Ethnicity, Borders, and the Grassroots Interface with the State
Ethnicity, Borders, and the Grassroots Interface with the State

Author: John A. Marston

Publisher: Silkworm Books

Published: 2014-01-05

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1630417939

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Ethnicity, Borders, and the Grassroots Interface with the State brings together exciting new work by anthropologists working on mainland Southeast Asia. The volume honors anthropologist Charles F. Keyes and the chapters here address concepts central to Keyes’ own work—ethnicity, religion, and modernity—as they can be applied to the countries of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The volume also reflects recent scholarly interest in “cross-border” issues, as reflected both in the complexity of identity, where ethnic groups extend across boundaries, and in increasing cross-border mobility. The volume is divided into three sections. The first, “The State and Public Ceremony,” includes chapters on a ceremony of national heritage as celebrated in Vietnam and the United States, Shan novice initiation near the border of Myanmar in Thailand, and the restoration of the monkhood in Cambodia. The second section, “The Grassroots Negotiation of Modernity,” contains chapters about the concept of “sufficiency” in Thai farm production, the ways modernity is conceived among the Lahu in Thailand, and the complexities of the Thai system of identity cards. The final section, “Crossing Borders of State and Nation” focuses on the stateless Lao population in northeastern Thailand, Vietnamese migrants to Laos, and Western (farang) men married to northeastern Thai women. Contributors to the book include scholars based in Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Australia, and Mexico. The book is an invaluable reference for scholars of Southeast Asia, and will also appeal to the general reader. Highlights Brings together a range of new anthropological research on mainland Southeast Asia Compiled in honor of anthropologist Charles F. Keyes, and draws on key concepts he developed in his work Includes sections on “The State and Public Ceremony,” “The Grassroots Negotiation of Modernity,” and “Crossing Borders of State and Nation” Contributors include scholars based in Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Australia, and Mexico.

Borneo and Sulawesi
Borneo and Sulawesi

Author: Ooi Keat Gin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-11-28

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0429773463

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This book presents a great deal of new research findings on the history of Borneo, the history of Sulawesi and the interrelationship between the two islands. Some specific chapters focus on empires and colonizers, including the activities of James Brooke in Sulawesi, of Chinese mining communities in Borneo and of the the quisling issue in immediate post-war Sarawak. Other chapters consider indigenous peoples and how different regimes have handled them. The book is published in honour of Victor T. King, a leading scholar in the field of Southeast Asian studies, and a final chapter discusses his contribution to scholarship, in particular his views on how area studies should be approached, and the implications of this for future research.

Simas
Simas

Author: Jason A. Carbine

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2022-01-31

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0824891120

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Human-fashioned boundaries transform spaces by introducing dualisms, bifurcations, creative symbioses, contradictions, and notions of inclusion and exclusion. The Buddhist boundaries considered in this book, sīmās—a term found in South and Southeast Asian languages and later translated into East Asian languages—come in various shapes and sizes and can be established on land or in bodies of water. Sometimes, the word sīmā refers not only to a ceremonial boundary, but the space enclosed by the boundary, or even the markers (when they are used) that denote the boundary. Sīmās were established early on as places where core legal acts (kamma), including ordination, of the monastic community (sangha) took place according to their disciplinary codes. Sīmās continue to be deployed in the creation of monastic lineages and to function in diverse ways for monastics and non-monastics alike. As foundations of Buddhist religion, sīmās are used to sustain, revitalize, or reform Buddhist practices, notions of identity, and conceptualizations of time and history. In the last few decades, scholarly awareness of and expertise on sīmās has developed to a point where a volume like this one, which examines sīmās across numerous cultural contexts and scholarly fields of inquiry, is both possible and needed. Sīmā traditions expressed in the Theravāda cultures of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka constitute the dominant focus of the work; a chapter on East Asia raises questions of historical transmission beyond these areas. Throughout contributors engage texts; history; archaeology; politics; art; ecology; economics; epigraphy; legal categories; mythic narratives; understandings of the cosmos; and conceptualizations of compassion, authority, and violence. Examining sīmās through multiple perspectives allows us to look at them in their contextual specificity, in a way that allows for discernment of variation as well as consistency. Sīmā spaces can be both simple and extremely intricate, and this book helps show why and how that is the case.

Changing Lives in Laos
Changing Lives in Laos

Author: Vanina Bouté

Publisher: NUS Press

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 981472226X

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Changes in the character of the political regime in Laos after 2000, a massive influx of foreign investment, and disruptions to rural life arising from improved communications and new forms of mobility within and across the borders have produced a major transformation. Alongside these changes, a group of young scholars carried out studies that document the rise of a new social, cultural and economic order. The contributions to this volume draw on original fieldwork materials and unpublished sources, and provide fresh analyses of topics ranging from the structures of power to the politics of territoriality and new forms of sociability in emerging urban spaces.

Safe Migration and the Politics of Brokered Safety in Southeast Asia
Safe Migration and the Politics of Brokered Safety in Southeast Asia

Author: Sverre Molland

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-07-19

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 100043074X

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The book investigates how the United Nations, governments, and aid agencies mobilise and instrumentalise migration policies and programmes through a discourse of safe migration. Since the early 2000s, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies, and governments have warmed to the concept of safe migration, often within a context of anti-trafficking interventions. Yet, both the policy-enthusiasm for safety, as well as how safe migration comes into being through policies and programs remain unexplored. Based on seven years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Mekong region, this is the first book that traces the emergence of safe migration, why certain aid actors gravitate towards the concept, as well as how safe migration policies and programmes unfold through aid agencies and government bodies. The book argues that safe migration is best understood as brokered safety. Although safe migration policy interventions attempt to formalize pre-emptive and protective measures to enhance labour migrants’ well-being, the book shows through vivid ethnographic details how formal migration assistance in itself depends on – and produces – informal asnd mediated practices. The book offers unprecedented insights into what safe migration policies look like in practice. It is an innovate contribution to contemporary theorizing of contemporary forms of migration governance and will be of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and human geographers working within the fields of Migration studies, Development Studies, as well as Southeast Asian and Global Studies. Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781003185734

Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia
Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia

Author: Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière

Publisher: NIAS Press

Published: 2022-03-31

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 8776943097

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In dramatic contrast to the reported growing influence of doctrinal and fundamentalist forms of religion in some parts of Southeast Asia, the predominantly Buddhist societies of the region are witnessing an upsurge of spirit possession cults and diverse forms of magical ritual. This is found in many social strata, including the urban poor, rising middle classes and elite groups, and across the different political systems of Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. This volume reveals both the central historical place of spirit possession rituals in the Buddhist cultures of mainland Southeast Asia and their important contemporary roles to enhance prosperity and protection. This book examines the increasing prominence of spirit mediumship and divination across the region by exploring the interplay of neoliberal capitalism, visual media, the network cultures of the Internet, and the politics of cultural heritage and identity. It advances beyond critiques of the “secularization” and “disenchantment” theses to explore the processes of modernity that are actively producing magical worldviews and stimulating the rise of spirit cults. As such, it not only challenges the assumptions of modernization theory but demonstrates that the cults in question are novel ritual forms that emerge out of inherently modern conditions.

Connected and Disconnected in Viet Nam
Connected and Disconnected in Viet Nam

Author: Philip Taylor

Publisher: ANU Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1760460001

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Vietnam’s shift to a market-based society has brought about profound realignments in its people’s relations with each other. As the nation continues its retreat from the legacies of war and socialism, significant social rifts have emerged that divide citizens by class, region and ethnicity. By drawing on social connections as a traditional resource, Vietnamese are able to accumulate wealth, overcome marginalisation and achieve social mobility. However, such relationship-building strategies are also fraught with peril for they have the potential to entrench pre-existing social divisions and lead to new forms of disconnectedness. This book examines the dynamics of connection and disconnection in the lives of contemporary Vietnamese. It features 11 chapters by anthropologists who draw upon research in both highland and lowland contexts to shed light on social capital disparities, migration inequalities and the benefits and perils of gift exchange. The authors investigate ethnic minority networks, the politics of poverty, patriotic citizenship, and the ‘heritagisation’ of culture. Tracing shifts in how Vietnamese people relate to their consociates and others, the chapters elucidate the social legacies of socialism, nation-building and the transition to a globalised market-based economy. With compelling case studies and including many previously unheard perspectives, this book offers original insights into social ties and divisions among the modern Vietnamese.

Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia
Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia

Author: Jeffrey Samuels

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2016-07-31

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0824858581

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This book introduces contemporary Buddhists from across Asia and from various walks of life. Eschewing traditional hagiographies, the editors have collected sixty-six profiles of individuals who would be excluded from most Buddhist histories and ethnographies. In addition to monks and nuns, readers will encounter artists, psychologists, social workers, part-time priests, healers, and librarians as well as charlatans, hucksters, profiteers, and rabble-rousers—all whose lives reflect changes in modern Buddhism even as they themselves shape the course of these changes. The editors and contributors are fundamentally concerned with how individual Buddhists make meaning and display this understanding to others. Some practitioners profiled look to the past, lamenting the transformations Buddhism has undergone in recent times, while others embrace these. Some have adopted a “new asceticism,” while others are eager to explore different religious traditions as they think about their own ways of being Buddhist. Arranging the profiles according to these themes—looking backward, forward, inward, and outward—reveals the value of studying individual Buddhists and their idiosyncratic religious backgrounds and attitudes, thus highlighting the diversity of approaches to the practice and study of Buddhism in Asia today. Students and teachers will welcome sections on further readings and additional tables of contents that organize the profiles thematically, as well as by tradition (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), region, and country.

Education in Thailand
Education in Thailand

Author: Gerald W. Fry

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-11-01

Total Pages: 790

ISBN-13: 9811078572

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This interdisciplinary book offers a critical analysis of Thai education and its evolution, providing diverse perspectives and theoretical frameworks. In the past five decades Thailand has seen impressive economic success and it is now a middle-income country that provides development assistance to poorer countries. However, educational and social development have lagged considerably behind itsglobally recognized economic success. This comprehensive book covers each level of education, such as higher and vocational/technical education, and such topics as internationalization, inequalities and disparities, alternative education, non-formal and informal education, multilingual education, educational policy and planning, and educational assessment. The 25 Thai and 8 international contributors to the volume include well-known academics and practitioners. Thai education involves numerous paradoxes, which are identified and explained. While Thailand has impressively expanded its educational system quantitatively with much massification, quality problems persist at all levels. As such, the final policy-oriented summary chapter suggests strategies to enable Thailand to escape “the middle income trap” and enhance the quality of its education to ensure its long-term developmental success.

Subversive Archaism
Subversive Archaism

Author: Michael Herzfeld

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 2021-10-11

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1478022248

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In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals and communities living at the margins of the modern nation-state use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state authority under both democratic and authoritarian governments. Through close attention to the claims and experiences of mountain shepherds in Greece and urban slum dwellers in Thailand, Herzfeld shows how these subversive archaists draw on national histories and past polities to claim legitimacy for their defiance of bureaucratic authority. Although vilified by government authorities as remote, primitive, or dangerous—often as preemptive justification for violent repression—these groups are not revolutionaries and do not reject national identity, but they do question the equation of state and nation. Herzfeld explores the political strengths and vulnerabilities of their deployment of heritage and the weaknesses they expose in the bureaucratic and ethnonational state in an era of accelerated globalization.