Consuming loc-creating on

Women, offerings and symbolic capital in northern Vietnam

Bibliographic Data

ID3943094
AuthorsAlexander Soucy (Saint Mary's University, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume35
Issue1
Pages107-131
Publication date2006-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0008-4298 • E-ISSN: 2042-0587
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/000842980603500106
OpenAlexW2059035821
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited18

Women are disproportionately represented at most Vietnamese religious sites. Understanding the reasons behind women's prominent participation provides a revealing glimpse into both Vietnamese religion as well as the dynamic nature of gender and power in Vietnamese society. At the core of most women's religious lives is the common practice of making offerings and then reclaiming them as loc (an object that brings good luck), but its implications are as secular as they are supernatural. The act of distributing the reclaimed loc, especially to family members, serves to strengthen relationships and improve the social capital of women by adding to feelings of indebtedness (on). This paper explores the practices and socio-religious implications that surround loc

Capital (architecture · Epistemology · Feeling · Luck · Object (grammar · Power (physics · Social capital · Social science · Sociology · Vietnamese · Cambodian History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Psychology · Social Psychology · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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