Yiey mao belief in southern Vietnam origin, characteristics, and the process of reconstructing indigenous cultural traditions
Multidisciplinary Science Journal January 16, 2026 An Thanh Ngo
This paper examines the Yiey Mao belief among the Khmer in Southern Vietnam as a vivid example of how an indigenous religion adapts and endures amid modernization and globalization. Drawing on the anthropology of religion (Geertz, Turner, Tambiah, Eliade), the study interprets Yiey Mao as a dynamic symbolic system that negotiates between tradition and modernity, the sacred and the secular,...