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ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 BENjAmIN BAUmANN THE KHMER WITCH PROJECT: DEmONIzINg thE khmER By khmERIzINg A DEmON 19

DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 DORISEA WORkINg PAPER SERIES

EDITORS Peter J. Bräunlein Michael Dickhardt Andrea Lauser

BmBF Competence Network “Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia” (DORISEA)

The research network “Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia” (DORISEA) is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and coordinated by the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Georg-August-University of Göttingen. Scholars from the Universities of Göttingen, Hamburg, Münster, Heidelberg and Berlin (Humboldt University) are involved in several projects that investigate the relationship between religion and modernity in Southeast Asia.

How to cite this paper: Benjamin Baumann (2015): The Khmer Witch Project: Demonizing the Khmer by Khmerizing a Demon. In: DORISEA Working Paper Series, No. 19.

Research Network DORISEA Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia

Project Ofice georg-August-University göttingen Institut für Ethnologie Berliner Str. 28 FUNDED BY D - 37073 göttingen germany +49 (0)551 39 20153 [email protected] www.dorisea.net Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 3

BENjAmIN BAUmANN THE KHMER WITCH PROJECT: DEMONIZING THE KHMER BY KHMERIZING A DEMON*

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines an anthropological reading of Thai ghost films and their uncanny protagonists as a dialecticPhi Krasue synthesizing ethnographic material with film analysis in an attempt to operationalize the premises of the ontological and spectral turns. The paper is the first systematic study of —one of Thailands most iconic uncanny beings— and its cinematic and vernacularPhi Krasue ghostly images. )t grew out of an attempt to make sense of local Khmer-speaking interlocutors acceptance and reproduction of an idiosyncratic origin myth that locates the origin of in AngkorianPhi Krasue Khmer culture. Based on Mary Douglas and Julia Kristevas theories the paper identifies abjection and its essential ambiguity as the logical principle structuring imaginations of in vernacular and cinematic contexts. ) phiargue that the reading of a ghost films social message depends on spectators embodiment of ofvernacular Phi Krasue’s ghostlore and thus on an implicit knowledge of the cultural semantics Thailands manifest. (owever, this paper offers not only a structural explanation for the self-evidence origin in Angkorian Khmer culture, but also for the Khmer-magic link as the most important socio-cultural stereotype characterizing the category Khmer in Thailands contemporary popular culture. Finally, the paper identifies filthiness as the social idiom used to explicate abjection as the logical principle structuring processes of self-formation in contemporary Thailand.

* ) thank Peter A. Jackson, Justin McDaniel, and Guido Sprenger for their critical remarks on previous drafts of this paper.

INTRODUCTION

“The process of generating a language and set of spirited modernities Endres and Lauser , ; institutions for constructing locations and popu- (orstmann , . While the heuristic value of lations as dirty or clean did not simply eliminate framing the multiple socio-cultural configurations traditional notions of filth; it amalgamated these of contemporary Thailand under the encompassing ideas, putting them to new uses.” (W. Cohen 2005, label of modernity is debatable P. A. Jackson , xviii) ; Kasian , -; Pattana ; Taylor , a paradigmatically modern medium—ghost Engaging the Spirit World: film—may indeed help us to grasp their eminently Popular Beliefs and Practices in Modern Southeast spirited character A. A. Johnson ; Meyer , Asia)n their edited volume .[T]he current generation of Thai horror films contains powerful ethnographic material with German anthropologists Kirsten Endres and which one can rethink not only the now classic is- Andrea Lauser argue for the eminently spirited sue in the sociology of religion of the persistence character of contemporary Southeast Asian so- of magic and spirits in an age of post- or late-mo- cieties Endres and Lauser . Following Ro- dernity, but also “the subtle and complex inter- salind Morris Alexander (orstmann adds connection among everyday forms of relatedness that mediation through new media technologies in the present, memories of the past, and the wid- is essential to bring about the contemporary socio-cultural configurations EndresDORISEA and Working Lauser Paper, callISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 4

er [historical and] political context in which they occur (Carsten 2007: 1).” (Pattana 2011, 202) and Lock , -. Givenphi their ontological sta- Phi tus in the various configurations of contemporary Phi is an Thaithat shapessociety, aan phi’s analysis of has to acknowledge constitute the major category of uncanny the dialectic of uncanny being and ghostly image protagonists featured in Thai ghost films. contextual meaning in accord- essential but highly relational and contextual cul- ance with the practical requirements of a given tural concept that cannot be translated unambigu- speech event. phi ously Stanlaw and Yoddumnern , . As a The following analysis is an attempt to decipher thick category it continues to challenge anthro- the meaning of a in a particular speech event translatingpologists trying phi to decipher the symbolism of its triesdialectically. to account My for approach the particularity in this paper of historical is guided various manifestations. Pattana Kitiarsa suggests by the premises of a dialectical structuralism and with the well-known term ghost as it specifically implies vernacular perceptions of contexts and the meaningful actions of cultural identifyghostly presencerepresentations and uncanny of phi haunting Pattana agents in processes of social change (odder ; , . ) follow Pattanas lead in this paper to Sahlins ; Tilley . ) thus try to explain why as ghostly images a particular ghostly symbol is used in a particular on the basis of theirphi uncanninessthevada without implying historical context and how it is related to this con- any moral judgment that differentiates categorical- texts practical requirements. ly between bad and good Rajadhon category, ; phi Tambiah , ; Van Esterik , . PHI KRASUE ) use the adjective ghostly here as a referent to the and to bypass more problematic categories like spiritual or supernatural, which reproduce the logical premises of modernist rationalism PhiUsually Krasue depicted as a womans flying head with and distort the logic of folk epistemology Levy et phidrawn out and bloody entrails dangling beneath it, al. ; Van Esterik ; White . is one of the and most the iconic continuous of Thailands pres in orderSimultaneously, to account ) drawfor the a methodological ontological difference bound- . Given the commonality of encounters with this ary between uncanny beingsphi and ghostly images uncanny being in real life - ence of its ghostly images in popular cultural media between encounters with in real life and their it is remarkable that therephi is very little research discursive representations in popular media and be- investigating this specific phenomenon. )n a recent yond. With the term uncanny being ) thus intend to overview of Thailands So Phlainoi describes the meet the demands of the ontological turn Paleček uncanny phenomenon has many in the regional following names way: but usual and Risjord and take things encountered in belief portrays it as a woman that likes to pos- the field seriously without reducing them to our sessPhi Krasueother women. )t likes to eat dirty or filthy modern way of thinking by denying their reality things and is characterized by its appearance as a and exclusively identifying them as symbols or rep- pulsating ball of light. emits this light resentations of something elseGDAT ; cited during its nightly search for food. Especially ru- in Ladwig , -. )n contrast to uncanny be- ral villagers believe in Phithe Krasueexistence of this phi. If ing the category ghostly image is inspired by the they see a large and flashing green light they will premises of the spectralphi in turnpopular and culture thus explicitly and dis immediately think it is . Villagers say designed to address the symbolic and representa- that it moves around as a head with liver, kidneys tional dimension of - and some other entrailsPhi attached Krasue to it. Whenev- course, where ghostly manifestations are always er someone gives birth will smell the constructions embedded within specific historical blood and rush to the place to eat of the woman contexts and invoked for more or less explicit polit- giving birth or the newbornPhi Krasue baby until its victim ical purposes Weinstock , . This distinction between ontology and metaphor is purely methodological and ) am aware phithat it is haunted by the same scientific rationalism that Ludwig Wittgenstein introduces the term language game impedes an emic understanding of the category to address the contextuality of meaning, linking meaning Bräunlein , . (owever, both categories making to the practical requirements of a given speech event phi Wittgenstein , cited in Rehbein , -. Elab- may help us to frame how uncanny encounters with orating on the late Wittgenstein one may thus identify any are always simultaneously ontological and met- socially meaningful practice as a contextualized speech event aphorical while drawing our attention to the limits Rehbein , -. of an analytic language still bound by the logical While outside of Thailand this iconic Phi Southeast Krasue’s Asian premises of Cartesian dualism Scheper-(ughes ghost may be known purely by its filmic incarnations, it is important to keep in mind that in Thailand exist- ence is not limited to the fictitious and metaphorical in film, The transliteration of Thai words is based on the Rach- novels and comic books but that it is frequently encountered abanditsathan system. DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19,in real2015, life ISSN: too. 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 5

wastes away. Thus there is the custom to place thorny Jujube4 branches underneath the house, especially in the corners used to defecate, for which Peter A. Jackson identifies as a regime of im- Krasue fears that its entrails will get caught up ages P. A. Jackson , -. )n a Foucauldian in the thorny branches. is rather Phian sense, this regime determines a public images ap- old woman than a young maiden and besides raw propriate visual content, while being simultaneous- and stinking food it also likesPhi to Krasue eat human faeces. ly sensitive to and a subject of the contextuality of This is the reason why it is frequently encountered Thaiing a meaningparticular making phi’s origin P. A. Jackson are general , features - of. near public toilets.” (So 2009, 41-43, my transla- Since uncertainty and ambivalence surround-Phi tion). Krasue’s historical origin in these popular cultural vernacular ghostlore, omitting identification of

contexts thus reproduces the cultural logic structuring vernacularMae Nak’s ghostly classification in rural Thai folk epistemologies Sangun , ; Tambiah , . ghostlyMae Nak’s image is a significant exception to this general rule of popular ghostly imagination. The focus on legend in more than films, which locates her historical origin in what is today Bangkok, has served various ideological projects, and has essentially turned her into Thailands national ghost Fuhrmann ; Knee ; McDaniel ; Songyote Mae, Nak’s cited legend in May Adadol , . The ongoing reinvention of Nang Nak found a temporary climax in Nonzee Nimibutrs hugely successful filmic adaptation , which triggered not only a boom of heritage films in post-economic-crisis Thailand, but also resurrectedNang the Nak’s ghost film as a genre of post-modern Thai cinema May Adadol , . Asked ofto Maeexplain Nak’s extraordinary success at the national box offices, Nonzee regards his treatment legend as factual reality as key, high- lighting that he is the first director to take her origin myth“Why as awouldn’t real story anyone instead treat of thisa fairy story tale. like it was Figure 1. ’s movie poster (dir. S. Naowarat, 1973) real? I spent two years researching everything I could about the legend of Nang Nak, because it’s Krasue Sao Tamnan Phi Thai (Leg based on a true story.” (Nonzee, cited in M. Davis Phi 2003, 64) Despite the booksphi title, - ends of ThailandsPhi ,Krasue’s which indicateshistorical that origin the nor legends of Thailands will be revealed, Sos accountKrasue Mae Nak Saoneither mentions Phi Tai Hong Phi represents Tai Hong the best-known example of a broad retells its origin myth. The same is true of Phi Krasue species of ghostly imagination knownphi encountered in Thailand in Thai as Naowarat , arguably the first Thai ghost . is most appropriately translated as film to feature th as a major protagonist, ghosts of bad deaths and most and all subsequent Thai films featuring this ghost- ghost films belong to this category. Since bad deaths are ly image made in the century. Since ghost films inherently contextual phenomena this is a rather inclusive category of ghostly imagination that encompasses victims have largely replaced orally transmitted ghostlore of traffic accidents and murders,Phi Tai suicides, Tang Glom and women dy- analysisas the majorof a phi’s site for the reproduction of ghostly Maeing duringNak childbirth. The latter phenomenon constitutes a images, they represent essential contexts for the ciesnamed of Phisub-category Tai Hong known as to which contemporary meanings. Thereby, obviously belongs Ancuta , . This subspe- one has to keep in mind that mainstream cinematic is especially feared for its malevolence and inclination to harm pregnant women and small children ghostly images are structured by a nationalist logic Ziziphus jujuba Rajadhon , -. Economic crisis here refers to the Asian financial crisis of , which after more than ten years of constant economic The film was considered missing in Thailand until ) found growth—known as the boom-years P. A. Jackson — a Swedish collector of horror films who discusses the film on not only abruptly ended the dream of becoming rich for his homepage. Kasia Ancuta helped me to contact this col- many Thais, but also caused a growing awareness of con- lector, who agreed to share a digital copy of his V(S original tingency that contributed to a social climate of vulnerability with us. The film is now also available for viewing at the Thai that characterizes post-financial-crisis Thai society Viernes Film Archive Ainslie and Ancuta ,DORISEA . Working Paper, ISSUE 19,, 2015, . ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 6

The cinematic reinvention of well-knownBang leg- Siamese nobleman. When her affair with a Siamese Rajanends and figures from ThaiSuriyothai folk history as the nar- soldier is revealed both are sentenced to death. The rative force of post-crisis blockbustersNang Nak’s like princess manages to escape her executionPhi Krasue with the Tanit and Chatrichalerm help of an old Khmer witch and the use of black is a lasting effect of success. )n magic. Magically transformed into , the their intertextuality GoodnowNang Nak’s , -; Kris- princess enters the dead body of a Siamese village teva , these heritage films reproduce not girl who looks like her twin both are played by the only core elements of narrative struc- same actress. Resurrecting the village girls body ture, but also the assumed factuality of the histori- from death the princess assumes her identity and cal events, embedded in a nationalist frame of refer- starts to live in her place among the Siamese villag- ence Knee , ; Sinnott , . Given the ers. After more and more villagers have uncanny economic success and international recognition of encounters, the village monk discloses the truth these films it is not surprisingTamnan Krasuethat a [Thefilm promisingLegend about the village girls uncanny resurrection.Phi Krasue using )n a toof Krasue]combine the two main genres of post-crisis Thai magical battle the Siamese monk defeats phithe is Khmer de cinema under the title witch and succeeds in exorcising that Phi Krasue’s Bin , was released in , short- white magic. Although it seems as if the - ly after these blockbusters. (owever, it is intriguing stroyed, the film reveals that it is the Khmer witchs origin myth, which constitutes the immortal soul that fused with the princess and took films narrative core, represents a contemporary possession of the village girls dead body. After the invention without any predecessors in vernacular village girls dead body and the princess soul are ghostlore or popular historiography. herfinally into freed Phi fromKrasue the witchs spirit, the film ends by showing how it enters thePhi next Krasue village girl, turning PHI KRASUE’S IDIOSYNCRATIC ORIGIN MYTH . The film closes with the final wordsTamnan from Krasue this moment was known in Tamnan Krasue th century Thailand. for a Thai phi other is thanarguably Mae theNak first attempt to portrays events in construe in film a historically founded origin myth Northern Siam, an epoch largely outside popular . (owever, the Thai historiography. The plot arises from the firstcinematic re-invention of legends about mytho- epigraphically backed revolt of Siamese nobles logical figures mirrorsth the political re-invention against their Khmer overlords in the year of various origin myths for local culture heroes Wyatt , -. The films initial protagonistthroughout the century. These origin myths are is a young Khmer princess who is forced to marry centrala elements of the cults that have developed Tamnan Krasue around such local figures of folk history. While the )nstead of a literal translation was released meaning and significance of some figures remains with the English subtitle Demonic Beauty. rather localized, others have gained regional im- For the sake of clarity,Khom ) will use the category Khmer portance and constitute essential contexts for the throughoutcategory Khom this chapter although the film identifies the princess cultural origin as . The usage and genealogy of the imagination and expression of regional identities in Thai popular discourse is a complex issue Baird ; Denes ; Keyes . The modern Khomthat deserves a separate study Denes , ;Khmer Vail krom, portrayThai state local is usuallyculture anheroes important as crucial agent players in the in pub- . Thai historian Charnvit Kasetsiri argues that the word lic promotion of these of peripheral mythical populations narratives, and which derives from the old Siamese category , Khom is usually used to meaning lowland Khmer Charnvit . )n the contemporary popular cultural configuration the domestication identify an old script used to write Pali and Thai that was banned fromKhom official contexts under the Sangha Act of sisin Buriramof Amaritalai were indicatesrather indifferent that this towardsis also true the in conceptual scholarly Vail , . According to Justin McDaniel,Khom present-day script is boundaries of both terms. ChutimaKhom Pragatwutisarns analy- Khmer and scripts follow the same graphic principles but are not identical McDanielKhom , . contexts, where the category also stands as an equiv- today used in a variety of ritual contexts. Although positive- alent for ancient Khmer. )n her analysis Chutima uses both ly connoted in these contexts, remains an ambivalent ofcategories Khom interchangeably, while simply dropping the prefix category, surrounded by a mystical aura of antiquityKhom in and ancient in the course of her paper. Starting with an analysis spiritual potency Denes , . The culture that found- she ends up talking about Khmer Chutima . ed Angkor tends to be associated with the category The audience perception research ) conducted with stu- andThai Khom popular discourse. This association allows for the draw- dents of Burirams Technical College identifies the sudden ing of a symbolic boundary separating the categories Khmer resurrection of the dead village girl as the films scariest Khom qualitatively in Thai nationalist rhetoric. )n these scene. imperial imaginaries Siam is portrayed as having absorbed See figure . culture after King Naresuan of Ayuthaya conquered ) choose domestication here as it fittingly translates the Lovek in and Thailand, therefore, represents the le- logic structuring the Siamese elites dealing with peripher- gitimate heir of Angkors cultural heritage Charnvit ; al populations that were regarded as wild and uncivilized categoriesDenes , Khom -. (ere ) am following colloquial Thai us- and whose integration into the Siamese state entailed their age, which draws no clear conceptual boundary between the civilization. (owever, in this process of national integration and Khmer Sujit ,DORISEA . Working )nterlocutors Paper, ISSUE 19,these 2015, wild ISSN: inhabitants2196-6893 of uncivilized spaces were treated Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 7

regions by bringing them under the centralized au- novels general outlook Chutima ; Creed thority of the Siamese court Denes ; Keyes Phi. Krasue The novel, however, does not identify its . (owever, counter narratives that challenge monstrous and blood sucking female protagonist as the official myth of peripheral populations smooth . phi’s integration into the centralized Siamese state may The film breaks with the implicit rule of omit-Phi also manifest in these cults Baird . Krasue’sting a malevolent historical origin by introduc- Althoughphi principally possible, these deadthep or ing various narrative elements that strengthen thevadamythological figures from local histories are rarely metonymic relation to ancient Khmer cul- classified as , and are usually regarded as ture. This attempt to transform the metaphoric re- , a term emphasizing their tutelary poten- lation between the categories Khmer and magic into tial Rajadhon ;chao Tambiahchao pho ,/mae -; or phra Van Es- a metonymic chain—where Khmer stands for black terik . This classification is marked by the use magic and black magic represents Khmerness— of honorifics like , Nak is usually addressed when manifests the semiotic imperialism of Thailands addressing them Baird ; Denesphi ; )rvine regime of images and its intent to craft a civilized ; Keyes . Even mae image for the modern Thai self with the category without usingMae the Nak ghostly indicates pre-fix that a. (errelationship common TamnanKhmer as Krasue’s its Other Dissanayake ; P. A. Jack- designation with the kinship-derived prefix son ; Leach , .Phi The Krasue’s central elements ofth [mother] as Mae Nak semiotization of the Khmer-mag- of mutuality is possible withphi her tai McDaniel hong through ; ic-link are the location of origin in Sahlins . thus exemplifies the domes- century Angkorian Khmer culture, while identifying tication of a once malevolent a Khmer witch as its initial creator and a Khmer the worship of devotees, who accept her tutelage princess as its first host. AnPhi analysis Krasue of anthropo- and“When enter spiritsa reciprocal are successfully patron-client bound, relationship. new types of logical, historical and popular cultural sources indi- entities become possible; they can even be trans - priorcates tothat Tamnan the link Krasue’s between and Khmer formed into gods. A bound spirit, put to commu- culture was non-existent in Central Thai ghostlore nity use, therefore has to be distinguished from a release. As such, the films free, or unbound, spirit.” (Levy et al. 1996, 14) origin myth represents an idiosyncratic construction designed according to the premises of Thai- Mae lands imperial imaginary Denes . Nak in Nang Nak Phi Krasue )n the following section ) will explain the idio-Zeit- in Tamnan)n contrast Krasue to the national iconization of syncrasygeist of the origin myth by analyzing its ghostly , the ghostly image of protagonists symbolism and relating it to the emphasizes its free-floating char-Phi dominating ThaiTamnan society duringKrasue the associates films pro- an acter,Krasue its denial of reciprocity and thus the impos- duction and release. The central questionsth centuryguiding sibility of its domestication. )n Amaritalaiits portrayal of the analysis are why the film adaptsAmaritalai various in narrative turn as an elements adapta iconic creature of Thai ghostlore with of Jintawee Wiwats novel She . Khmer culture, why this origin myth is regarded Chutima Draculadescribes - as logically coherent and why the films semiotics, tion of (enry Rider (aggards novel and Bram which link Khmer culture metonymically to black Stokers , indicating the high degree of in- magic, are accepted by Thai audiences, even if these tertextuality marking pop-cultural re-production audiences belong to the Khmer-speaking minority in modern Thailand (arrison and Jackson . of Thailands lower Northeast. Written in a time marked by war, the presence of foreign troops, a growing fear of CommunismAmaritalai and as ethnic insurrections threatening the national borders from within, Chutima identifiesTamnan Krasue a national allegory manifesting the fears haunting Thai society in the sKhom and s. not only adapts the novels protagonists monstrous femininity and her royal origin but also the rather animal-like, which turns domestication into the most appropriate metaphor Thongchai ; Turton . )n theirnang attempt to outline a Central Thai folkmae taxonomy of ghosts and spiritsphi Manasikarn and Amara state that the Edmund Leach defines metonymy as an intrinsic or prior pre-fix signifies bad whereas the pre-fix signifies relationship, implying that A and B belong to the same cul- atgood the femaleMae Nak’s Manasikarn and Amara , . ) cannot tural context. Very roughly metonymy is where a part stands say much about the actual practices or devotees perceptionsphi tai for a whole. Correspondingly, a metaphoric relationship is hong shrine in present-daynang Bangkok, rather than but maepeople marked by the absence of an intrinsic or prior relationship, A in Buriram continue to see her as the paradigmatic and B belong to different cultural contexts. While metonymy and continue to use the pre-fix . implies contiguity, metaphor depends upon asserted similar- Pseudonym of Jintana Pinchaliew ChutimaDORISEA Working. Paper, ISSUE 19,ity 2015,Leach ISSN: , 2196-6893 . Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 8

THE SEMANTICS OF PHI KRASUE’S VERNACULAR GHOSTLY IMAGE—THE UNCANNY ‘FILTH GHOST’ their preferred prey. We walked hand in hand until we reached his house. Ghostly classification thus constitute important aspects of socioculturalphi’s variability in an overall Thai ghost-films are produced for knowing specta- Thai national habitus Rehbein , -. )n tors May Adadol , , who recognize ghost- everyday contexts a meaning and its uncanni- ly images on the basis of an atheoretical knowledge ofness understanding thus need no uncanninessabstract verbal elaboration M. that is inscribed in their bodies Bourdieu , Jackson , . The conjunctive experience -; Douglas , , ; Mannheim , . without explica- This embodied knowledge of classifying ghosts is tion unites persons who share a common habitus imparted through myths and bodily praxis during Mannheim , -. The importance of the primary socialization and tends to reproduce the body for the khonidentification luk of uncanniness is man- symbolic configuration prevalent in the social con- ifested in the reference to phior the demonstration of text“The of its fear production of dangerous Bourdieu spirits, , the phi., acquired goosebumps which many interlocutors during early childhood often does not disappear developphi while talking about . The importance when a person grows up. Somebody who has to of goosebumps for the contextualized meaning of walk home in the middle of the night without is highlighted by Cassaniti and Luhrmann, who company may well become extremely apprehen- state that ghostly energy is often described as a sive, and a sudden noise or a moving shadow may directly experienced feeling, one that is felt either suffice to convince him that something dangerous on the skin or in some other sense Cassaniti and lurks in the dark. It is not considered unmanly to Luhrmann , . be afraid in the dark.” (Terwiel 2012, 76, italics in original)

After a This is exactly what ) encountered during my first period of fieldwork in rural Buriram. long day observing funeral rituals in a rural village it was already long after midnight. ) prepared to leave the house of the deceased and said goodbye to some of the older men still Kamnanbusy chatting and soldier and pre- in Figure 2. Interlocutor in rural Buriram raising his arm to paring things for the next day. Pho Phranit, one of show his goosebumps while talking about my key informants, a former local manifestation Phi Krasues his late seventies, stopped me and said Benny, we need to find you a motorbike, you cannot walk home alone. ) said okay and we tried to find someone phi who would give me a ride. As most young men had Feeling a ghostly presence is thus a fundamental already left the ritual site and it was getting late, ) aspect of how manifest themselves, and one of said to Pho Phranit that ) would just walk home, as the traces they leave in reality Ladwig , ; it was not far away. Pho Phranit then decided to join Manasikarn and Amara ,na khon . luk This embodied me. As soon as we had left the village itself behind recognition of uncanniness finds its expressionphi in us and walked through the night with nothing but the common Thai idiom which is used rice fields to our left and right, he took my hand and to describe the situation of feeling a . Usually asked me: Benny, arent you afraid when walking translated as meaning scary, the idiom refers liter- through the night? ) replied, No, why should )? ally to the development of goosebumps andphi thus de- This is a beautiful night! Pho Phranitphi smiled and scribes a bodily manifestation of the uncanny that said Good! (e squeezed my hand a little harder is essential for vernacular conceptions of . Mary and told me about the locally specific that would Douglas calls this a guts reaction Douglas , lurk in the night, adding that solitary wanderers are . )n a culture that sees every aspect of the social

das Unheimliche Buriram is one of the three provinces in the lower North- )n contrast to the common exegesis of Freuds classic study east that is home to the majority of Thailands indigenous of heimlich Freud ) treat uncanniness as a Khmer-speaking population. The local Khmer dialect differs culturally contingentheimlich phenomenon based on contextualized from the Khmer spoken in neighboring Cambodia and is lin- meanings of . The importance of identifying‘unheimlich’, what guistically classified as Northern Khmer Denes ; Smal- is meant by in a given socio-cultural configuration, ley ; Vail , . The anthropological fieldwork theand return the essential of the repressed ambiguity or of surpassed the German as the word essential trig and audience perception research in Buriram was part of are usually lost in psychoanalytic approaches that emphasize the research project The Ritual Reproduction of Khmerness - in Thailand funded by the German Research Foundation ger of uncanny feelings P. A. Jackson , ; A. A. John- DFG. DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19,son 2015, , ISSN: . 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 9

phi Phi Krasue Phi Xamop desig pervaded by Manasikarn and Amara , porary image of Baumann , . these conjunctive experiences and their embodied (owever, when Bastian writes - dimension critically frame the belonging to socio- nate the highest degree of voraciousness,Phi Krasue’s since they cultural“One groups.of the fundamental effects of the orchestra- even devour faeces Bastian , , my translation of habitus is the production of a common- tion, it seems as if he attributes most sense world endowed with the secured iconic feature in vernacular ghostlore—itsphi associa- by consensus on the meaning (sens) of practices tion with filth and especially its inclination to feast and the world, in other words objectivitythe harmonization on human faeces—to another (anks , ; of agents’ experiences and the continuous rein- Terwiel , ; Textor , . forcement that each of them receives from the ex- During my anthropological fieldwork theTham- most pression, individual or collective (in festivals, for commonlyop described uncannyThamop encounterand Phi Krasue was withare example), improvised or programmed (common- a being local interlocutors identified as places, sayings), of similar or identical experienc- while adding that es. Bourdieu , ; italics in original merely terminological variations for a singleThamop phenomenon. Although Cambodian anthropologist Ang Chouléan translatesphi the Khmer wordPhi Krasue as meaning male witch Ang , , Rajadhon conceptionsA shared ofhabitus phi and the shared perceptions of lists it as a ThamopCambodian resembling the uncanny this entails thus identifies vernacular Rajadhon , . While my empirical data as essential contexts for the re- show that seems to be known primarily production of belongingness—that is, a sense of anthropologicalin Khmer-speaking accounts villages, of Phi a comparison Krasue’s ghostly of the belonging to a we-groupElwert , —in semantics structuring its local ghostly images with rural Thailand. This sense of belonging then Thefunc- tions as a reference point for the contextualized image in Central Thailand reveals that they are in- reproduction of socio-cultural identities. deed terminological variations of a common theme tacitness of this embodied form of knowing (anks thus ; Rajadhon ;Thamop Stanlaw and Phi and Kra- Yod- critically determines the intertextualityPhi Krasue’s oflocal ghostly suedumnern ; Terwiel ; Textor . representations in popular media and vernacular The local ghostly images of ghostlore Polanyi . As such, are semantically united by their shared symbol- ghostly images become foils against which audienc- ism and the cultural logic it manifests. Since villages implicitly read its cinematic incarnations. An ers in Buriram usually live in multilingual environ- anthropological analysis of cinematic ghostly imag- derstandingments and readof the ghostly cultural images logic structuring with their a entire local es therefore requires a dialectic that considers ver- bodies Bourdieu , -, the embodied un- nacular images and real encounters with uncanny beings too. ghostly images meaning appears more important German polymathPhi KrasueAdolf Bastian is arguably the for its classification than its designation or visual first Western visitor to Siam to leave a detailed de- features Cassaniti and Luhrmann ; Douglas scription of how was imagined in mid- , . The identification of an uncanny being is th century Bangkok. )n his accountPhi-Kasü of Siamese simultaneously a cognitive and somatic process. )ts ghostlore at the time, BastianPhi-Kasü’s makes various inclination refer- ghostly symbolism therefore seems linked to deeper ences to an uncanny being known as . )n and more essential habitual structures that deter- his account, Bastian mentions mine what is reasonable orPhi unreasonable Krasue/Thamop in a given to enter a victims body and feast on its entrails; context Bourdieu , ; Douglas ; Rehbein a witchs nightly transformation into a flying ball , . )n the case ofsok prok , local of fire; a flying head and its detachment fromPhi-Kasü the actors explicate this cultural logic through social id- hosts body; the reunion of head and body at dawn; ioms of filth known as in Thai. and finally, a womans transformation into Phi Krasue if she eats tabooed foods Bastian , , . All of these remain characteristics of the contem- and its analogues seem to be very common thesephenomena phi in my fieldwork area. My empirical data indi- ) conceive this sense of we-group membership not as ex- cate that nearly all villages in the district of my research host groupsclusive butare asusually contextual. located Egos on multipledifferent we-groupscales of member-sociocul tral Thai .ghostlore and their recognition of (Phi Thamop in ships are thus ideologically unproblematic, whereby these Bastians and Rajadhons accounts of Cen- - - tural inclusion Elwert , . (owever, these groups dicate that ghostly imagination in Bangkok was unified and may overlap, intersect, and contradict. Sociocultural iden- Thai-ized to a lesser degree than it is today. We may further- tity therefore represents a language game in Wittgensteins more speculate that the absence ofth ghost-films is one aspect sense, a contextualized configuration that unites actors with that Sok explains prok this greater diversity of ghostly imagination similar configurations in meaningful we-groups Rehbein and classification until the mid- century. , -. is the most commonly encountered of various Writing in German Bastian uses a kind of transliteration concepts that are used interchangeably to indicate impurity that adapts Thai sounds to German DORISEAphonetics. Working Paper, ISSUE 19,or 2015,filthiness. ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 10

Thamop and Phi Krasue lieved to be the cause of many illnesses. For some people it is , de-merit, or a loss of possible Since manifest a single merit, to consume frogs. Frogs meat is classified logical principle embedded in local idioms—the as bap, smelly and causing wounds. This breaking of taboos associated with malevolent is something frogs share with other kinds of am- forms of magic turns the culprit into an uncanny biguouskhong or huen ‘dirty’ animals such as chicken.” (Tran- being that is condemned to subsist on filth—their kell 1995, 99)25 designations can be used interchangeably. Simul- taneously, socio-structural analysis indicates that the predominant ghostly designation mirrors the ethno-linguistic composition of a given locality. Although the filthinesssok of matterprok is a relational (owever, and irrespective of the locally used desig- and contextual quality Douglas , -, the nation, filthiness structures the semantics of this substances classifiable as in local configu-khi species of ghostly imagination and represents the rations are all marked by an intrinsic ambiguity. tionkey culturalof Phi Krasue’sconcept to unlock its symbolism. This also appears to be true for human faeces , The th importance of filth for the conceptualiza- although anthropologist Jane (anks states that in vernacular ghostly images in the s Central Thai villagers neither felt revul- mid- century Central Thailand was indeedPhi so sion towards human faeces nor considered them to Krasuethorough and explicit that it ultimately prompted be filthy or contaminating (anks , . (ow- the anthropologist Robert Textor to translate ever, other ethnographic accounts of rural Thai vil- literally as the Filth Ghostsok prok Textor , lage life from the same period suggest that human . This importance of filth is also evident in ru- faeces were indeed seen as filthy. The devouring of ral Buriram, where allusions to Phi Krasue’s commonly human faeces is, for example, one of the main rea- feature in every conversation about this uncanny sons the dog is regarded as a filthy and tabooed an- being. Villagerssok prok usually emphasize vo- imal in rural Northern and Northeastern Thai con- racious appetite for filthy substances that locally figurations Tambiah , ; Wijeyewardene qualify asPhi Krasue but also identify the entire being , . as a manifestation of filthiness. khi The reason for these seemingly contradictory Since tends to avoid encounters with evaluations of human faeces may be sought in en- fellow humans, it usually feasts on faeces , car- vironmental differences rather than the absence of rion and livestock, especially fowl and other small ambivalent feelings towards human faeces in Cen- animals like frogs, which it snatches from rice fields tral Thailand which (anks analysis indicates. While or irrigation ditches. The fact that villagers eat most the canals that traversed (anks fieldsite in the of these animals too indicates the relational char- s simply carried human faeces away like sins acter of filthiness in local configurations.Phi Krasue’s (owever, at the festival Loy Krataung and thus out of sight chicken and frogs—which together with human fae- (anks , , the villagers of the The drier Thai North idi ces are usually mentioned as favourite and Northeast usually squatted in liminal spaces foods—constitute an ambivalent class of edible ani- right outside the village boundaries. - mals on its own Trankell , . Although wide- oms going to the rice field, going to the forest and ly consumed by humans, bothPhi chickensKrasue and frogs are going to the boat landing not only mean to defe- considered filthy and eating them is regarded with cate Chittawadi , , but also identify the ambivalence. The fact that devours them ofspaces ban where to defecate properly. All of these spac- raw enhances the filthiness of their consumption es lie right outside the spatial and semantic realm andas Phi represents Krasue’s a definite break of taboo. Thus, it as proper that defecatory encompasses spaces house, and home, therefore and village.as Phi is their ambiguity and filthiness that identifies them Krasue’sTheir spatio-symbolic liminality identifies them “Frogs, , mostare special. appropriate They are food. frequently gath- ered in the fields and appreciated as food, but be - favourite dwelling places. )t is thus no co- kop incidence that older interlocutors in rural Buriram, where the introduction of bathrooms is a relatively Phi Krasue and recent phenomenon, not only well remember how Thamop Phi While Pop Thai-Khorat speakers in Buriram use they used to grab Phia hoe Krasue before they went to the rice Northernclass of phi Khmer speakers , Lao )san speakers use field to defecate, but also recount their uncanny to identifylap uncanny or koy manifestations of this ambiguous encounters with while squatting there. that roots in malevolent magic. Although raw —a Thai-style salat made out of minced meat—is a characteristic dish of the Northeast, On my way from Bangkok to Rayong a taxi driver once at- chicken is never used for its preparation Trenk , tributed the blindness of his youngest son to his immense ac- and eating raw frog is considered a ridiculous idea. Never-cumulation of de-merit, resulting from killing too many frogs theless, grilled chicken is a highly appreciated food in theas fishing bait. Northeast and minced frog was frequently served at wedding )n Douglas theory, ambiguity and filthiness are two sides banquets during my fieldwork. The ambivalencekai ban of chicken theof the khlongs same coin Douglas . seems currently expressed in the differentiation between Although it cannot be elaborated here )ban would argue that filthy factory chicken and the cleaner chicken that of central Thailand were also regarded as highly are raised by individual farmers and soldDORISEA on localWorking markets. Paper, ISSUE 19,liminal 2015, spaces ISSN: 2196-6893 marking the boundaries of . Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 11

With the hoe theyPhi would Krasue dig a hole before squatting with aspects of local epistemology, where the im- and thus not only remove their faeces from sight, permeability of the male body is of central impor- but also prevent from being attracted by tance )rvine , Turton and social space the odour. Despite the sanitary reforms that intro- is conceptualized along a human body analogy that duced toilets to the countryside—first in the form emphasizes an inside/outside dichotomy Formoso of outhousesPhi Krasue and later as bathrooms within the features; Rhum characterizing ; Tambiah Phi ; Krasue’s Turton . house—toilets represent the most common places Although generally known, the striking visual where may attack humans and cause hu- cinematic man fatalities, while rice fields and the edge of for- ghostly images are under-emphasizedPhi Krasue’s nightlyin local con- estsThe are introductionthe usual locations of toilets where throughout the floating the lightscoun texts. Villagers thus usually outline a rather unspec- are encountered. tacular ghostly image, stressing - manifestation as a flickering light that hovers over try is a lasting effect of King Chulalongkorns sani- the rice fields in close proximity to the village. Vil- taryth reforms, which were an essential aspect of Si- lagers compare this light to the glow of fireflies but ams self-civilizing project which started in the late add that it is muchPhi larger, Krasue so bothin any lights greater cannot detail be century. With the overall aim of turning Siam confused. )f interlocutors are asked to describe the into a member of the Victorian ecumene Peleggi visual features of , , King Chulalongkorns sanitary reforms then they begin talking about a floating head with targeted all kinds of public defecationHeimlichkeit Chittawadi—in the drawn-out intestines and, significantly, it is at this . By relegating defecation to a newly estab- moment that explicit references to cinematic ghost- lished space marked by its inly Phiimages Krasue are usually made. While early anthropo- sense of hidden—King Chulalongkorn banned hu- logical sources mention the detachment of the head man faeces from public sight and thereby framed and so identify it as an established as- the private realm of Thai modernity. With the help pect of its vernacular ghostly image Bastian , of various state agencies—above all public schools ; Terwielth , , the drawn-out intestines and their curricula that directly targeted pupils essentialseem to appearaspect offor Phi the Krasue’s first time in the middle of bodies—the modern private/public dichotomy in- the centuryKrasue Rajadhon Sao , , and are an forming this attempt to create an image of Bang- ghostly image in the kok pleasing to the gaze of Western visitors slowly film . spread to the countryside Chittawadi , . King Chulalongkorns concern was not with his subjects habits of personal hygiene Chittawadi , , but rather with the aim of turning Siam into a member of the Victorian ecumene. (is sanitary reforms thus fostered the abjection of human faeces, Figure 3. iconic ghostly image of with which then became essential for establishing the the drawn-out intestines (dir. S. Naowarat, 1973) official image of the modern Siamese subject and Krasue Saos Phi Krasue its bounded self Laporte , . The boundedness of the modern Thai Heimlichkeitself, however, resonates Phi Krasue’s das The drawn-out intestines Tamnan have, however, Krasue’s un be- Unheimliche ) am using the German word here as it is es- come iconic of contemporary cinematic sential for Sigmund Freuds discussion of the uncanny ghostly image. The identity of - Freud . )n Freuds theory the uncanny Heimlichkeit canny protagonist is thus clear, although this is first draws its frightening potentialHeimlichkeit from the semantic ambiva- phi lence of the word in German. )n German cul- made explicit inPhi the Lak films Sai final scene. Throughout tural history the word and its meanings are the film it is referred to as the with the drawn- closely connected to the privatization of defecationheimlich Duerr out intestines [ ], which is itself an idio- ;das Elias Unheimliche ; Laporte . ) argue that this connection syncratic filmic construction. The appropriation of is essential to understand the ambivalence of and thus in Freud. The usual English translation the drawn-out intestines as a seemingly recent fea- of Freuds concept as the uncanny is not able to transport ture in local discourse is thus indicative of the inter- its implicit link to human defecation. textuality that links both vernacular and cinemat- ) am not proposing that pre-modern or local symbolic con- ic contexts of ghostly imagination and blurs their figurations were indifferent to practices of human defecation. boundaries. Authenticity of ghostly features is thus An analysis of the traditional Thai house and its spatial sym- of Phi Krasue bolism shows, on the contrary, that the areas used to defecate a negligible factor in the analysis of ghostly images and to wash were located on the physically and symbolically sok prok as any feature can be appropriated as lowest and filthiest levels and thus diametrically opposed to long as it meaningful under the logical premises of highest and purest levels of the building Tambiah , ;phi . Turton , -. These opposed levels of the house were furthermore associated with distinctive classes of Rhum , . (owever, these opposition and the proper place to defecate were not identified on the basis of the modern private/public dichotomy LaporteDORISEA , Working. Paper, ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 12

Kristeva reproduces Douglas paradigm of contextualized pollution in social reproduction in her structural-psychological theory of subjective identity formation. The human body extricating itself from bodily matter thus becomes the exemplary model for the imaginations of subjective selves and their genesis Kristeva . Kristevas human body/self analogy turns all bodily margins into symbolically potent spaces, defined by the ab- Figure 4. Tamnan Krasue’s inal scene, explaining how the former- ject. The abject dwells in these spaces after being phi ly unknown ‘ with the drawn-out intestines’ became known as banished from the body that is imagined as self Phi Krasue (dir. Bin Banleurit, 2002) Douglas , -; Kristeva , -. Ab- sok jection thus becomes the logical prerequisite for the prok Phi Krasue’s imagination of social bodies, their boundaries and, As this discussion indicates, the idea of finally, selves. The abject constitutes those tabooed structuresSok prok semantics and is the and rejected entities that despite their exclusion remain classifier used to comprehend it in vernacular main essential for the identity of the body that ex- ghostlore. is therefore the cultural prin-Sok pels“It them. describes the process of throwing away or cipleprok essential to unlocking and revealing the sym- casting aside a part of the self through which the bolism of this species of ghostly imagination. self comes into being. It is by ridding oneself of is largely a contextual state that depends on the abject—a something that fails to be entire- the transgression of symbolic boundaries and thus ly named or captured—that one becomes a self manifests localized ideas of ambiguity. As such, Ju- in the first place. The abject is therefore not an lia Kristevas concept of abjection proves useful to object; rather, it is a something that simultane- theoretical reflection onsok the prok broader meaning of the ously creates the borders of the self as an object concept, since various substances, states or even and makes possible the self as a subject. Identity humans may qualify as as soon as they be- begins, in other words, with abjection.” (Bubandt come matter out of place Douglas ; Kristeva and Otto 2010, 6) .

ABJECTION: TRANSLATING THE CULTURAL LOGIC STRUCTURING PHI KRASUE’S SYMBOLISM Through their constant challenge from the mar- gin, the impossibility of their assimilation and their Phi Krasue’s essential ambiguity, the abject defines the subject by threatening it with meaninglessness. This col- ) argue that contextualized ghostly im- lapse of meaning lurks in the given incompleteness ages ontologically manifest the ambiguity of abjec- of all abjection processes. Despite their primal re- tion as an abstract principle structuring the draw- pression, the abject always remains an aspect of ing of symbolic boundaries, and thus processes of the subject that expels it, threatening its identity self formation on various levels of social organ- by questioning the possibility of in-dividuality as ization in Thailand. With the concept of abjection, such Kristeva , . This ambiguity threatens Julia Kristeva elaborates Douglas theory of defile- the logical premises of the subjects meaningful ment, which highlights the importance of anomalies world, but also emphasizes its self by locating it in and ambiguities for any classification system, since an imagined realm of unambiguous meaning. )t is notions of filth or matter out of place make con- the ambiguous position between subjects and ob- ceptual boundaries recognizable Douglas , jects that turns the abject into a paradigmatically . )n Douglas model the human body repre- uncanny“Not me.non-thing Not that. Kristeva But not , nothing, -. either. A sents the paradigmatic figure of social thought that “something” that I do not recognize as a thing. […] can stand for any bounded system. )ts boundaries Abject. It is something rejected from which one can represent any boundaries which are threatened does not part, from which one does not protect or precarious Douglas , . Social groups, oneself as from an object. Imaginary uncanniness therefore, tend to draw on the human body as a and real threat, it beckons to us and ends up en- model for their self-image. Douglas sees this as a gulfing us. Kristeva , , 4 universal analogy, in which bodily functions and se- cretions become central metaphors to imagine social dynamics by marking the boundaries of social units. simultaneously symbolic structures, social units, and social actors. As politico-religious entities houses are prime agents of socialization whose meaning is read with the body Bau- Various Southeast Asian societies elaborate this human mann ; Bourdieu , -; Carsten and (ugh-Jones body analogy in the way they imagineDORISEA their houses Working as Paper, being ISSUE 19,; 2015, Tambiah ISSN: 2196-6893 ; Turton ; Waterson , . Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 13

sok prok Since abjection is above all ambiguity, the abject the bodily-derived substances theoretically qualify- is not only generative for the imagination of social ing as the abject and vernacularly as . thatbodies haunt and any their identity selves, construction but its manifestations that is predict be- Although all bodily fluids that transgress the hu- come cultural devices to imagine the ambivalences man bodys borders from inside to outside consti- - tute filth in Douglas theory Douglas , , ed on a self/other dichotomy. As a modernist disci- Kristeva identifies excrements and menstrual blood pline psychoanalysis takes this dichotomy and the as the two bodily abjections that are essential for presumed in-dividuality of the self as the essence subjective identity formation. Both are symbolic of and universal feature of subjective identity forma- the horror within; those features that lie beneath tion Kristeva , ; Lacan . Despite this the bodys beautiful surface and beyond the social assumed universality, vernacular cultures usually image—constitutive elements of the self that are lack a verbal category to explicate abjection as an usually excluded from sight. Their public recogni- abstract but generative principle of psycho-social tion as aspects of the self thus threatens to blur the reproduction. Douglas shows that vernacular no- essential Phi symbolic Krasue’s boundary separating inside from tions of taboo and witchcraft fulfil this symbolic outside and private from public Kristeva , - task in many cultures Douglas , , . . ghostly images thus epitomize Since both notions are rather unelaborated in the ambiguities lying beneathHeimlichkeit the social bodys beau- local configurationsPhi Krasue’s of Buriram and seem to be so tiful surface, things which modern Thai society in most vernacular contexts throughoutPhi Krasue Thailand thus, seeks to keep in the of the private ) propose that ghostly images fulfil this realm, so they remain invisible to the public gaze symbolic task in various contexts. and dont threaten to contradict Thailands civilized functions as a manifestation of abstract principles self-image E. Cohen , ; P. A. Jackson , that make the ambiguities haunting Thai social These bod- -. ies and their boundaries cognizable, while social idioms of filth are used to explicate them. THE FILTHINESS OF SAIYASAT ambiguities arise from the contextual recognition of others within the self as non-selves that is constitutive for Thai subjective identity formation on all levels of social organization Kristeva , ; Although widely practiced and highly sought after Tanabe , ; Thomson , . This sym- for various reasons by all kinds of social actors in bolic importance of non-selves for social identity Thailand Ananda ; Baker and Pasuk , formation persisted despite—or was even enforced ; E. Cohen ; Wasana , onesaiyasat rarely by—the modern idea of the bounded and in-divid- encounters interlocutors who admit to practicing, ual Thai self, which is based on the dichotomy of relying saiyasatupon, or being the customer of a self and other as the symbolic fundament of Thai-Phi practitioner. The practice of malevolentPhi forms Krasue of Krasuelands self-civilizing project modernity. magic is a particularly significant hidden As abjected non-selves, manifestations of social element embodied by the abject , continuouslyPhi inhabitKrasue ambiguous symbolic one that is intimately linked to its filth-as-menstru- spaces located between more clearly defined clas- al-blood symbolism. The saiyasat spiritual as potency dangers whichissu sificatory realms. is thus neither dead, folk epistemology attributes to menstrual impurity deathless nor fully human, it is usually encountered identifies certain forms of - on the outskirts of human settlements or in paradigmatically ambiguous spaces like toilets, rice fields, crossroads and irrigation ditches, its inside is turned out, it enters a victim in a reversed fash- ion through an excreting orifice, it feasts on faeces, Since Dominique Laporte identifies the privatiza- while its hosts are women—usually unmarried or tion of shit as the essential feature of Western modernity, Kristevas theory seems especially apt for an analysis of mod- dencewidowed—who that Phi Krasue live on the fringes of human set- ern societies with their core value of the bounded individual tlements. Given its overall ambiguity it is no coinci- Dumont . (owever, (ans Peter Duerrs encyclopedic is so closely associated with study of the private/public dichotomy offers an entire collec- tion Saiyasat of historic and ethnographic examples that indicate the universality of abjecting human shit Duerr . Northern Thai configurations seem to be an important is a Thai cultural concept that tends to be rath- exception tokhyt thisubat general rule of Thai folk epistemology. The er poorly subsumed undersaiyasat the Euro-American categories of symbolic significancephi ka of concepts that are usually translated magic, witchcraft and sorcery McDaniel , ; White as taboo , R. Davis ; Wijeyewardene , . Simultaneously, is just one of various cul- and witch Anan is generally accepted in tural concepts that can be used—largely interchangeably— Northern Thai ethnography. (owever, these northern Thai to classify ritual practices as magical,saiyasat esoteric or occult. analysisnotions of thetaboo pretas and witch are unknown in Buriram. Just as their Western counterparts, Thai concepts relating to Gananath Obeyesekere reaches a similar conclusion in his magic are all relational. ) chose here only because and their symbolism in Sinhalese soci- it was the most commonly encountered category during my ety Obeyesekere , -. DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19,fieldwork. 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 14

Heimlichkeit ing from within the social body Douglas , ; in the of private realms, beneath the Kristeva , . official image of Thailands state-sponsored and While emphasizingPhi Krasue its voracious appetite for rationalized Theravada Buddhism, but also of the saiyasatfilth, villagers simultaneously saiyasatstress that a person spiritual potency that folk epistemologies attribute becomes a when a taboo associated with to women and magic. The motif of the detachable is broken. Malevolent is marked by head simultaneously expresses womens penetra- the mixing of abjected bodily substances, like men- bility by verifying the weakness of the female body strual blood, excrements and corpse remnants, with and its boundaries. )t is this permeability that ren- sacred knowledge ). C. Johnson , ; Terwiel ders a body soft in folk epistemology, so charac- , . The hybrid result is then usually made to terizing it as female in the first placePhi Krasue’s )rvine , transgress the victims bodily borders or hidden in ; Tanabe , . This fluctuation between close proximity, which makes the victims self vul- potency and weakness adds to over- nerable to various external forces Golomb , all ambiguity while it is dialectically related to its .“In terms of ritual materials, creating negative female gender and thereby enforcing its uncanni- power involves polluted substances. Rusty nails, ness as a manifestation of saiyasatthe monstrous feminine bodily fluids, human and animal excrement and Creed . fluid taken from a human corpse, particularly if The practicing of amoral threatensPhi Krasue bod- the death was sudden or caused by an accident ies from within, while the roaming, filth devouring were cited as ingredients.” (Conway 2014, 77) creature threatens them from without. has to be read as an abject, an ambiguous boundary signifier, emphasizing the cultural value of a bound- sok prok ed self in various contexts of signification. As a The mixing of things that are normally held apart manifestationPhi Krasue of abjections is an ideal spiritual and logically potency coher that identifies these ritual practices as , while it threatens social bodies from within as well as from simultaneously represents the source of their po- without, - tency ). C. Johnson , -; Kapferer , ent metaphor to conceptualize Khmer cultures re- . The malevolence of these rituals remains,saiyasat how- lation to the boundedness of the modern Thai geo- ever, relational, and their general evaluation ambiv- body and the national imagination of its civilized alent. Practitioners, clients, and victims of self Thongchai . may thus evaluate a single ritual differently; in the case of love magic a practitioner may stress the ben- TAMNAN KRASUE—INTRODUCING THE KHMER erseficial and dimension their clients of a areritual usually for the considered client, whilst guilty the WITCH AS THE ‘HORROR WITHIN’ victim feels attacked. Socially speaking, practition- Tamnan Krasue’s of violating the personal freedom of the victim, “Demonic Beauty thereby making theirsok practices prok morally condemn- release with the English subtitle able Golomb , . These two filthy practic- indicates the international audi- es—the devouring of substances and the ence also targeted by the film. Looking towards for- asviolation Phi Krasue’s of taboos associated with the ritual han- eign markets was not unusual during the post Asian dling of polluted materials—are thus emphasized financial crisis boom of Thai cinema. This aware- most distinguishing characteristics. ness of a foreign gaze led to a short-lived trend in Both are usually highlighted in vernacular contexts Thai film in which directors attempted to reduce beforePhi allusionsKrasue’s to the visual features of its ghostly the narrative ambiguity of Thai films in order to images or their explicit content are made. make their plots more easily digestible by Western filth-as-menstrual-blood symbol- audiences Knee , , . This outward ori- ism is further reinforced by the ghostly images de-ented trend to reduce ambiguity may explain some tachable head and the oozing out of bloody entrails,of the films idiosyncrasies, likePhi Krasue’sthe portrayal elongated of the which, as a grotesque metaphor of menstruation,Khmer witch that reproduces Western cinemat- is metonymically linked to the impurity of men-ic images of the witch and struating women and their spiritual potency thatfangs that give her a vampire-like appearance Bau- threatens male supremacyPhi Krasue’s in folk epistemologies ).mann . C. Johnson , ; Terwiel , ; Wijeye- wardene , . cinematic ghostly images and the encounters with the uncanny being in real life are thus not only public reminders that powerful ritual practices are frequently performed sane ya faed saiyasat )n Buriram love magicPhi Krasue [ ] is the most frequently mentioned form of with the potential to cause a transformation into GolombDORISEA , Working . 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previous studies of Thai ghostlore make no mention of this link before the films release, the question is why local interlocutors in Buriram—who are often Khmer-speakers themselves—accept this idiosyn- it?crasy, regard it as logically coherent, incorporate it into their local language games and thus reproduce

Figure 5. Some of idiosyncratic ghostly features in (dir. Bin Banleurit, 2002) Phi Krasues Tamnan Krasue

(owever, most of the films narrative idiosyncrasies are inward oriented and continue to privi- lege the knowing Thai spectator. Although they also Figure 6. depicts the princess as an Apsara function to reduce ambiguities—those threatening (dir. Bin Banleurit, 2002) the conceptual borders of the national identities Tamnan Krasue Khom Thai and Khmer—the deciphering of their social message still presupposesPhi Krasue viewers with a tacit understanding of abjection as the abstract principle The most commonly encountered explanation manifested by . Certainly the most im- attributes the authenticity of the origin myth to the portant idiosyncrasy—relying on abjection while simple fact thatPhi Krasuethe Khmer is an unintendedare known forresult prac- of simultaneouslyPhi reinforcing Krasue it—is the films identi- ticing black magic Denes , ; Golomb , fication of Angkorian Khmer culture as the source . Since reiteratefrom whence Phi Krasue’s came. Consequently, vari- encethese ofritual Thamop practices, it is therefore logical to locate ous narrative elements continue to emphasize and its origin in Khmer culture. )t is thus not the exist- Khmer originApsara throughout the Tamnan and Krasue’s its association with the cate- film. Most significant amongst these are the depic- gory Khmer in the local configuration of Buriram tion of the Khmer princess as an , the im- that makes originphi myth acceptablePhi age of the witch whounalom speaks Khmer only, Khmer forKrasue local interlocutors, but the simple fact that it re- magic as the reason for the princess ghostly trans- produces the abstract logic this embodies: formation, and the appearing on the hosts is doomed to leave its body and eat filth as forehead. All of these explicit linksPhi Krasueto contemporaryTamnan a punishment for practicing malevolent forms of emblemsKrasue of Khmer culture are completely alienPhi to magic and breaking an associated taboo. Buriram olderKrasue’s cinematic depictions of . Khmer-speakers reinforcement of the socio-cul- is thus the first film to explicitly link tural stereotypes associating the category Khmer cinematic ghostly image to Khmer magic, with magical skills and their particular inclination portraying it as an emblem Apsaraof Angkorian as “a category culture. of Asfe to practice black magic arts is, however, not really a self-stereotype. The relationality of the category Trudy Jacobsen describes an - Khmer allows Thailands Khmer-speakers to al- male divinity able to change shapeApsaras at will and move between the celestial and mundane worlds, in Cambodian art and ar- ways identify another social group as being contex- chitecture Jacobsen , . feature prominently in the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat and are Apsarasan important are easily char- Regarding the category Khmer in contemporary Thailand, acter in Khmer court dances which have had a large influ- one has to keep in mind that it is a relational expression El- ence on classical dance forms in Thailand. wert , that can be used, amongst other things, to recognizable on the basis of their elaborated headdresses refer to the native Northern Khmer speakers of Thailand, and have therefore become icons of Khmer culture in the usethe foundersthe category of Angkor, to identify the people the population of Cambodia, of asthe well neigh the popular Thai imagination Denes , -; Kukrit , nation state itself. Furthermore, Khmer-speakers in Buriram -, -. - Local interlocutors themselves Khmer-speakers identi- boring province of Surin, whichrelationale is home toAusdrücke the majority of fied “The the unalom Khmer witchs language as Northern Khmer and not Thailands Northern Khmer speakers. Elwert uses Cambodian Khmer. the term relational expression to is a conically shaped figure often placedunalom above capture the contextuality of cultural concepts that change or around a design in order to draw attentionyant to its impor- their meaning in accordance to the relation between speak- (tancekhatha Rajadhon , ; Terwiel , . KhomAn script er and listener. The relationality of theKhom category Khmer is usually accompanies magical drawings andKhom spells is thus further enhanced by its context-bound polysemy and its in Pali which are frequently written in dialectical relationship to the category . Whether a lo- factRajadhon that Khom , . The cabbalistic writing in kalathesacal Khmer speaker will thus use this language or identify as said to enhance their potency. Most Thais are unaware of the Khmer depends on the social context, or as the Thai idiom is simply a script used to write Pali and Thai indicates, the right space and time Chalermchai Terwiel , -, -. DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19,, 2015, . ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 16

tually more Khmer and therefore not only as the that she and the princess look identical—also man- true bearers of Khmer black magical knowledge ifests the similarity of Thai and Khmer culture in but also as abjects of their own subjective Thai general.“Among the neighbouring countries of Southeast selves. Asia, none seems more similar to Thailand than The contextual significance of this relationality Cambodia … Both nations share similar customs, is evident in the multiple references made to the traditions, beliefs, and ways of life. This is espe- metaphoric Khmer-magic link in Thai popular cul- cially true of royal customs, language, writing ture. This link grew in visibility as a socio-cultural systems, vocabulary, literature, and the dramatic stereotype during Thailands boom-years and be- arts.” (Charnvit 2003) came an omnipresent aspect of socio-cultural classification after the Asian financial crisis. Since the metaphoric link between the categories Khmer and magic can be found in all kinds of popular me- This similarity allows the Khmer witch to enter dia, from English and Thai language newspapers into close proximity and even to transgress the so- to internet blogs, movies, TV soap operas and even cial bodys boundaries by living within a Siamese popular religious literature. (owever, since the girl and among Siamese villagers without being Asian financial crisis the quality of this link seems recognized and thereby paralleling the official in- to have changed towards a metonymic chain rather visibility of Thailands indigenous Khmer-speaking than metaphoric association. )n contemporary pop- population Vail . By re-imagining the Sia- ular cultural discourses both categories seem to re- mese nations moment of birth and the violence inforce each other up to a point, where they can be of primal repression Kristeva , thatTam was- used interchangeably and where the prefix Khmer necessarynan Krasue to draw the symbolic boundary separat- merely qualifies magical practices as aggressive and ing the socio-cultures of Khmer and Thai, thus immoral Baker and Pasuk , ; McDaniel acknowledges the foundational place of , . PhiKhmer Krasue culture for Thailands conceptual order and modern sense of self. Simultaneously, by linking to the socio-cultural category Khmer, the film identifies Khmer—with its potential to blur the boundaries between inside and outside from its ambiguous place of banishment Kapferer , —as the abject which haunts the Thai-self. The films final scene thus acknowledges Khmer cultures continuingPhi presence Krasue within the body politic, which in turn is proven by any publiclyPhi Krasue’s recognized encounter with in real life. The embodied knowledge of symbolism of abjection thus allows Thai audiences to identify Khmer culture not only as the docile other within Thongchai , - but as an abject and thus symbolic of the horror within, continu- Figure . Enforcement of the Khmer-Magic-link in the Thai film ously haunting the social body of Thainess with its with original English subtitles (dir. Paul Spurrier, 2005) ambiguity Denes , -; Kristeva , . P “The reasons for the special horror of the abject within are twofold. One is that the abject within is less viewable and so less easy to cope with. The other is the threatening possibility that one’s Douglas structural-functionalist witchcraft-par- sense of identity will be lost.” (Goodnow 2010, 34) adigm grounds the attribution of magical knowledge to particularTamnan out-groupsKrasue’s in the reproduction of social boundaries and in-group solidarity Doug- las . central metaphor thus While Douglas witchcraft-paradigm and Kriste- rests on the premise of witchcraft attack, as Douglas vas theory of abjection help to explain why Khmer outlines it. The body of the victim symbolizes the constitutes the most commonly mentioned source betrayed community whose internal strength is of mysterious magical power among Buddhist sucked out or poisoned by someone who can enter Thais GolombPhi Krasue’s, and not an alternative into close contact Douglas , xxvii. )n the film socio-cultural category like Lao, the question re- the betrayed community takesphi the through form ofthe an prac inno- crisis?mains why idiosyncratic origin myth cent Siamese village girls body, which has become appeared for the first time after the Asian financial possessed by the witch-like - tices of Khmer magic. The village girl thus not only represents the Thai geo-body but—throughDORISEA Working Paper,the factISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 17

DEMONIZATION: REDRAWING SOCIO-CULTURAL BOUNDARIES THROUGH INVERSION IN TIMES OF CRISIS contributes essentially to the ongoing crisis of Thai identity“In times Streckfuss of social , crisis, -. which was, and continues to be the case in Thailand since the Asian economic crisis in 1997, when national identities and Beyond its economic impacts the Asian financial geo-political space are threatened, there is an im- crisis had even more profound ideological dimen- mediate concern (indeed anxiety) with maintain- sions. Submission to )MF conditions required the ing existing bodily boundaries and the purity of Thai government to further open its economy to bodies.” (Taylor 2001, 13) foreign capital. Fuelled by feelings of vulnerability, an interest in cultivating a strong Thai self grew as an attempt to withstand the impact of impeding foreign domination Connors , . Localist Aleida Assmann identifies demoniza- politics moved to the mainstream and the economic tion as a discursive strategy of popular culture crisis provoked a revival of interest in local culture encountered in times of crisis when symbolic as a reaction against everything modern and global boundaries have to be redrawn. Demonization en- Amporn , . As a consequence, state-led shrines hierarchical social relations within cultural nationalist movements seeking to revitalize local memory and works by normative inversion, which cultural heritage and localism blossomed Denes turns suppressed cultural elements—societys non- , ; (ewison , . A central feature selves—into threatening and dangerous others. of these localist trends was a conception of the cri- This inversion not only reduces ambiguity through sis as an externally rooted threat to Thainess which the clear re-definition of self and other, but also evoked in response a popular sense of nostalgia and allows for the official recognition of suppressed cul- longing for a golden age of antiquity AmpornBangrajan , tural elements in popular discourses by relegating and-. Suriyothai This longing for a paradise lost explains them to inferior positions within the national val- the national success of heritage films like ue configuration. Usually these suppressed cultural , which both revolve around Siamese elements root in different socio-cultures and thus struggles to ward off Burmese troops. (eritage contradict official imaginations of an in-dividual films thus became hyper-real arenas to reconstruct and homogenous national self. The inversive logic and defend the boundaries of Thainess in relation of demonization thus turns the sacred of one cul- to an imagined world of powerful external others of ture into the horror of another and thereby defines which the Burmese became the most potent Amp- the hierarchy between both cultures Assmann orn“While , ;Burma (amilton was a true , historical . entity, it is at , , . Tam- the same time an allegory of colonial power in nanAssmanns Krasue theory of discursive demonization modern Thai historiography. The entire narrative in modernity allows us to Apsara identify into the the film uncanny of Thai wars against Burma is allegorical. A huge Thai Phi Krasue as a cinematic project of demonization,Tamnan Kra- proportion of historical enterprise in Thailand is sue’swhich turns the holy Khmer an investment in this historiographic allegory.” . The inversive logic phiof (Thongchai 2011, 38) origin myth explicitly demonizes the Khmer by khmerizing a well-known Thai . )t is this inversion which turns the ambiguous uncanny being of vernacular ghostlore into an officially recognized Despite this emphasis of external danger, Da- demon. The film thus aims at redrawing the sym- vid Streckfuss observes that the conceived bolic boundary between both socio-cultural catego- threat to the boundaries of Thainess was also inter- ries and strengthening the in-dividual and bounded nally rooted and linked to the growing awareness Thai self. )t identifies Thai culture not only as mor- of the geo-bodys multi-ethnic composition as an Phially Krasuesuperior, but also attributes toPhi Khmer Krasue culture as its unintended outcome of state-led localism. This re- all those filthy qualities vernacularly embodied by vitalization of local cultural heritage furthermore . (owever, by choosing facilitated a growing visibility of Khmerness at the uncanny protagonist, the film unintentionally ac- heart of Thailands own self Denes , ; knowledges Khmerness as the non-self of Thain- . This public recognition of the non-self in the ess, which will continue to haunt the national self form of suppressed Khmer culture challenged the from its ambiguous place of banishment. modern ideal of the in-dividual national self, and revealed the abject character of the socio-cultural category Khmer. Khmerness became symbolic of the horror within, thereby drawing Thainess to a place where the collapse of meaning is a con- Khom stant danger. The surfacing of a contested, national )n a structural sense then, being a demon is not an intrinsic Khmer/ past after the economic crisis thus quality as such but rather a relational state, linked to concep- DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19,tions 2015, of theISSN: sacred 2196-6893 and structured by an inversive logic. Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 18

CONCLUSION: DEMONIZING THE KHMER BY Phi Krasue’s th KHMERIZING A DEMON Tamnan Kra- suethe linking of ghostly image to “(…) [T]he purpose of myth is to provide a logi- century Angkorian Khmer culture in cal model capable of overcoming a contradiction and its plausibility for Thai audiences, despite (…).” (Lévi-Strauss 1963, 229) its factual idiosyncrasy. This plausibility draws its persuasiveness from the metaphoric Khmer-magic link in Thai popular culture that grew in visibility Phi Krasue’s as a socio-cultural stereotype during the Cold War )n this paper ) have argued that the structural logic and Thailands boom-years, becoming an omnipres- of abjection is a key to unlock symbol- ent aspect of socio-cultural classification after the ism, and that actorsPhi Krasue embodied recognition of this Asian financial crisis. Since the Khmer-magic link logical principle is more important for vernacular is generative of the same logical principle that un- classifications of than the usually explicit derlies abjection and functions to imagine thePhi su- content of its ghostly images visual features. Since Krasue’speriority of the category Thai vis-à-vis the category the elements of myth usually function to make ab- Khmer in contemporary Thai popular culture, stract social logics graspable, their embodiment origin myth is simply the links metonym- is essential for the formation of meaningful social ic transformation that presents a proper past, ren- identities Lévi-Strauss , . Bruce Kapferer dering visible the officially recognized nation and also stresses the relevance of incorporated its geo-body Viernes , . Linked under the cultural logics for shaping actors responses to the inpremises Phi Krasue of demonization and communicatedTamnan Krasue via idiosyncrasies of nationalist iconography. (e em- social idioms of filth, the symbolism of the abject phasizes that nationalist ideology and their myths and Khmer in the film draw their persuasive power not so much from is thus not only complementary, but also mutually their content but rather from their confirmation of reinforcing. The films khmerization of an uncanny previously embodied logical principles. This tacit being renders the Khmer uncanny and strength- knowledge of a cultural logics generative princi- ens the self-evidence of this association through the ples allows actors to relate idiosyncratic elements transformation of metaphor to metonymy DouglasTam- of newly created nationalist myths in a meaningful ,nan Krasue -. way and thus to make sense of the contingencies of With Lévi-Strauss we may finally say that their“Comparing historical worlds.nationalist beliefs in Sri Lanka and provides a logical model for overcoming Australia, he [Kapferer 1988] observes that “these contradictions haunting post-crisis Thai identity. ideologies contain logical elements relevant to the These contradictions arise from the growing visibil- way human beings within their historical worlds ity of Khmerness within the Thai-self, and its irrec- are existentially constituted” (p. 19). In this view, oncilability with the modern ideal of the in-dividual instantiations of idiosyncratic variation, the ul- national self. Just as the Myth of Asdiwal analyzed timate source of cultural change, are reflexively by Lévi-Strauss functions to reconcile the contradic- linked to underlying structural paradigms: “no tions inherentTamnan in Krasue matrilineal descent combined with tradition is constructed or invented and discon- patrilocal residence R. Davis , ; Lévi-Strauss tinuous with history. . . [they] are chosen because , offers a spectral explanation of what they distill ontologically; that is, they why, despite its foundational role, the socio-cultural make sense and condense a logic of ideas which category Khmer remains socially stigmatized, Thai- may also be integrated to the people who make lands indigenous Khmer-speakers invisible, and re- the selection although hidden from their reflec- lationshipsBENJAMIN BAUMANN with neighbouring is a socio-cultural Cambodia anthropologist tense. tive consciousness” (p. 211).” (Fischer 1999, 479) whose research focuses on the link between popular religion and sociocultural identities in the Thai-Cambo- phi thus has to dian borderlands. His thematic foci include spirit-mediumship, magic, witchcraft, death, and vernacular ghost- A contextual analysis of Thai lore. Benjamin is currently finishing his doctoral disser- look beyond surface representations to uncover the tation “Ghosts of Belonging: Searching for Khmerness in cultural logic the generative patterns of relations Rural Buriram,” an ethnography based on an extended realized in and transformed through their contex- anthropological fieldwork in a multi-ethnic village in Phitual Krasue’s ghostly images Fischer , . )nterpre- rural Buriram province of Thailand’s lower Northeast. tations that target the implicit logic structuring Benjamin is a lecturer and research associate at Hum- ghostly images symbolism allow us to boldt-Universität zu Berlin’s Institute of Asian and Afri- account for the variability of its features. This may can Studies and a member of the DORISEA network. vary not only between vernacular and cinematic contexts of ghostly imaginations, but also accord- CONTACT [email protected] ing to the practical requirements of social contexts and their prevalent regime of images P. A. Jackson . Thus, it is the identification of demonization as a structural analogue of abjectionDORISEA Workingthat explains Paper, ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 19

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--- . Ascendantst Doctrine and ResurgentDORISEA magic edited by Kirsten EndresHistory and Andrea of Shit Lauser, - Workingin Capitalist Paper Southeast Series Asia: Paradox and Polar- . New York: Berghahn. isation as CenturyLost Cultural Goddesses: Logic. The Denial of Laporte, Dominique. .Culture and Communication:. Cambride Female Power in Cambodian, . University History. of Göttingen. andThe London:Logic by M)T which Press. Symbols are Connected. An Jacobsen, Trudy. . Leach,Introduction Edmund. .to the Use of Structuralist Analysis Copenha- in Social Anthropology. gen: Nias Press. Johnson, CulturalAndrew AnthropologyAlan. . Progress and its Ru- Structural Cambridge: Anthropology Cambridge ins: Ghosts, Migrants, and the Uncanny in Thai- University Press. land. : -. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. . The Structural. Johnson, )rving Chan. . Seductive Mediators: StudyNew York: of Myth Basic and Books. Totemism JournalThe Nuuraa of Southeast Performers Asian Studies Ritual Persona as a --- . The Story of Asdiwal. )n Love Magician in Kelantanese Thai Society. Mythologica I: Das Rohe, edited und das by Gekochte. Edmund : -.So- Leach, -. London: Tavistock Publications. Kapferer,cial Analysis Bruce. . Outside all Reason: Magic, --- . SorceryLegends and Epistemology of People Myths in Anthropology. of State: Violence, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Spirits in Culture, Intolerance, and: Political -. Culture in Sri Lanka and Levy,History, Robert and et al.Mind . Gods, Spirits, and (istory: --- .Australia. A Theoretical Perspective. )n , edited by Jeannette Mageo Washington and London: Smithsonian and Alan (oward, -. New York and London: )nstitution Press.House of Glass: Culture, Modernity, Routledge. Kasianand Tejapira.the State . in Southeast The Post-Modernisation Asia of Manasikarn (engsuwanMANUSYA: and JournalAmara ofPrasithrathsint. Humanities Thainess. )n Regular. A Folk Taxonomy of Terms for Ghosts and , edited by Yao Spirits in Thai. Strukturen des Denkens Souchou, -. Singapore: )SEAS. : -. Keyes, Charles. . National (eroine Cultur- or Local Mannheim, Karl. . . alSpirit? Crisis The and StruggleSocial Memory: over Memory Modernity in andthe Iden-Case of Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.South East Asia Re- tityThao in Suranari Thailand of and Nakhon Laos Ratchasima. )n Maysearch Adadol )ngawanij. . Un-Thai sakon: the scandal of teen cinema. , edited by Shigeharu Inter-Asia : Cultural-. Studies Tanabe and Charles Keyes, -. London and --- . Nang Nak: ThaiThe LovelornBourgeois Ghost (eritage and the Cine- New York: RoutledgeCurzon. ma.Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism : -. in Modern Knee, Adam.Horror . InternationalThailand (aunted: The Power McDaniel,Thailand. Justin. . of the Past in the Contemporary Thai (orror Film. )n , edited by Steven New York: ColumbiaMagic University and Moder- Press. Jay Schneider and Tony Williams, -. De- Meyer,nity: Birgit. Interfaces . of GhanaianRevelation Popularand Concealment Cinema and troit: Wayne State University Press.East Asian Cin- the Magic in and of Film. )n --- emas: . Exploring Suriyothai Transnational becomes Legend: Connections National on , )dentityFilm as Global Currency. )n edited by Peter PelsIn and the Place Birgit of Meyer,Origins: -. Mo- Stanford:dernity and Stanford its Mediums University in Northern Press. Thailand. , edited by LeonPowers (unt of Horror: and Leung An Essay Wing-Fai, on Morris, Rosalind C. . Abjection-. London: ).B. Tauris and Co Ltd. Medusa’s Hair: An Kristeva, TheJulia. Kristeva . Reader EssayDurham, on NC:Personal Duke UniversitySymbols and Press. Religious Expe- . New York: Columbia University Press. Obeyesekere,rience. Gananath. . --- . Strangers to Ourselves.. Edited by Toril Moi. New York: Columbia University Press. Chicago and London: The University of --- . Thok Khamen. New York: Colum- Chicago Press. bia University Press. Paleček,Philosophy Martin of andthe SocialMark SciencesRisjord. . Relativism Kukrit Pramot. . Bangkok:Cultural Dok and the Ontological Turn within Anthropology. TheoryYa. and Popular Culture—A Reader : -.The Am- Lacan, Jaques. . The Mirror Stage. )n Pattanabiguous Kitiarsa. Allure of . the West: An AmbiguousTraces of the )ntimacy: Colonial , edited inFarang Thailand as Siamese Occidentalism. )n by John Storey, -. Essex: Pearson Educa- tion Limited. , edited by Rachel (arrison and Pater Ladwig, Patrice. . Can Things Eeach the Dead? A. Jackson, -. (ong Kong: (ong Kong Uni- The OntologicalEngaging Status the of Spirit Objects World: and Populathe Studyr versity Press. of Lao Buddhist Rituals for the Spirits of the De---- . The (orror of the Modern:Engaging Violation, the Spirit Vio- ceased. )n World:lence, and Popular Rampaging Beliefs Urbanand Practices Youths in in Contem- Modern Beliefs and Practices in Modern Southeast Asia, porary Thai Ghost Films. )n DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 22

Southeast Asia Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand , edited by Kirsten Endres and --- . Andrea Lauser, -.Lords New of Things: York The and Fash- Oxford: . Cambridge: Cambridge University ioningBerghahn. of the Siamese Monarchy’s Modern Image Press. Peleggi, Maurizio. . Tanabe,Cultural Shigeharu. Crisis . and TheSocial Person Memory: in Transfor-Moderni- The Tacit Dimension . tymation: and Identity Body, Mind in Thailand and Cultural and Appropriation.Laos (onolulu: University of (awaii Press. )n Polanyi, Michael. . The. Jour- New , edited by nalYork: of theDoubleday Siam Society and Company. Charles Keyes and Shigeharu Tanabe, -. Rajadhon, Phya Anuman. . TheJournal Phi. of the London: RoutledgeCurzon. South East Asia Re- Siam Society : -. Taylor,search Jim. . Embodiment, Nation, and Re- --- . Thai Charms andKaleidoskopische Amulets. Dialektik: ligio-Politics in Thailand. Kritische Theorie : nach -. dem Aufstieg des globalen : -.Journal of Global Buddhism Rehbein,Südens Boike. . --- . Buddhism, Copying, and the Art of )mag- The Ancestral Lords ination in Thailand. Monks and Magic—Revis- . Konstanz and M“nchen: UVK. iting: -. a Classic Study of Religious Ceremonies in Rhum, Michael. . . DeKalb: Terwiel,Thailand Barend. . Northern )llinois UniversityIslands of Center History. for South- Roster of the Gods: An Ethnog- east Asian Studies. raphy of the. Copenhagen: Supernatural N)AS in a Press.Thai Village Sahlins, Marshall. . Journal Chicago of Textor, Robert. . theand RoyalLondon: Anthropological University of ChicagoInstitute Press. . New --- a. What Kinship is part one. (aven: (uman Relations AreaAt the Files. Edge of the For- Journal N.S. of : Thomson,est: Essays Ashley. on Cambodia, . Performative History, and Narrative Realities: the-. Royal Anthropological Institute Nobodysin Honor of Possession. David Chandler )n --- b. What Kinship is part two. Culture-Bound: -. Syn- , edited by Anne Ruth Sangundromes, Suwanlert. Ethnopsychiatry, . Phii and Pob: Alternative Spirit Posses-Thera- (ansen and Judy Ledgerwood, -. )thaca piession in Rural Thailand. )n and New York: Southeast AsiaSiam Program Mapped, Publica- a His- torytion. of the Geo-Body of a Nation. , edited by William Lebra, -. (onululu: Thongchai Winichakul. . The University Press of (awaii. (onolulu and Scheper-(ughes, Nancy and Margaret M.Medical Lock. Chiangmai: University of (awaii Press. Anthropology. The Mindful Quarterly Body: A Prolegomenon to --- . TheCivility Other andWithin: Savagery: Travel Socialand Ethno-Spa- Identity Future Work in Medical Anthropology. tialin Tai Differentiation States of Siamese Subjects - New Series : -. . )n Sinnott, Megan. . The Semiotics of Transgen-Cul- , edited by Andrew Turton, -. ture,dered Health Sexual & )dentitySexuality in the Thai Print Media: Richmond and Surrey:Southeast Curzon. Asian Historiogra- )magery and DiscourseLinguistic of the Sexual Diversity Other. and Na- --- phy . Unravelling Siams Colonial the Myths: Condition Essays in and Honour the Birthof tional Unity: Language Ecology: -. in Thailand Barendof Thai Jan(istory. Terwiel )n Smalley, William. . Tamnan Phi Thai . Chi- , edited by Volker Grabowsky, cago and London: University of Chicago Press. -. Bangkok: River Books. ymbolic and So Phlainoi. . . Bangkok: Phim Tilley,Structural Christopher. Archaeology . Social Formation, Social Kham Samnakphim. Sinlapawatthan- Structures and Social Change. )n S Songyoteatham Waeohongsa. . Nang Nak: Rue ja pen , edited by )an (odder, tamnan khong phi tua sud thai. -. London: Cambridge University Press. November: -. Trankell, )ng-Britt. . Cooking, Care, and Do- Stanlaw, James and Directions Yoddumnern in Cognitive Bencha. Anthro- . mestication: A Culinary Ethnography of the Tai Thaipology Spirits: A Problem in the Study of Folk Yong, Northern Thailand. PhD diss., Uppsala Classification. )n University. , edited by Janet Dougherty, -. Chi- Trenk, Marin. . Das rohe und dasANTHRO- gekochte cago: University of lllinois Press. POSLaab. Eine regionale Esskultur Thailands zwis- Streckfuss, David. . An EthnicSouth Reading East Asia of chen Aneignung und Ausgrenzung. ResearchThai history in the Twilight of the Century-Old : -. Natural symbols in South- Official Thai NationalBuriram Model. Ma Chak Nai? Turton,East Asia Andrew. . Architectural and Political : -. Space in Thailand. )n Sujit Wongthet. . Bang- , edited by G. Milner, -. London: kok: MaeKamPhang. Ethnology ThaiUniversity Constructions of London. of Knowledge Tambiah, Stanley. . Animals are Good to Think --- . )nvulnerability and Local Knowledge. )n and Good to Prohibit. : -. , edited by M. DORISEA Working Paper, ISSUE 19, 2015, ISSN: 2196-6893 Competence Network DORISEA – Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia 23

Filmography

Chitkasem and A. Turton, -. London: Uni- Tamnan Krasue Civilityversity andof London. Savagery: Social Identity in Tai States --- . )ntroduction to Civility and Savagery. )n Bin Banluerit. . Nang Nak Demonic , Beauty. Thailand: Twin Pictures. edited by Andrew Turton, -. Richmond and Nonzee, Nimibutr.Krasue . Sao . Thailand: Tai Surrey: Curzon Press. Entertainment. Vail, Peter. . Can a Language of a Million Speak- S. Naowarat. . P Ghost of Guts Eater. Internationalers be Endangered? Journal Language of the Sociology Shift and Apathyof Lan- Thailand: Sri Siam Production. guageamong Northern Khmer Speakers in Thailand. Spurrier, Paul. . Bang. Thailand: Rajan Creative Films Siam Ltd. : -. Tanit Jitnukul. . Suriyothai. Thailand: (The Legend Film --- . Thailands KhmerAsian as Ethnicity )nvisible Minori- Bangkok Magnolia Pictures. ty: Language, Ethnicity and Cultural Politics in Yukol Chatrichalerm. . North-Eastern Thailand. : of Suriyothai. Thailand: Sahamongkol Film. -. Anthro- Vanpos Esterik, Penny. . )nterpreting a Cosmolo- gy: Guardian Spirits in Thai Buddhism. : -. South East Asia Research Viernes, Noah. . The Geo-Body of Contempo- rary Thai Film. Lap Luang Phrang : Phak -.Phisadan Wasana Nanuam. . The Living House: An An- thropology. Bangkok: of Architecture Post Books. in South-East Asia Waterson, Roxana. . . Singapore: OxfordSpectral University America Press. Weinstock, Jeffrey A. . )ntroduction: The Spec- tral Turn. )n , edited by Jeffrey A. Weinstock, -. Madison: University of Wis- consin Press. An- White,thropological Erick. . Forum The Cultural Politics of the Su- pernatural in Theravada Buddhist Thailand. : -. --- . Fraudulent and Dangerous Popular Relig- iosity in theSpirited Public Sphere:Politics: moralReligion Campaigns and Public to LifeProhibit, in Contemporary Reform, and DemystifySoutheast AsiaThai Spirit Me- diums. )n , edited by Andrew Willford and Kenneth George, -. )thaca: Southeast Asia Program Publications Cornell University. Man Wijeyewardene, Gehan. . Address, Abuse and Animal Categories in Northern Thailand. : -. Mankind --- . Matriclans or Female Cults: A Problem in Northern Thai Ethnography. : -. Journal of Southeast Wyatt,Asian David. Studies . Relics, Oaths and Politics in thirteenth-century Siam. : -.

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