Women’s Property Rights and Inheritance of Property for Ancestor Worship in Pre-Modern Vietnam: Focusing on Anniversary Rice Fields (<i>Kỵ Điền</i>)

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Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 前近代ベトナム女性の財産権と祭祀財産相続
  • 前近代ベトナム女性の財産権と祭祀財産相続 : 忌田を中心に
  • ゼン キンダイ ベトナム ジョセイ ノ ザイサンケン ト サイシザイサン ソウゾク : キデン オ チュウシン ニ
  • ―忌田を中心に―

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Abstract

While the property rights of men and women have been the cause of disputes in pre-modern Vietnam, many scholars have paid attention only to the quantity of land divided between men and women. Of the property for ancestor worship, scholars have paid attention only to ‘fire and incense’ (hương hỏa), a kind of property for ancestor worship inherited by mainly men. To better understand women’s status in Vietnamese society much, this article examines the inheritance of another kind of property for ancestor worship－anniversary rice fields (kỵ điền)－and women’s role in ancestor worship. In pre-modern Vietnam, daughters sometimes received equal rights of ownership or cultivation of anniversary rice fields as sons. In exchange for receiving anniversary rice fields, daughters had duties to worship their ancestors. Parents sometimes stipulated in testaments that both sons and daughters should fulfill the duty of ancestor worship equally and forever. Even after marrying out, daughters continued to fulfill their duties of worship with their husband and children or grand-children. In some cases, children and grand-children inherited their mother’s anniversary rice fields in order to continue to worship their mother’s ancestors, contrary to the Confucian patrilineal norm. From the anthropological point of view, this phenomenon also represents an ancestor-centered kinship idea similar to cognatic stock, rather than an ego-centered idea such as kindred.

Journal

  • Asian and African Area Studies

    Asian and African Area Studies 15 (2), 208-233, 2016

    Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

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