to anthropological knowledge, as the ethnic minorities in Vietnam have (again) been the object of fierce academic debate. This is a historically grounded post-colonial critique relevant to theories of ethnicity and the history of anthropology, and will be of interest to graduate students of anthropology and cultural studies, as well as Vietnam studies.
