Revisiting Ideas of Power in Southeast Asia

This book builds upon landmark contributions by Lucien Hanks and Benedict Anderson to interdisciplinary scholarship on Southeast Asia. Five anthropologists revisit these classic analyses, situating local notions of power in contemporary dynamics through fieldwork, areal comparisons, and historical studies.

Hjorleifur R. Jonsson, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, Tempe, USA, is an anthropologist of Southeast Asia. He is the author of Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand and Slow Anthropology: Negotiating Difference with the Iu Mien. His recent work explores Thai-language fiction and ethnography.

Introduction - Revisiting Ideas of Power in Southeast Asia 1. Pluralities of Power in Indonesia's Intellectual Property Law, Regional Arts and Religious Freedom Debates 2. It was not the Government that did it: it was us! Water Supply in Kandon as an Example of Living Lao Socialism 3. Power Protection, Social Relationships and the Ethnographer 4. Losing the Remote: Exploring the Thai Social Order with the Early and Late Hanks 5. Revisiting Power in a Southeast Asian Landscape - Discussant's Comments