Download or read book Capitalism Magic Thailand written by Peter A Jackson and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2021-12-13 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship—which have emerged together in Thailand’s dynamic religious field in recent decades—Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour’s account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in which originally distinct cults centred on Indian deities, Chinese gods and Thai religious and royal figures have merged in commercial spaces and media sites to sacralize the market and wealth production. Emerging within popular culture, this complex of cults of wealth, amulets and spirit mediumship is supported by all levels of Thai society, including those at the acme of economic and political power. New theoretical frameworks are presented in analyses that challenge the view that magic is a residue of premodernity, placing the dramatic transformations of cultic ritual centre stage in modern Thai history. It is concluded that modern enchantment arises at the confluence of three processes: neoliberal capitalism’s production of occult economies, the auraticizing effects of technologies of mass mediatization, and the performative force of ritual in religious fields where practice takes precedence over doctrine.
Download or read book Deities and Divas written by Peter A. Jackson and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2022-01-22 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In central Thailand, a flamboyantly turbaned gay medium for the Hindu god of the underworld posts Facebook selfies of himself hugging and kissing a young man. In Myanmar’s largest city Yangon, a one-time member of a gay NGO dons an elaborate wedding dress to be ritually married to a possessing female spirit; he believes she will offer more support for his gay lifestyle than the path of LGBTQ activism. The only son of a Chinese trading family in Bangkok finds acceptance for his homosexuality and crossdressing when he becomes the medium for a revered female Chinese deity. And in northern Thailand, female mediums smoke, drink, flaunt butch masculine poses and flirt with female followers when they are ritually possessed by male warrior deities. Across the Buddhist societies of mainland Southeast Asia, local queer cultures are at the center of a recent proliferation of professional spirit mediumship. Drawing on detailed ethnographies and extensive comparative research, Deities and Divas captures this variety and ferment. The first book to trace commonalities between queer and religious cultures in Southeast Asia and the West, it reveals how modern gay, trans and spirit medium communities all emerge from a shared formative matrix of capitalism and new media. With insights and analysis that transcend the modern opposition of religion vs secularity, it provides fascinating new perspectives in transnational cultural, religious and queer studies.
Download or read book Holy Things written by Nathan McGovern and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common religious practice in Buddhist Thailand is asking "holy things" for help in return for an offering. These holy things include local spirits, Hindu gods, and famous Buddha images, which Thai people worship all in the same way. Some people, and even Thai Buddhists themselves, have argued that this is "syncretism"--a mixture of religions. Holy Things shows that what appears to be syncretism is actually an illusion. The worship of "holy things" is not a mixture of different religions, but the category of "holy things" is a mixture of different ways of talking about religion.
Download or read book Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia written by Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière and published by NIAS Press. This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Sexuality Gender Health and Rights written by Peter Aggleton and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 655 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thoroughly updated with over 30 newly written chapters, this edition of the Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights brings together academics and practitioners from around the world to provide an authoritative and up-to-date account of the field. Social researchers and their allies have worked hard in past decades to find new ways of understanding sexuality in a rapidly changing world. Growing attention is now given to the way sexuality intersects with other structures such as gender, age, ethnicity/race and disability, and increasing value is seen in a positive approach focused on ethics, pleasure, mutuality and reciprocity. This Handbook explores: theory, politics and early development of sexuality studies ways in which language, discourse and identification have become central to research on sex, sexuality and gender key issues across the broad media and digital ecology, demonstrating the centrality of representation, communication and digital technologies to sexual and gender practices research focusing on the body and its sexual pleasures work on forms of inequality, violence and abuse that are linked to sex, gender and sexuality The Handbook is an essential reference for researchers and educators working in the fields of sexuality studies, gender studies, sexual health and human rights, and offers key reading for mid-level and advanced students.
Download or read book The Made Up State written by Benjamin Hegarty and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2022-12-15 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Made-Up State, Benjamin Hegarty contends that warias, who compose one of Indonesia's trans feminine populations, have cultivated a distinctive way of captivating the affective, material, and spatial experiences of belonging to a modern public sphere. Combining historical and ethnographic research, Hegarty traces the participation of warias in visual and bodily technologies, ranging from psychiatry and medical transsexuality to photography and feminine beauty. The concept of development deployed by the modern Indonesian state relies on naturalizing the binary of "male" and "female." As historical brokers between gender as a technological system of classifying human difference and state citizenship, warias shaped the contours of modern selfhood even while being positioned as nonconforming within it. The Made-Up State illuminates warias as part of the social and technological format of state rule, which has given rise to new possibilities for seeing and being seen as a citizen in postcolonial Indonesia.
Download or read book Modernity and Re enchantment written by Philip Taylor and published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This book was released on 2007 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers shared logics of spiritual efficacy across a range of practices, which include ancestor veneration, spirit mediumship, Buddhist sectarianism and Catholic myths and miracles. Defines, documents, and discusses each issue relating to Vietnam studies.
Download or read book Magical Capitalism written by Brian Moeran and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-16 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume of essays examines the ways in which magical practices are found in different aspects of contemporary capitalist societies. From contract law to science, by way of finance, business, marketing, advertising, cultural production, and the political economy in general, each chapter argues that the kind of magic studied by anthropologists in less developed societies – shamanism, sorcery, enchantment, the occult – is not only alive and well, but flourishing in the midst of so-called ‘modernity’. Modern day magicians range from fashion designers and architects to Donald Trump and George Soros. Magical rites take place in the form of political summits, the transformation of products into brands through advertising campaigns, and the biannual fashion collections shown in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Magical language, in the form of magical spells, is used by everyone, from media to marketers and all others devoted to the art of ‘spin’. While magic may appear to be opposed to systems of rational economic thought, Moeran and Malefyt highlight the ways it may in fact be an accomplice to it.
Download or read book Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia written by Robert W. Hefner and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-12-19 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Islam and Citizenship in Indonesia examines the conditions facilitating democracy, women’s rights, and inclusive citizenship in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority country and the third largest democracy in the world. The book shows that Muslim understandings of Islamic traditions and ethics have coevolved with the understanding and practice of democracy and citizen belonging. Following thirty-two years of authoritarian rule, in 1998 this sprawling Southeast Asian country returned to electoral democracy. The achievement brought with it, however, an upsurge in both the numbers and assertiveness of Islamist militias, as well as a sharp increase in violence against religious minorities. The resulting mobilizations have pitted the Muslim supporters of an Indonesian variety of inclusive citizenship against populist proponents of Islamist majoritarianism. Seen from this historical example, the book demonstrates that Muslim actors come to know and practice Islam in a manner not determined in an unchanging way by scriptural commands but in coevolution with broader currents in politics, society, and citizen belonging. By exploring these questions in both an Indonesian and comparative context, this book offers important lessons on the challenge of democracy and inclusive citizenship in the Muslim-majority world. Well-written and informative, this book will be suitable for adoption in university courses on Islam, Southeast Asian Politics, Indonesian and Asian studies, as well as courses dealing with religion, democracy, and citizen belonging in multicultural societies around the world. The book will be of interest to the general reader with an interest in Islam, citizenship, and democracy.
Download or read book The Heart of Business written by Hubert Joly and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Wall Street Journal Bestseller Named a Financial Times top title How to unleash "human magic" and achieve improbable results. Hubert Joly, former CEO of Best Buy and orchestrator of the retailer's spectacular turnaround, unveils his personal playbook for achieving extraordinary outcomes by putting people and purpose at the heart of business. Back in 2012, "Everyone thought we were going to die," says Joly. Eight years later, Best Buy was transformed as Joly and his team rebuilt the company into one of the nation's favorite employers, vastly increased customer satisfaction, and dramatically grew Best Buy's stock price. Joly and his team also succeeded in making Best Buy a leader in sustainability and innovation. In The Heart of Business, Joly shares the philosophy behind the resurgence of Best Buy: pursue a noble purpose, put people at the center of the business, create an environment where every employee can blossom, and treat profit as an outcome, not the goal. This approach is easy to understand, but putting it into practice is not so easy. It requires radically rethinking how we view work, how we define companies, how we motivate, and how we lead. In this book Joly shares memorable stories, lessons, and practical advice, all drawn from his own personal transformation from a hard-charging McKinsey consultant to a leader who believes in human magic. The Heart of Business is a timely guide for leaders ready to abandon old paradigms and lead with purpose and humanity. It shows how we can reinvent capitalism so that it contributes to a sustainable future.
Download or read book Power Protection and Magic in Thailand written by Craig J. Reynolds and published by ANU Press. This book was released on 2019-10-22 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biographical study of an unusual southern policeman explores the relationship between religion and power in Thailand during the early twentieth century when parts of the country were remote and banditry was rife. Khun Phan (1898–2006), known as Lion Lawman, sometimes used rather too much lethal force in carrying out his orders. He was the most famous graduate of a monastic academy in the mid-south, whose senior teachers imparted occult knowledge favoured by fighters on both sides of the law. Khun Phan imbibed this knowledge to confront the risks and uncertainty that lay ahead and bolster his confidence and self-reliance for his struggle with adversaries. Against the background of national events, the story is rooted in the mid-south where the policeman was born and died. Based on a wide range of works in Thai language, on field trips to the region and on interviews with local and regional scholars as well as the policeman’s descendants, this generously illustrated book, accompanied by short video clips, brings to life the distinctive environment of the lakes district on the Malay Peninsula.
Download or read book Of Beggars and Buddhas written by Katherine A. Bowie and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of subversive, ribald variations of the most important story in Theravada Buddhism.
Download or read book Pluralism Transnationalism and Culture in Asian Law written by Gary F Bell and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2017-06-12 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “We owe much of our knowledge of legal diversity in Asia to the work of Barry Hooker, who appears early on to have appreciated its intrinsic interest and potentially global significance. His work in the field is, as the French say, incontournable; a nice combination of the unavoidable, the controlling and the greatly respected.” — H.P. Glenn span, SPAN { background-color:inherit; text-decoration:inherit; white-space:pre-wrap } To honour this great scholar, this book gathers essays from admirers and friends who add their own contributions on legal pluralism, transnationalism and culture in Asia. The book opens with an account of M.B. Hooker colourful and prolific career. The authors then approach legal pluralism through legal theory, legal anthropology, comparative law, law and religion, constitutional law, even Islamic art, thus reflecting the broad approaches of Professor Hooker’s scholarship. While most of the book focuses mainly on Southeast Asia, it also reaches out to all of Asia up to Israel, and even includes a chapter comparing Indonesia and Egypt.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand written by Pavin Chachavalpongpun and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Thailand is a timely survey and assessment of the state of contemporary Thailand. While Thailand has changed much in the past decades, this handbook proposes that many of its problems have remained intact or even persistent, particularly problems related to domestic politics. It underlines emerging issues at this critical juncture in the kingdom and focuses on the history, politics, economy, society, culture, religion and international relations of the country. A multidisciplinary approach, with chapters written by experts on Thailand, this handbook is divided into the following sections. History Political and economic landscape Social development International relations Designed for academics, students, libraries, policymakers and general readers in the field of Asian studies, political science, economics and sociology, this invaluable reference work provides an up-to-date account of Thailand and initiates new discussion for future research activities.
Download or read book A Regional Economic History of Thailand written by Porphant Ouyyanont and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an economic history of Bangkok, the Central Region, the North, the South, and Northeastern Regions from the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855 to the present. Most research has focused on Bangkok as the centre of change affecting other regions and has neglected other regions that had an influence on Bangkok. This book however looks at the changes not only in Bangkok, but also in the other regions, and emphasizes the ways in which Bangkok had an impact on the other regions, and how changes in the other regions affected Bangkok. It also looks, in turn, at each of the principal regions, and concentrate on the long-term economic and social changes and the various forces which promoted the changes.
Download or read book First Queer Voices from Thailand written by Peter A. Jackson and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a fully revised and substantially expanded edition of Peter Jackson’s highly regarded pioneering study of an Asian gay culture, Male Homosexuality in Thailand (1989). The hero of Jackson’s fascinating narrative is “Uncle Go”, which was the pen name of a popular magazine editor who, despite being avowedly heterosexual, was tolerant of all sexual practices and whose “agony uncle” columns in the 1970s provided unique spaces in the national press for Thailand’s gays, lesbians and transgenders (kathoeys) to speak for themselves in the public domain. By allowing the voices of alternative sexualities to be heard, Uncle Go emerged as Thailand’s first champion of gender equality and sexual rights. Peter Jackson translates and analyses selected correspondence published in Uncle Go’s advice columns, preserving and presenting important primary sources. In this new edition, Jackson has expanded his coverage to include not only letters from Thai gay men, but also those from lesbians and transgenders, thus capturing the full diversity of Thailand’s modern queer cultures at a key moment in their historical development when new understandings of sexual identities were first communicated to the wider community. “How wonderful to see this classic volume printed in a new expanded edition for the 21st century! When first published the figure of Uncle Go became an instant and unique voice in Thai sexuality studies. Peter Jackson’s contributions here are huge and foundational.” —Gilbert Herdt, San Francisco State University “If Thailand is now well known for its unique milieu of sex and gender diversity, it is in large part due to Peter Jackson’s writings. First Queer Voices from Thailand offers a rare archive of non-normative sexualities invaluable for anyone wishing to understand sexual modernity outside of the West.” —Ara Wilson, Duke University “An amazing work. Most valuable for this new edition is perhaps the way in which it documents changes in Jackson’s thinking, and in the field of sexuality studies, over the last twenty years, in response to the methodological challenges of queer and transgender scholarship.” —Susan Stryker, University of Arizona
Download or read book Buddhism and Postmodern Imaginings in Thailand written by Jim Taylor and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a rethink on the significance of Thai Buddhism in an increasingly complex and changing post-modern urban context, especially following the financial crisis of 1997. Defining the cultural nature of Thai 'urbanity'; the implications for local/global flows, interactions and emergent social formations, James Taylor opens up new possibilities in understanding the specificities of everyday urban life as this relates to perceptions, conceptions and lived experiences of religiosity. Changes in the centre are also reverberating in the remaining forests and the monastic tradition of forest-dwelling which has sourced most of the nation's modern saints. The text is based on ethnography taking into account the rich variety of everyday practices in a mélange of the religious. In Thailand, Buddhism is so intimately interconnected with national identity and social, economic and ethno-political concerns as to be inseparable. Taylor argues here that in recent years there has been a marked reformulation of important conventional cosmologies through new and challenging Buddhist ideas and practices. These influences and changes are as much located outside as inside the Buddhist temples/monasteries.
