TTLA: Goddess worship ceremony in Nha Trang city

1. Full name of PhD student: Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen;

2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: August 27, 1986; 4. Place of birth: Binh Dinh province

5. Decision on recognition of PhD students No. 3216/2014/QD-XHNV-SDH dated December 31, 2014.

6. Changes in the training process:

- Change of supervisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Minh replaces Associate Professor, Dr. Le Si Giao according to Decision No. 3216/QD-XHNV dated September 27, 2016.

- Change the thesis topic name: From the name: "Goddess worship of Kinh people in coastal Khanh Hoa province (tradition and change)" changed to the name: "Goddess worship rituals in Nha Trang city" according to decision No. 254/QD-XHNV dated February 14, 2107.

- Extend the study period by 1 month (January 1, 2018 - January 31, 2018) according to Decision No. 3549/QD-XHNV dated December 29, 2017.

7. Thesis topic name:Goddess worship ceremony in Nha Trang city

8. Major: Anthropology; 9. Code: 62 31 03 02

10. Scientific advisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Minh

11. Summary of new results of the thesis:

- The purpose of the thesis is to study the practice of goddess worship rituals of Vietnamese people in Nha Trang to clarify the relationship between the effectiveness and transformation of ritual practices.

- The thesis uses the method of analysis, information synthesis and qualitative research (participant observation and in-depth interviews).

- The thesis has solved the problems raised such as the forms of goddess worship rituals, the expression of effectiveness from the perspective of performance and practice strategies with the following new findings:

+ Identify the goddess worship ritual in Nha Trang from the historical and cultural context and the process of multi-ethnic cultural integration and acculturation between the Cham and Vietnamese people.

+ Cultural integration and acculturation are the basis for understanding the phenomenon of goddess worship in Nha Trang.

+ Contribute new findings on the transition from the sacred to the four palaces from the strategies of practice in rituals and in daily life. Especially identifying the characteristics of the authority of ritual practices. From there, providing new theories, contributing to the framework for analyzing the effectiveness of rituals.

+ The effectiveness that arises from the performance strategy and in daily life reveals the behavior of the practitioner and, by extension, their adaptation to the transformations and changes in the environment and livelihood. This adaptation clearly demonstrates the subjectivity and experiential authority of the practitioner.

+ The effectiveness in relation to the transformation of ritual practices, risk control and integration helps to shed more light on the multidimensional response of rituals to the daily problems of human life. Along with this correlation, it shows that behind the movement of effectiveness are the problems of the context of social transformation, of the strong socio-economic transformation process taking place in urban areas leading to many risks and uncertainties.

12. Practical application (if any):

Contribute new findings on the transformation of practices from the sacred to the four palaces, thereby providing theories for the issue of preserving the culture of goddess worship in Nha Trang city.

13. Further research directions (if any):

Developing research directions on the relationship between practice transformation and cultural product exploitation in tourism activities.

14. Published works related to the thesis:

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2015), “Transformation” or “Creation” of tradition: The value of religious activities in tourism (research in two wards of Nha Trang city)”,Central Social Sciences(4), pp.56-63.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016), “Legalizing traditional innovations in preserving goddess worship rituals in Nha Trang”,Central Social Sciences(2), pp.30-39.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016), “Analysis of the process of spirit possession ritual (Case study in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province)”,Central Social Sciences(5), pp.32-42.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2017), “Analyzing the effectiveness of the spirit mediumship ritual in the lives of mediums in Nha Trang city”,Central Social Sciences(2), pp.56-64.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2018), “The effectiveness of ritual in anthropological theory: Perspectives and some comments”,Central Social Sciences(2), pp.43-50.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016),Goddess worship of coastal residents of Khanh Hoa province, Fine Arts Publishing House.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2017),Spiritual possession ritual in the worship of the Four Palaces in Nha Trang, Hanoi National University Publishing House.

INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS

1. Full name: Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen; 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: August 27, 1986; 4. Place of birth: Binh Dinh province

5. Admission decision number: 3216/2014/QD-XHNV-SDH. Dated: 31^stDecember 2014.

6. Changes in academic process:

- Changing in the supervisors: Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Van Minh for Assoc.Prof. Le Si Giao, according to the admission decision number 3216/QD-XHNV, dated 27^thSeptember 2016.

- Changing in the thesis title: from “Worshiping Goddess of Kinh people at the coastal of Khanh Hoa province” to “Rituals of worshiping Goddess in Nha Trang” according to the admission decision number 254/QD-XHNV, dated 14^thFebruary 2107.

- Extending the study period in 1 month (January 1, 2018 - January 31, 2018) according to the admission decision number 3549/QD-XHNV dated 29^thDecember 2017.

7. Official thesis title: Rituals of worshiping Goddess in Nha Trang.

8. Major: Anthropology; 9. Code: 62 31 03 02

10. Supervisors: Assoc.Prof. Nguyen Van Minh

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

- Thesis purpose: Studying ritual practices of Kinh people's Goddess worship in Nha Trang to clarify the between efficaciousness and transformation of ritual practices.

- Research methods of thesis: Analysis and synthesis; qualitative research (participant observation and in-depth interview).

- The thesis addresses issues such as ritual forms of Goddess worship and their efficaciousness from aspects of performativity and practical strategies with new findings as follows:

+ Identify ritual of Goddess worship in Nha Trang from the historical and cultural context as well as the acculturation of the Cham and the Kinh people; The acculturation is the basis to understand the Goddess worship in Nha Trang.

+ Explore the transformation process from “attending a seance” to four Goddess worship that has derived from ritual practices and daily life ones. It is important to identify characteristics of the authority of ritual practices providing new arguments for analyzing framework on ritual efficaciousness.

+ The efficaciousness which has derived from performativity strategy and daily life present practitioners' behaviors and their adaption to changes in the environment and livelihoods. This adaptation clearly demonstrates the subjectivity and authority of the practitioners.

+ Examine the effective correlation in the among transforming ritual practices, risk control, and suitability to have an overview of the appropriateness of the rituals in humans' daily life. In addition, the correlation indicates that behind the changes in the effectiveness, there exists numerous problems of socio-economic transformation, especially the strong transformation in urban areas that could possibly cause various risks and uncertainties.

12. Practical applicability, if any:

Contribute new findings on transforming practices from “attending a seance” to four Goddess worship, thus providing scientific arguments for the preservation of Goddess culture in Nha Trang city.

13. Further research directions, if any:

It is necessary to develop further research on the relationship between practice transformations and exploiting cultural product on tourism activities.

14. Thesis-related publications:

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2015), “Changing” or “building” a tradition: The values ​​of religious activities in tourism (The case study of two wards in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province),Social Sciences of The Central Region Review(4), pp. 56-63.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016), “Leitimatization traditional creativeness in the conservation of goddess worship in Nha Trang”,Social Sciences of The Central Region Review(2),pp.30-39.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016), “The procedure of spirit mediumship ritual (A case study in Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa province)”,Social Sciences of The Central Region Review(5),pp.32-42.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2017), “Analyses of efficaciousness of spirit mediumship rituals in medium's lives in Nha Trang”,Social Sciences of The Central Region Review(2),pp. 56-64.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2018), “Efficacy of rituals in anthropological theories: Perspectives and some discussions”,Social Sciences of The Central Region Review(2), pp.43-50.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2016),Worshiping Goddesses of Kinh people at the coastal of Khanh Hoa province, Fine Art publishing house.

- Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuyen (2017),Spirit mediumship rituals in Four Places at Nha Trang city, VNU Press.