Pursuing morality : Buddhism and everyday ethics in southeastern Myanmar /
A deeply human portrait of a region defined by conflict and military dictatorship. Pursuing Morality is an in-depth and fascinating study of ordinary life in Myanmar’s southeast through a unique ethnographic focus on Buddhist Plong (Pwo) Karen. Based on extensive in-depth fieldwork in the small city...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Singapore :
Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with NUS Press,
[2024].
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| Series: | Southeast Asia publications series.
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| Summary: | A deeply human portrait of a region defined by conflict and military dictatorship. Pursuing Morality is an in-depth and fascinating study of ordinary life in Myanmar’s southeast through a unique ethnographic focus on Buddhist Plong (Pwo) Karen. Based on extensive in-depth fieldwork in the small city of Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, Justine Chambers shines a new light on Plong Buddhists’ lives and the many ways they broker, traverse, enact, cultivate, defend and pursue moral lives. This is the first ethnographic study of Myanmar to add to a growing body of anthropological scholarship that is referred to as the “moral turn.” Each chapter examines the lives of Plong Buddhists from different vantage points, calling into question many assumptions about southeast Asian values and the nature of Buddhist Theravada practice. Critiquing the notion that moral coherence is necessary for ethical selfhood, Chambers demonstrates how the pursuit of morality is varied, performative and embedded in an affective notion of the self as a moral agent in a relationship with wider structural political forces. This vivid account of everyday life in Myanmar complements existing scholarship on the region and offers a deeper understanding of Buddhism, moral anthropology and ethics in southeast Asia. |
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| Physical Description: | xxix, 209 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-201) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9789813252691 9813252693 |