Ho Chi Minh’s Philosophy of Social Development, a Humanistic Philosophy and Action Theory - Contemporary Values and Meanings (21/07/2015)

The paper interpretes and affirms the spiritual values with deep meaning in practice renovation in Ho Chi Minh’s philosophy of social development - a humanistic philosophy and an action theory containing comtemporary values and meanings with an inseparable and comprehensive link, is a result of the creative application and development of Marxism - Leninism into our specific context and is the succession and development of our fine traditional values and the reception of the quintessence of human culture. That point of view, that philosophy takes real life as a starting point and takes human liberation and development as a target. As for Ho Chi Minh, building socialism not only has a tight link with national independence, but also is a path, a means to maintain that independence, improve welfare and social security.
Author: Prof. Hoang Chi Bao

From the Success of Crossing Pacific Ocean by Raft, a Look Back Ancient Vietnamese’s Maritime Traditions (21/07/2015)

With currently available research results and relics, a lot of researchers analysed that there are plenty of similarities between Southeast Asian and American civilization. There are assumptions that Southeast Asia residents had successful crossing over the vast Pacific Ocean thousand years B.C. To clarify these assumptions, Tim Severin - an Irish explorer, historian, and writer, searched for a place to try to cross the ocean by raft, but he was not successful. In 1991, he arrived in Sam Son (Thanh Hoa, Vietnam), built a bamboo raft and undertook a long voyage. After 6 months at Pacific Ocean on the small raft, the expedition completed 5,500 sea miles safely. With this success, the advantage of a simple vehicle which was used by many Vietnamese fishermen generations has been clearly shown; at the same time, ancient Vietnamese's unique maritime traditions are also affirmed. This is what the paper discusses.
Author: Dr. Le Thanh Y

Cultural Symbols of Gia Rai People and Acculturation of these Symbols of Catholicism in Central Highland (21/07/2015)

Learning about cultural symbols - the quintessence of an ethnic group’s culture, researching and decrypting those symbols have been done by many researchers. However, there are a few studies on acculturation of Gia Rai people's cultural symbols in Central Highland. This paper is the author's effort to fill that gap in the current research literature of cultural anthropology in Central Highland. The paper introduces and generally analyses the cultural symbols of Gia Rai people and the acculturation of those symbols of Catholism in Central Highland, thereby points out the reasons for this acculturation and some urgent issues influencing the cultural symbols under this acculturation.
Author: Dr. Nguyen Van Thang