Vol. 60, No. 2, Special Section: (De)Materializing Kinship: Holding Together Mutuality and Difference
關鍵詞
ghosts; gift exchange; kinship; popular religion; Thailand; violence
摘要
This article examines the process of building kinship relations between Thai spirit devotees and violent spirits. I examine three spirit shrines on the outskirts of Bangkok: a shrine to the ghost of a woman killed in childbirth, a shrine to a cobra spirit that causes accidents along a busy highway, and a household shrine to an aborted fetus. The devotees to whom I spoke actively sought out such places known for death in order to 'adopt' or 'become adopted by' the spirits in those locations—an action that, I argue, allowed for a renegotiation of the devotees' position vis-à-vis accident and trauma. I suggest that becoming a spirit's 'child' forms a mutually dependent relationship that allows for the domestication of forces outside of oneself.
目次
Abstract 82 Kinship with the Other 84 Pong and Grandmother Nak 87 Gamrai and Mother Cobra 88 Pia and the Golden Child 89 A Kinship with Death 90 Loving Kindness 92 Acknowledgment 93 Notes 94 References 95
