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Religious and Social Change in Southern Laos

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The New Year Ceremony at Basak (South Laos). By ArchaimbaultCharles. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1971. xiii, 137pp. Mustratrations, Notes. $4.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Charles F. Keyes
Charles F. Keyes
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

The New Year Ceremony at Basak (South Laos) by Charles Archaimbault, which is the subject of this review article, provides a superb illustration of the way in which ritual and mythical symbols express historical alterations in social structure and social experience. While there has been continuity in the symbols of the New Year ceremony, the ritual context which invests these symbols with meaning has changed. This change reflects the diminution of the power of the putative ruler of Campasak who plays the crucial role in the ceremony.

Type
Review Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , May 1972 , pp. 611 - 614
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1972

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References

1 Also compare Archaimbault's, M. “L'histoire de Campasak,” Journal Asiatique, CCXLIX, 4 (1961), pp. 519–595Google Scholar.

2 cf. Bunnag, Tej, The Provincial Administration of Siam from 1892 to 1915 (D.Phil, thesis, Oxford University, 1968)Google Scholar and Vickery, Michael, “Thai Regional Elites and the Reforms of King Chulalongkorn,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXIX, 4 (1970), pp. 863–882CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See Bunnag, Tej, “Khabot phu mi bun phakisan R.S. 121,” [“Merit-possessing Persons Revolt in Northeast Thailand, 1902”], Sangkhomsat Pori-that lsqb;‘Social Science Review’[ (Bangkok), V (1967), pp. 78–86Google Scholar.

4 In a forthcoming paper on millenarian movements in Thailand I will discuss the implications of Lao millenarianism more fully.

5 The concept of “dominant symbol” is here borrowed from Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967), p. 20et passim.Google Scholar