ABSTRACT
The experience of revolution in Thinh Liet commune was never far removed from the realities of warfare. This chapter examines two linked issues that have profoundly informed social life since the French war began in 1946: what are dead soldiers and how should they be dealt with. It demonstrates that dead soldiers are different things and have different meanings for different social actors, and these meanings and assumptions compel different ritual responses. As the government officially advanced a policy of atheism, it either denied or simply ignored the question of whether the dead soldier’s soul existed. For the families who lost loved ones, dead soldiers’ souls did exist, and therefore needed ritual attention to put them to rest. The chapter examines the diverse ontologies and ideas associated with war dead and the way in which, despite the general acceptance of government efforts to ennoble war death, different assumptions about them have produced different, though ultimately complementary, ritual practices.
