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Narrative Practice and Cultural Change

Building Worlds with Karma, Ghosts, and Capitalist Invaders in Thailand

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Presents a unique approach to person-centered anthropology
  • Provides a practice theory that incorporates and explains sources of cultural change
  • Draws on three years of fieldwork in Thailand examining stories important to the lives of Bangkok Buddhists on topics ranging from karma to ghosts

Part of the book series: Culture, Mind, and Society (CMAS)

  • 1991 Accesses

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. Narratives That Construct Linguistic Realities

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-64
    2. How Do Shared Languages Create Personal Narratives?

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 65-90
    3. How Do Stories Create Human Worlds?

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 91-121
    4. How Are Differing Personal Realities Shared?

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 123-157
  3. Languages That Shape Thai Worlds: The Manut and the Khon in Bangkok

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 159-160
    2. The Kohn and the Language of Social Obligation

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 161-190
    3. Why Nirvana? The Manut and the Language of Solitude

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 191-214
    4. The Meanings in Lives

      • Steven Grant Carlisle
      Pages 253-263
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 265-281

About this book

This book presents a unique approach to person-centered anthropology, providing a new form of practice theory that incorporates and explains sources of cultural change. Built around the learning and use of autobiographical narrative forms, it draws from, and expands on, phenomenological, psychological, and moral anthropological traditions.

The author draws on extensive original fieldwork in Thailand to explore questions including: how Buddhism has dealt with the appearance of global capitalism; and why some Thais continue to pursue nirvana-oriented Buddhist practices when karma-oriented reward-systems seem to be more satisfying as a whole. Where previous person-centered ethnographies have explored the ways in which social forces cause individuals to conform to cultural norms, this work advances the analysis by focusing on how ideas are transmitted from individuals to into wider society. This book will provide fresh insights of particular interest to psychological, phenomenological and narrative anthropologists; as well as to researchers working in the fields of religious and Asian studies.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Behavioral Social Sciences, California State University at San Marcos, San Marcos, USA

    Steven Grant Carlisle

About the author

Steven Grant Carlisle is Lecturer in Anthropology at California State University at San Marcos, USA. Dr. Carlisle specializes in anthropology of religion, psychological anthropology, and the study of narratives.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access