In this Book
- Love and Dread in Cambodia: Weddings, Births and Ritual Harm under the Khmer Rouge
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: NUS Press Pte Ltd
summary
For a decade, the author followed Cambodian men and women to former wedding and birth sites from the Khmer Rouge period (1975-79), filming their return to these locations. In the process she uncovered evidence of the way severe dislocation, induced starvation and other murderous activities paved the way for reconstructed communes. Group marriages, along with prescriptions for sex, pregnancies and births, were a central feature of the remaking of Cambodian society and contributed to the dissolution of the country's ritual practices. This "ritualcide" caused a massive loss of spirit-protective places, objects,and arbitrators, and had a traumatic impact on Khmer socity. Group marriages did, however, give spouses a reprieve from further dislocation. Approaching the phenomenon as an ethno-psychologist, LeVine argues that suffering was intensified by ritual tampering on the part of the Khmer Rouge. Such disruptions did not end in 1979, however, since Euro-American perspectives on trauma and reconcilation have also failed to accept spirit respect as a normative feature of Cambodian life.
Table of Contents
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- Title Page
- pp. i-iii
- Copyright, Dedication
- pp. iv-vi
- Terms of References
- pp. xi-xii
- Acknowledgements
- pp. xiii-xv
- Chapter 5 Displaced without Imagination
- pp. 112-128
- Chapter 6 Field Diaries: Expose on Cruelty
- pp. 129-137
- Chapter 7 Anghar's Potency
- pp. 138-162
- Chapter 8 Agentless Victimiser
- pp. 163-172
- Appendices
- pp. 185-204
- Bibliography
- pp. 205-216
Additional Information
ISBN
9789971695781
Related ISBN(s)
9789971694722
MARC Record
OCLC
794698888
Pages
240
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No