This revised and updated edition of the widely praised Democracy and National Identity in Thailand provides readers with a fascinating discussion of how debates about democracy and national identity in Thailand have evolved from the period of counter-insurgency in the 1960s to the current period. Focusing on state and civil society centered democratic projects, Connors uses original Thai language sources to trace how the Thai state developed a democratic ideology that meshed with idealized notions of Thai identity, focusing on the monarchy. The book moves on to explore how non-state actors have mobilized notions of democracy and national identity in their battle against authoritarian rule. It also invites readers to explore democratic ideology as a form of power aimed at creating ideal citizens able to support elite national projects.

Democracy and National Identity in Thailand (Studies in Contemporary Asian History)

Politics & Social Sciences

Connors, Michael Kelly

Sociology

NIAS Press

Three decades after the conclusion of the civil war that brought the communist Pathet Lao to power, the leaders of the Lao People's Democratic Republic are still searching for a compelling and unifying national identity. As detailed in Postwar Laos―a rigorously researched, cogently argued, and pathbreaking book―Laotian nationalism is caught between the rhetoric of preservation and the desire for modernity. Using fine-grained analysis of substantial ethnographic and archival material, Vatthana Pholsena sheds light on the politics of identity, the geographies of memory, and the power of historical narrative in contemporary Laos.Pholsena pays particular attention to the country's ethnic minorities, who had been marginalized―politically, administratively, and symbolically―by the French colonial government, which ruled for fifty years, and by its Royal Lao successor. Many members of these minorities fought for the Lao People's Liberation Army in the country's civil war (1960–1975), though, and were thus exposed to the processes of modern politics. The first book to examine the impact of such forces on Laos's ethnic minorities and their perception of Laotian nationalism, Postwar Laos also refines established theories of nationalism. Pholsena addresses a weakness common to all: the tendency to deny agency to individuals, who may in fact interpret their relationship to, and place within, the nation in a variety of ways that change according to time and circumstance.Postwar Laos offers a new perspective on the history of Southeast Asia and, more broadly, on the formation of national identity that will be welcomed by historians, political scientists, sociologists, ethnographers, and cultural anthropologists alike.

Post-war Laos: The Politics of Culture, History and Identity

History

Vatthana Pholsena

Asia

Land and Longhouse examines the role of community, market, and state in the historic transformation of upland livelihoods in Southeast Asia. Focusing on the Saribas Iban of Sarawak, the book combines in-depth, generation-long village case studies with an account of changes in land use and tenure at the regional level spanning a century and a half. This analysis demonstrates that, far from being passive victims of globalization, the Iban have been active agents in their own transformation, engaging with both market and state while retaining community values and governance. R. A. Cramb makes a significant new contribution to debates about economic, social, and environmental change and conflict in upland Southeast Asia. His book offers a fascinating, empirically rich account of interest to scholars, development practitioners, and the general reader alike. "This study is certain to become a major reference point for future work on land use, tenure, and agrarian change in Upland Southeast Asia." ―Clifford Sather, University of Helsinki “Rob Cramb has written an excellent book with a much needed longitudinal perspective on agrarian change. The book is an important contribution to the urgent need for understanding the dynamics and consequences―both environmental and social―of upland transformation in Southeast Asia.” ―Ole Mertz, University of Copenhagen “Rob Cramb’s study raises provocative questions about Iban society, the nature of the Southeast Asia uplands, and agrarian history. He presents a work distinguished by the depth of its scholarship and the breadth of the questions addressed by it.” ―Michael R. Dove, Yale University

Land and Longhouse: Agrarian Transformation in the Uplands of Sarawak (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies)

Business & Money

Cramb, Robert

Economics

The third volume cataloguing the Arabic material at the Royal Library, Copenhagen, describes 356 manuscripts. These include the latest acquisitions, 47 manuscripts being described for the first time together with a further 209 manuscripts previously listed in a Latin catalogue printed in 1851. (In the new catalogue, these manuscripts are now described in English and with more detailed information.) The acquisition history of the collection reaches from the seventeenth century to the present day with the manuscripts reflecting the changing interests of both scholars and book collectors over the years. The oldest manuscripts are Qur’an fragments written on parchment in Kufi script dating from the ninth century while the most recent manuscript is a collection of Sufi texts copied in 1905. Designed especially as an essential source of reference for scholars working in all aspects of manuscript studies, the catalogue includes over 700 full-page illustrations (some in color ) that help identify each of the manuscripts.

Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts: Codices Arabici and Codices Arabici Additamenta; Volume 1-3 (Catalogue of Oriental Manuscrupts, Xylographs Etc. In Danish Collections)

Perho, Irmeli

Reference

This book explores the "invention" of specific breeds of horse in the context of imperial design and colonial trade routes. Divided into two sections, it deals respectively with the introduction, invention, and use of the horse in the Philippines, Thailand, and southern Africa, as well as examining its roots and evolution within Indonesia. The study is supplemented by a discussion of the colonial trade in horses within the Indian Ocean and by introductory and concluding sections that discuss the historiographical and methodological problems associated with writing a more species- or horse-centric history.

Breeds of Empire: The Invention of the Horse in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa 1500-1950 (Nias Studies in Asian Topics, 42)

Bankoff, Greg

Swart, Sandra

Africa

Modern Myanmar/Burma is very much a creation of World War II, when the British colony was occupied by the Japanese, and its immediate aftermath. These years saw the rise of Aung San and his assassination, as well as the establishment of military forces by the Japanese (subsequently evolving into today's ruling junta) and a sharp escalation of inter-ethnic antagonism and violence. Tracing Burma-Japan relations since 1940, this volume will be of value not only for an understanding of post-war Japanese diplomacy and aid programs, but also because it offers new material and insights on the ongoing story of Burma itself.

Burma and Japan Since 1940: From 'Co-Prosperity' to 'Quiet Dialogue' (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph)

Seekins, Donald M.

Beyond the Green Myth: Borneo's Hunter-gatherers in the 21st Century (NIAS Studies in Asian Topics, 37)

Borneo, with its tales of White Rajahs and tribes of headhunters, has long excited the Western imagination. Today, however, there is another green imagination at work. Mention of the island is more likely to evoke images of tropical deforestation and concern about the cruel dispossession and displacement of indigenous peoples who once lived in relative harmony with their environment. It is perhaps not suprizing then, that most books dealing with the nomadic hunter-gatherers of Borneo have principally been pictorial studies. There is indeed a dearth of scholarship regarding these peoples, a situation that this first ever comprehensive review of nomadic groups in the Borneo rain forest aims to rectify. Presenting a wealth of new research contributed by an international team of scholars, the volume covers all of those parts of Borneo where nomads (called Penan, Punan, or by various other names) are or were known to exist, and provides a comparative historical-ecological study of these groups. The study is primarily concerned with issues of modernization (including the monetary economy, formalized institutions, centralized power structures, contractual relationships and extraction activities) and development policies. The impact of these policies is analyzed with special regard to the natural environment inhabited by these small scale societies, as well as the use of its resources. The book has no stiff theoretical orientation but informs ongoing debates about changing forms of ethnicity relations between minorities and the state, minorities rights and survival, native discourse, the sustainability of tropical forest use and the neo-romantic environmentalist myth of so-called wise traditional peoples.

Beyond the Green Myth: Borneo's Hunter-gatherers in the 21st Century (Studies in Asian Topics)

Religion plays a central role in Thai society with Buddhism intertwined in the daily lives of the people. Religion also plays an important role in establishing gender boundaries. The growth in recent decades of self-governing nunneries and the increasing interest of Thai women in a Buddhist monastic life are notable changes in the religion/gender dynamic. This anthropological study considers religion and gender relations through the lens of the lives, actions, and roles in Thai society of Buddhist nuns (mae chii).Making Fields of Merit presents a unique ethnography of Thai Buddhist nuns, examines what it implies to be a female ascetic in contemporary Thailand, and analyzes how the ordained state for women fits into the wider gender patterns found in Thai society. The study also deals with the nuns' agency in creating religious space and authority for women. It raises questions about how the position of Thai Buddhist nuns outside the Buddhist sangha affects their religious legitimacy and describes recent moves to restore a Theravada order of female monks.

Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand (Gendering Asia): Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand (Gendering Asia)

Monica Lindberg Falk

In a world where there are few women politicians, Cambodia is still noticeable as a country where strong cultural and societal forces act to subjugate women and limit their political opportunities. However, in their everyday life, Cambodian women do try to improve their situation and increase their political power, not least via manifold strategies of resistance. This book focuses on Cambodian female politicians and the strategies they deploy in their attempts to destabilize the cultural boundaries and hierarchies that restrain them. In particular, the book focuses on how women use discourses and identities as means of resistance, a concept only recently of wide interest among scholars studying power. The value of this book is thus twofold: not only does it give a unique insight into the political struggles of Cambodian women but also offers new insights to studies of power.

Power, Resistance and Women Politicians in Cambodia: Discourses of Emancipation (Nias Monographs, 108)

Lilja, Mona

This book explores the "invention" of specific breeds of horse in the context of imperial design and colonial trade routes. Divided into two sections, it deals respectively with the introduction, invention, and use of the horse in the Philippines, Thailand, and southern Africa, as well as examining its roots and evolution within Indonesia. The study is supplemented by a discussion of the colonial trade in horses within the Indian Ocean and by introductory and concluding sections that discuss the historiographical and methodological problems associated with writing a more species- or horse-centric history.

Breeds of Empire: The Invention of the Horse in Southeast Asia and Southern Africa 1500-1950 (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies: Studies in Asian Topics)

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