Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Cambodia; Erik W. Davis radically reorients approaches toward the nature of Southeast Asian Buddhism's interactions with local religious practice and; by extension; reorients our understanding of Buddhism itself. Through a vivid study of contemporary Cambodian Buddhist funeral rites; he reveals the powerfully integrative role monks play as they care for the dead and negotiate the interplay of non-Buddhist spirits and formal Buddhist customs.Buddhist monks perform funeral rituals rooted in the embodied practices of Khmer rice farmers and the social hierarchies of Khmer culture. The monks' realization of death underwrites key components of the Cambodian social imagination: the distinction between wild death and celibate life; the forest and the field; and moral and immoral forms of power. By connecting the performative aspects of Buddhist death rituals to Cambodian history and everyday life; Davis undermines the theory that Buddhism and rural belief systems necessarily oppose each other. Instead; he shows Cambodian Buddhism to be a robust tradition with ethical and popular components extending throughout Khmer society.
#3638514 in Books 2009-07-07Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.31 x 1.33 x 6.27l; 1.65 #File Name: 0231154925480 pages
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A master piece of historical investigationBy Mourad Benachenhouexhaustive; well documented' one of the best books about the French colonial history in north africa0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Behind the Façade of France's "Mission Civilisatrice"By A. A. NofiAn excerpt from the review on StrategyPage.Com:'A Desert Named Peace takes a look behind the benign façade of the French "mission civilisatrice" and finds it wanting. After a brief look at the initial French invasion and occupation of northern Algeria; partially to help suppress piracy but mostly to garner martial glory for the Bourbons; Prof. Brower (UT) examines the French invasion and conquest of the desert areas further inland. A series of case studies provide examples of the often extreme violence of military action against local peoples; their sometimes brutal responses; the nature of slavery in the region; and French adaptations of it; and the ways in which a veil of romanticism helped make palatable what was clearly a gross violation of their national principles. A well written revisionist look at the dark side of colonialism which still influences international relations.'For the full review; see StrategyPage.Com
