Culture of Southeast Asia
Both Paradise of the Blind (set in the war years) and Goddess on the Rise, (describing the post war years) describe ritual actions involving food offerings. In Paradise, both Que and Aunt Tam – in their own ways – provide food “offerings” to the narrator as a sort of “worship” of the family; in Goddess, entrepreneurs make sacrifice to “goddesses” in hopes of market success.
In both cases, there is a lot of ambivalence about the practice. Compare these two types of food offering and ritual “exchange,” – what are the differences (and similarities) in what the ritual actors hope to receive as benefit? Do you think the difference has to do with a shift in ideology following the war? Or does it have to do with differences in the goals of act? What is the role of gender in both cases? Make an argument and give evidence for your claims..
