Description
Book SynopsisOffers an interpretation of mass-mediated violence through a study of funeral gambling and Buddhist meditation on death. This book focuses on a particular array of tactics in Thai Buddhism and protest politics for connecting death and life, past and present and unveils a picture of community, responsibility, and accountability in the world order.
Trade ReviewCo-Winner of the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, Society for Humanistic Anthropology and American Anthropological Association "Klima's attempt to bring philosophy into ethnography is important... This book is an important contribution to the ongoing critique and dialogue in anthropology about visuality, representation and symbolic exchange."--Christophe Robert, Anthropological Quarterly
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations vii Note on Transcription and Monetary Conversion ix Acknowledgments xi 1. Introduction 1 PART I: The Passed 2. The New World: Bangkok and the World Order without History 31 3. Revolting History: The Necromantic Power of Public Massacres 53 4. Bloodless Power: A Moral Economy of the Thai Crowd 89 5. Repulsiveness of the Body Politic: An Economics of the Black May Massacre 122 PART II: Kamma 6. The Charnel Ground: Visions of Death in Buddhist Asceis and the Redemption of Mechanical Reproduction 169 7. The Funeral Casino: A Mindful Economy 231 Notes 291 Bibliography 305 Index 313
