Associate Professor, Dr. Lam Ba Nam - 30 years of passion for Ethnology

Lam Ba Nam was born in Vien Trung village, Hai An commune, Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa province. His childhood years were also the years of war, the land of Lao wind was still the land of bombs. The children of the village at that time grew up going to school at night, with pockets of a few pieces of sweet potatoes or cassava, wearing straw hats and oil lamps, quietly walking through the bomb craters. Being able to go to school was considered a success. In high school, the whole village had at most two or three children a year. University was truly a rare thing, only one every two or three years.

In 1973, Lam Ba Nam entered university.

In the spring of 1975, he was a second-year student at the Faculty of History, Hanoi University. But that was also the time when tanks and the red flag with yellow star led the entire nation to the South like a storm. More than one hundred thousand reserve troops were mobilized for the front line. He temporarily said goodbye to school and joined the army. He was twenty years old at that time.

Associate Professor, PhD, Meritorious Teacher Lam Ba Nam is Head of the Department of Anthropology (2010-2014); Vice Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (2006-2009); President of the Vietnam Association of Ethnology and Anthropology (2013 to present)/Photo: Thanh Long

His military service took him through nearly six years of his twenties, from the scorching sun of Son Tay to the bitterly cold days of standing guard at night amid the roaring artillery of the border war. But those six years did not diminish his desire to return to the classroom. In 1980, he was discharged from the army, returning to student life for the second time to complete the remaining half of his unfinished university degree, before being retained as a lecturer at the Faculty of History two years later. And from there, he began a new journey, that of a teacher and an Ethnologist.

In the eyes of friends, colleagues and students, Lam Ba Nam is first and foremost a teacher. During the forty years of being friends with the blackboard and white chalk, from when he was in the army as a cultural teacher at the Air Force Training School (1975) until now as a lecturer at Hanoi University of Science and Humanities and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, he has taught many generations of students. Those who have studied with him are impressed by a caring and strict, calm and enthusiastic teacher. Mr. Lam Ba Nam has gray hair, a deep, resonant voice, and lectures that flow freely in the lecture hall, speaking until sweating, speaking as if pouring out his heart and soul.

But people still remember and are impressed by him as an Ethnologist. Belonging to the third generation of Ethnological researchers in Vietnam, he both inherited the research achievements of previous Ethnologists and explored new issues, thereby gradually affirming his own contributions to knowledge and Ethnological research.

Fate brought him to Muong culture very early. After graduating from university, he was assigned by the department to research ethnic groups belonging to the Viet-Muong language group. Through Mr. Nguyen Quoc Tuan (currently the Director of the Institute of Religious Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences), he met Mr. Tu (Professor Nguyen Duc Tu Chi), whom he always considered a great teacher in his teaching and research career. During a drinking session at home, Mr. Tu advised: if you want to research the Vietnamese people, you should first research the Muong people or an ethnic minority belonging to this language group, on that basis, approach comparative research. Following that advice, he went to many Muong regions, from Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa to Phu Tho to find traces of ancient Vietnamese civilization through rituals, especially agricultural rituals, as well as the Viet-Muong relationship through the image of Tan Vien, one of the "four immortals" of the Vietnamese people but still intact in the Muong folk consciousness. On that initial journey, he became an effective collaborator of the Department of Culture and Information of Ha Son Binh (later Ha Tay) with articles in the late 80s of the last century such as:Rice field rituals of the Muong Thinh Lang people;Some thoughts about Lac Thuy Muong land;A few things about Xu Doai... was praised by Professor Tran Quoc Vuong. He jokingly said that one time he and his colleagues were discussing in the hallway of the History Department (3rd floor, Building B) when they met Professor Tran Quoc Vuong. Suddenly, the teacher asked: "Hey Ethnologists, where are the ancient Vietnamese roots?" Without hesitation, he replied: "At the foot of Ba Vi mountain, sir." Professor Vuong praised: "This guy is good!" That was what motivated him to continue searching for the origin of national civilization.

On his scientific journey, since the mid-80s of the last century, he has embarked on researching craft villages and the heritage of traditional crafts, first of all of the Vietnamese. From his initial premonitions when readingThe origin of the family, private property and the stateRegarding Engels' famous view on the great division of social labor, he visited many craft villages in Hanoi, Ha Tay, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hai Duong, Thanh Hoa to compare and make a key observation: different from the Western context in Engels's research, the unclear division of labor, especially the mixture of agriculture and handicrafts, is a prominent feature in Vietnam, existing from the very beginning of the national civilization and even still strong today. This view has been affirmed by him in a number of studies published in specialized journals, international conferences and especially the monographTraditional weaving in the Northern Delta of Vietnampublished in 1999.

Associate Professor, Dr. Lam Ba Nam has contributed more than 30 years to the field of Anthropology/Photo: Thanh Long

Over the past 30 years, as a lecturer, Head of Department, President of the Vietnam Association of Ethnology and Anthropology, he has devoted special attention to research on the culture of ethnic communities in our country and ethnic policies. Since 1990, he and Le Ngoc Thang have compiled the bookCultural identity of Vietnamese ethnic groupsto introduce the culture of each ethnic group. Over the past three decades, he has continued to pay attention and ponder over the issues of culture and cultural preservation, culture and development, culture and ethnic equality. On his journey of Ethnology, he has been present in almost every part of the country, from the Dong Van stone plateau to the Truong Son Tay Nguyen, from the Northern Delta, the Central Delta, to the Southern Delta. From a very early age, he recognized the movement of ethnic culture and the vital role of culture in the lives of all ethnic groups. He has had many opportunities to present the culture of the Vietnamese ethnic communities at international forums and conferences in Tanzania, China, and Japan. Among his 130 works including books and articles, there are about 40 works referring to ethnic cultures, from Kinh, Muong, Chut, Tay, Nung, Thai, Ede, Ba Na, Cham, Khmer... Not only doing basic research, he and his colleagues participated in studying the impact of culture on development projects such as: Chan May deep-water port construction project in Thua Thien - Hue; Dung Quat oil refinery industrial park construction project, Agricultural diversification project in Truong Son - Tay Nguyen region, Hoa Binh hydropower plant construction project; Unicep's action-oriented project to support women and children of ethnic minorities in Vietnam, thereby contributing to making cultural issues a fundamental part in the process of planning key development projects and works of the country in the industrialization period.

Among his published works, he is particularly interested in ethnic issues and ethnic policies in Vietnam. In addition to ethnic policies in history with the workEthnic policies of feudal state governments in Vietnam(National Political Publishing House 2001, co-written with Professor Phan Huu Dat), he participated in compiling lectures for study in universities and military schools; researched and proposed policies related to cultural preservation, culture and tourism, on the specificity of ethnic minorities and ethnic groups with special difficulties, on the principles of ethnic policies of our Party and State, and at the same time recommended that the Party should summarize 70 years of ethnic policies in response to the country's new development requirements.

The success in training and building the Anthropology sector in Vietnam in general and at the University in particular over the past ten years has been attributed to his important and positive contributions. In the leadership positions of the Department, the University and the Association, he has promoted, together with his colleagues, the implementation and removal of many difficulties to complete the construction of the Anthropology training programs of the University and the Anthropology Framework Program of the Ministry of Education and Training as well as the establishment of the Anthropology Department under the Faculty of History, the Anthropology Department under the University and preparation for the establishment of the Anthropology Faculty, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.