Earth Spirit of Central Vietnam

The idea that the earth is a spirited entity is found nearly universally across Southeast Asia. Vietnam is no exception. In the country’s central region, a shrine dedicated to the earth being is part of the premises of the communal ancestral house, facing the house of worship in the exterior. When people make offerings to this shrine as part of their ancestral rite, they interact with not only the powerful Earth God but also the myriad non-ancestral, lost spirits of the dead. This article looks into the intimate ties between the spirit of the earth and the displaced souls of the dead, asking how this relational form speaks to issues of moral solidarity discussed in the early sociology of religion and whether a renewed interest in this research tradition can contribute to contemporary conversations on cosmopolitics.