Consoling Ghosts: Stories of Medicine and Mourning from Southeast Asians in Exile

INDEX

257 advance directives, 82, 84, 88, 99, 132, 228n11, 229n2 Agamben, Giorgio, 4, 28, 69, 164–65, 205, 206, 207 Alphen, Ernst Van, 225n6 American War in Vietnam (1961– 1975), 31, 81–82 ancestors: as distinguished from ghosts, 213. See also dead animality, 29, 151, 165, 205–6; figures of, 65–71; sea serpents, 69–70; souls, 67–68; in Southeast Asian folklore, 66–67, 68; tiger husband, 68–70 animism, 12, 15, 165, 166, 215 Antelme, Robert, 29 Aquinas, Thomas, 205–6 Ariès, Philippe, 82–83, 115–16, 128 Armstrong, David, 115, 116, 117 Asad, Talal, 76 Austin, John, 129 autology, 7, 93, 177, 181 autonomy. See patient autonomy autopsy, 195 bad death: defined, 16–17, 32–33; and engagement with dead, 27; haunting of, 16–17, 26, 32–33, 39–40, 43; and imminent death, 36–37; language of, 41–42; living person as ghost, 33–36; as ordinary, 35, 40–41; practices for, 30, 39, 48; and survival, 36 Bang Fai festival, 70 bangsukol, 173–74 Barley, Nigel, 106 Bataille, Georges, 181, 193 Battin, Margaret Pabst, 83 Benjamin, Walter, 18, 19, 20, 81 Benveniste, Emile, 28 bereavement support, 103–4. See also grief and mourning Berger, Jeffrey, 119 Beste, Jennifer, 80 bioethics, 5, 6; and cultural practices, 120; latent Christianity in, 151; and personal narrative, 126; sovereignty of, 97–98; on spirits, 215–16; on truth-telling, 118–19, 130–31, 151; and uncanny, 120–21 biomedicine, 6, 91–93, 143–44, 147. See also medicine and medical technology biopolitics, 4, 68, 91, 165, 215 Bonanno, George, 235n6 Boun Khau Padab Din, 170–71 Bourdieu, Pierre, 234n10 Index Bradbury, Mary, 83, 117 bralin. See praloeng Buddhism, 5; compassion in, 213; on conscious dying, 123; flexibility in, 196–97; karmic economy in, 32, 193, 232n9; on merit, 47; on money for dead, 172–73; on nothingness after death, 174; on organ donation, 195; Theravada, 165–66, 173–74, 178, 232n9 burial, secondary, 40, 49–50, 199, 226n20. See also death rites Butler, Judith, 26–27, 128 Cadena, Marisol de la, 68 “Calling the Ancestors” (Kmhmu song), 162 Cambodia: covert war in, 14–15, 27, 66, 166, 193–94. See also Khmer Rouge regime Cannetti, Elias, 207–8 cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), 87, 98, 102–3 Carrese, Joseph, 132 Caruth, Cathy, 29 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 10, 19, 38–39, 53, 194 Chakrabarty, Dipesh, 71, 215 Chandler, David, 64–65 Cheng, Anne Anlin, 27, 49 Cho, Grace, 212 chom mon, 111–12, 122, 129, 131, 135 Choulean, Ang, 171 Christianity: and death, 13, 105–6; and materiality, 178; and personal transformation, 119; on sacrifice and debt, 193; on soul, 166–67, 239n3; and truth-telling, 151 CIA. See Central Intelligence Agency confessionalism, 114–15, 119–20 cosmopolitics, 68 countertransference, 22–23 CPR. See cardiopulmonary resuscitation cremation, 82, 106, 107; vs. burial, 233n1; ceremonies, 128, 153–54, 168–69, 196–97, 199; coins in ashes, 173, 182 Cruzan, Nancy, 82 Culhane-Pera, Kathy, 130 culture, 5–9; cultural liberalism, 7; loss inherent in concept, 9 dab. See spirit(s): Hmong Das, Veena, 30, 31, 40 David, Richard, 67–68 dead: decomposition of, 83; devaluation of, 166; disruption in reciprocity with, 185–86; distress of, 49; hospitality for, 10, 180, 200, 209, 211–12, 213; karmic investment in, 168–75; listening for, 19–20; loneliness of, 106; and materiality, 12, 15–16, 40–41, 175–82; relationships with, 11–14, 15–16, 27, 41, 106; sociality, 4–5, 186, 193, 207–8; stealing from, 163–64; wandering, 170–71. See also life and death; spirit(s) death: authority of, 18–23; brain death, 88, 105, 228n3, 231n2; Christian theology on, 13; denial of, 85, 88, 96, 114, 115–16, 128; desecrated, 189, 195–96, 206–7; with dignity, 79, 81, 105, 116, 164–65; drive, 212, 216, 235n5; eschatological narratives, 105–9; expiration vs. termination, 152; foreknowledge of, 131–32; imminent , 36–38; medical management of, 6–7, 13, 98–104; medical negotiation of, 98–104; natural, 81–89, 90, 105–6; pacification of, 80–89; 258 Index permission for, 89–98, 127; power of words to invite, 135; preparations for, 147–51; prolonged, 82. See also bad death death rites, 14, 38–51; Hmong, 93–94, 157–60, 175–79, 201; Khmer, 154–55, 160; Kmhmu, 155–57, 179–80, 201; Lao, 153–54, 198– 99, 200–201; mortuary protocol, 82, 199, 201–3; purpose...