Dieu Python Movement
Encyclopedia
In 1937, a Vietnamese Montagnard village chief by the name of Sam Bam announced that his daughter had given birth to a python. The Montagnards
began to stop cultivating their land, because they believed that this python was the Python-God sent to rid the Central Highlands of Vietnam
, of all foreigners. People began to attack the French because they had been given "magical water" which were to make them invulnerable to French bullets. This rebellion was quickly repressed by the French.
The French interpreted this rebellion as an expression of dissatifaction of colonial rule; later the Catholic mission interpreted this as a movement stirred by sorcerers with Viet. This revived the anthropological tradition of having ethnographic material performed on the region for the benefit of the colonial government.
Degar
The Degar are the indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The term Montagnard means "mountain people" in French and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term thượng - this term can also be applied to other minority ethnic...
began to stop cultivating their land, because they believed that this python was the Python-God sent to rid the Central Highlands of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, of all foreigners. People began to attack the French because they had been given "magical water" which were to make them invulnerable to French bullets. This rebellion was quickly repressed by the French.
The French interpreted this rebellion as an expression of dissatifaction of colonial rule; later the Catholic mission interpreted this as a movement stirred by sorcerers with Viet. This revived the anthropological tradition of having ethnographic material performed on the region for the benefit of the colonial government.