The Funeral Casino is a heretical ethnography of the global age. Setting his book within Thailand's pro-democracy movement and the street massacres that accompanied it; Alan Klima offers a strikingly original interpretation of mass-mediated violence through a study of funeral gambling and Buddhist meditation on death. The fieldwork for the book began in 1992; when a freewheeling market of illegal "massacre-imagery" videos blossomed in Bangkok on the very site where; days earlier; for the third time in two decades; a military-controlled government had killed scores of unarmed pro-democracy protesters. Such killings and their subsequent representation have lent force to Thailand's transition from military control to a "media-financial complex." Probing the ways in which death is marketed; visualized; and remembered through practices both local and global; Klima inverts conventional relationships between ethnography and theory through a compelling narrative that reveals a surprising new direction available to anthropology and critical theory. Ethnography here engages with the philosophy of activism and the politics of memory; media representation of violence; and globalization. In focusing on the particular array of tactics in Thai Buddhism and protest politics for connecting death and life; past and present; this book unveils a vivid and haunting picture of community; responsibility; and accountability in the new world order.
#1515635 in Books Princeton University Press 1994-11-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.21 x .51 x 6.14l; .74 #File Name: 0691015457205 pages
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Entertaining history with a thesis.By A CustomerStyles in historiography come and go. For the classical Greek historians; history waspartly the clever strategies of great generals; partly the well-cadenced speeches thatshould have been made; some descriptions of strange cultures; some geography. For themedieval chroniclers; history was melodrama: great battles; duels between heroes;treacherous murders. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the Enlightenment;history was the progressive improvement of forms of government. For a while in the1980s; history was a counterpoint between the psychology of the Chosen Figure and adescription of his social milieu. Later came the history of attitudes of women tohousework and the detailed history of underwear (no; I'm not kidding).Ideas aboutthe forces controlling history also change. Caesar was certain that Roman militarystrategy and tactics brought about the conquest of Gaul. Josephus probably reallybelieved what he repeatedly wrote; that God determines the details of history as rewardand punishment for people's actions. Most readers today probably believe that history isdetermined by material facts; mainly economic facts. Probably this is another aspect ofour Enlightenment heritage.Garth Fowden has returned to two older ideas; that a history book should have a thesis; and that beliefshave a powerful influence on history. In Empire to Commonwealth; his main thesis isthat universalist; monotheistic religions helped bring about world conquest in lateantiquity; and that their opposite had the opposite effect. Who are the monotheisticuniversalists? For example; the Byzantine Christians and the Muslims. Who are not?The Achaemenids; the particularist Jews.On the way; he discusses several otherinteresting questions in the history of ideas. The question of whether only the saintly arethe chosen of God; or whether the highest levels of religion are open even to sinners byvirtue of their chosen position; was an important question in early Christianity. Mr.Fowden could have pointed out that the Jews were arguing the same question at aboutthe same time (see Berachot 28a; 34a).Mr. Fowden has great knowledge of cultureswhich even people well educated in the Western tradition know little about; e. g.; theancient Iranian religions and the monophysite Christianity of medieval Ethiopia. As in allgood histories; there are also diversions along the way; discussions of the moral one-upmanship among the Romans and Iranians in respecting the chastity of each other'sharems; and of the amazemant caused by a royal progress of the Black Christian king ofAksum among the oppressed Christians of neighboring lands. And who but Mr. Fowdenknows about the synod of monophysite Christians called in 1965 by the Emperor ofEthiopia and the Metropolitan of Aksum.Mr. Fowden knows how to write. Thehistory of late antiquity; especially outside of Europe and Asia Minor; is a weak spot inthe education of most of us. It's also pleasant to return to the historiography of ideassometimes. I haven't seen the paperback; but the hard-cover edition includes high-qualityphotographs of both artistic and historical significance. I'm glad I read the book; and hope toread it again16 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Entertaining history with a thesis.By A CustomerStyles in historiography come and go. For the classical Greek historians; history waspartly the clever strategies of great generals; partly the well-cadenced speeches thatshould have been made; some descriptions of strange cultures; some geography. For themedieval chroniclers; history was melodrama: great battles; duels between heroes;treacherous murders. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the Enlightenment;history was the progressive improvement of forms of government. For a while in the1980s; history was a counterpoint between the psychology of the Chosen Figure and adescription of his social milieu. Later came the history of attitudes of women tohousework and the detailed history of underwear (no; I'm not kidding).Ideas aboutthe forces controlling history also change. Caesar was certain that Roman militarystrategy and tactics brought about the conquest of Gaul. Josephus probably reallybelieved what he repeatedly wrote; that God determines the details of history as rewardand punishment for people's actions. Most readers today probably believe that history isdetermined by material facts; mainly economic facts. Probably this is another aspect ofour Enlightenment heritage.Garth Fowden has returned to two older ideas; that a history book should have a thesis; and that beliefshave a powerful influence on history. In Empire to Commonwealth; his main thesis isthat universalist; monotheistic religions helped bring about world conquest in lateantiquity; and that their opposite had the opposite effect. Who are the monotheisticuniversalists? For example; the Byzantine Christians and the Muslims. Who are not?The Achaemenids; the particularist Jews.On the way; he discusses several otherinteresting questions in the history of ideas. The question of whether only the saintly arethe chosen of God; or whether the highest levels of religion are open even to sinners byvirtue of their chosen position; was an important question in early Christianity. Mr.Fowden could have pointed out that the Jews were arguing the same question at aboutthe same time (see Berachot 28a; 34a).Mr. Fowden has great knowledge of cultureswhich even people well educated in the Western tradition know little about; e. g.; theancient Iranian religions and the monophysite Christianity of medieval Ethiopia. As in allgood histories; there are also diversions along the way; discussions of the moral one-upmanship among the Romans and Iranians in respecting the chastity of each other'sharems; and of the amazemant caused by a royal progress of the Black Christian king ofAksum among the oppressed Christians of neighboring lands. And who but Mr. Fowdenknows about the synod of monophysite Christians called in 1965 by the Emperor ofEthiopia and the Metropolitan of Aksum.Mr. Fowden knows how to write. Thehistory of late antiquity; especially outside of Europe and Asia Minor; is a weak spot inthe education of most of us. It's also pleasant to return to the historiography of ideassometimes. The book is also well printed and well bound; and includes high-qualityphotographs of both artistic and historical significance. I'm glad I read it; and hope toread it again
