Engaging the Spirit World

Kirsten W. Endres is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Research Group at Department II, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale. Her monograph, Performing the Divine: Mediums, Markets and Modernity in Urban Vietnam (2011), examines the flourishing of urban spirit mediumship as part of the recent revival of popular religion in Vietnam. Andrea Lauser is Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Georg-August-University, Gottingen, Germany. She is a member of and lecturer in a new area studies network "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast-Asia," composed of the Southeast Asia departments of Hamburg, Berlin, Muenster, Heidelberg and Gottingen, and funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

• List of Illustrations Preface Introduction: Multivocal Arenas of Modern Enchantment in Southeast Asia Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser Chapter 1. Can things reach the dead? The ontological status of objects and the study of Lao Buddhist rituals for the spirits of the deceased Patrice Ladwig Chapter 2. Spirited Warriors: Conspiracy and Protection on Lombok Kari Telle Chapter 3. From the Mystical to the Molecular: Modernity, Martial Arts and Agency in Java Lee Wilson Chapter 4. Changing spirits' identities? Rethinking the Four Palaces' spirit representations in the context of social and political changes in Northern Vietnam Claire Chauvet Chapter 5. Gods, Gifts, Markets, and Superstition: Spirited Consumption from Korea to Vietnam Laurel Kendall Chapter 6. Contests of Commemoration: Virgin War Martyrs, State Memorials, and the Invocation of the Spirit World in Contemporary Vietnam Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser Chapter 7. Trans-ethnic Cosmologies that Won't Go Away: Keramat Symbolisms in Malaysian Capitalist Sacralization Beng-Lan Goh Chapter 8. Being a Spirit Medium in Contemporary Burma Benedicte Brac de la Perriere Chapter 9. Reconfigurations of the Manora Ancestral Worship and Spirit Possession in Southern Thailand Alexander Horstmann Chapter 10. The Horror of the Modern: Violation, Violence, and the Rampage of Urban Youths in the Contemporary Thai Ghost Films Pattana Kitiarsa Notes on Contributors Index

"This rich, articulate volume builds on and extends earlier explorations of the intricate connections between popular religious practices and modernity in the region. It offers fascinating insights into the diverse and endlessly creative transformations of Southeast Asian spirit worlds in the late 1990s and 2000s – a period of capitalist growth and widening affluence but also great social, political, and economic instability." · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"...a great volume that represents a remarkable contribution to the anthropological debate on 'popular religion' in contemporary Southeast Asia." · Anthropos"...the editors have carefully selected papers that not only present engrossing ethnographic reports but also show theoretical sophistication. We are treated to explorations of theoretical issues spanning from materiality and ontology to an anthropological critique of modernity and rationality...Overall, this volume as a whole has presented a highly spirited argument against the modernity-secularization thesis. Insights have been provided to under-explored issues in anthropological studies...This has been an enlightening read." · Asian Anthropologist