Imagining the Course of Life: Self-Transformation in a Shan Buddhist CommunityImagining the Course of Life offers a rich portrait of rural life in contemporary Southeast Asia and an accessible introduction to the complexities of Theravada Buddhism as it is actually lived and experienced. It is both an ethnography of indigenous views of human development and a theoretical consideration of how any ethnopsychology is embedded in society and culture. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in a Shan village in northern Thailand, Nancy Eberhardt illustrates how indigenous theories of the life course are connected to local constructions of self and personhood. In the process, she draws our attention to contrasting models in the Euro-American tradition and invites us to reconsider how we think about the trajectory of a human life. Moving beyond the entrenched categories that can hamper our understanding of other views, Imagining the Course of Life demonstrates the real-life connections between the "religious" and the "psychological." Eberhardt shows how such beliefs and practices are used, sometimes strategically, in people's constructions of themselves, in their interpretations of others' behavior, and in their attempts at social positioning. Individual chapters explore Shan ideas about the overall course of human development, from infancy to old age and beyond, and show how these ideas inform people's understanding of personhood and maturity, gender and social inequality, illness and well-being, emotions and mental health. |
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adult anattā anicca aspects Aunt Ying Baan Kaung Baan Kaung Mu begin behavior body bowl boys Buddhist candles chants chapter child context course cultural death deceased dukkha eight precepts emotional ethnopsychology event example funeral gender Grandfather Grandfather's healing household human development karma karmic kham khaun khwan kotsaa labor lives Mae Hong Mae Hong Son mediums merit merit-making ceremonies monks moral mother Nang Ing's Nang Nu's Nang Yen novice ordination offerings older one's ordination festival parents particular people's person Pon's precepts prepared protection psychological rebirth reborn relationship religious rite ritual role sangha Shan village siblings social someone song phi sorts souls Southeast Asia sponsors status talk tambon temple sleepers Thai Thailand Theravada Buddhism things tion traditional tsao moeng Uncle Pon Uncle Samaun village guardian spirit wan sin woman women young