Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T11:23:06.236Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rise of Distrust: State Officials, Gifts and Social Hierarchy in Laos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2012

Léo Mariani
Léo Mariani*
Affiliation:
urmisishsn, et lapcos Nice [leolienne@hotmail.com].
Get access

Abstract

Conceptualisations of the state as a reified entity fall short in the case of socialist Laos. Foreign commentators often imagine Lao political life through a discourse of state governance, yet the Lao themselves, in popular narratives, tend to emphasise their day to day interactions with state officials. In their everyday lives, the latter are treated as individuals with which it is possible to interact. This article explores the relations between the Lao people and their government officials, and how those relations have changed in recent history (mainly since 1975). Wedding receptions – vital events in Lao social life, where power is invoked through performance and representation – are taken as case studies for the analysis of authority and legitimacy in a socialist state context.

Keywords

LaosGiftPowerStateSocial changeLaosDonPouvoirÉtatChangement socialLaosGeschenkMachtStaatSozialer Wandel
Type
Research Articles
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , August 2012 , pp. 149 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © A.E.S. 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arendt, Hannah, 1973. The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York, Harcourt).Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre, 1979. La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement (Paris, Minuit).Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah, 1980. Le sens pratique (Paris, Minuit).Google Scholar
Bourlet, Antoine, 1907. “Les Thay”, Anthropos, II, pp. 355-373.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques, 1991. La fausse monnaie, Vol. 1: Donner le temps (Paris, Galilée).Google Scholar
Doré, Amphay, 2000. “Le gendre lao. Essai d’anthropologie du pouvoir féminin dans la société traditionnelle de Louang-Phrabang”, Moussons, 1, pp. 21-40.Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick, 1997. “Lao as a national language” in Evans, Grant, ed., Laos, Culture and Society (Bangkok, Silkworm books, pp. 258-290).Google Scholar
Evans, Grant, 1998. The Politics of Ritual and Remembrance. Laos since 1975 (Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books).Google Scholar
Gauchet, Marcel, 2005. La condition politique (Paris, Gallimard).Google Scholar
Godbout, Jacques T., 2000. L’esprit du don (Paris, La Découverte).Google Scholar
Herzfeld, Michael, 2005. Cultural Intimacy. Social Poetics in the Nation-State. Second edition. (New York and Oxon, Routledge).Google Scholar
Kerr, Allen D., 1992. Lao-English Dictionary (Bangkok, White Lotus).Google Scholar
Ladwig, Patrice, 2009. “Narrative ethics: The excess of giving and moral ambiguity in the Lao Vessantara-Jataka” in Heintz, Monika, ed., The Anthropology of Moralities (Oxford/New York, Berghahn, pp. 136-158).Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 1984. Paroles données (Paris, Plon).Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2006. “Les personnalités politiques, la politique et les mariages au Laos. La légitimité retrouvée”, ASEANIE, 17, pp. 29-60.Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2008a. “Référence de valeur et valeur de référence: le kièt et le pièp, “pivots des relations interindividuelles lao”, Moussons, 12, pp. 81-103.Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2008b. “Affirmation et distinction. Un exemple de mise en perspective d’une relation d’entretien en contexte lao”, Ethnographiques.org, 16. Available athttp://www.ethnographiques.org/2008/Mariani.Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2009. “Du risque et de la perception de l’intentionnalité dans le don. Une proposition de typologie des rapports sociaux lao en milieu urbain”, Revue du Mauss Permanente. Available at http://www.journaldumauss.net/spip.php?article550.Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2011. “Pouvoir et société. Repenser le lien social dans le Laos urbain”, Anthropos, 106(2), pp. 397-409.Google Scholar
Mariani, Léo, 2012. Les Avatars du don dans le Laos contemporain. Essai d’anthropologie politique, (Paris, Connaissances et Savoirs).Google Scholar
Ngaosyvathn, Mayouri, 1996. “An introduction to the laws of Khun Borom: an early prototype of the organisation of T’ai society and life” in Huxley, Andrew, ed., Thailand: Buddhist Law. Essays on the Legal History of Thailand, Laos and Burma (Bangkok, White orchid press, pp. 73-80).Google Scholar
Pavie, Auguste, 1898. Etudes diverses. II. Recherches sur l’histoire du Cambodge, du Laos et du Siam (Paris, Ernest Leuroux).Google Scholar
Phoumirath, Thongrith, 2004. Kindong: Tradition, Memory and Identity in Lao Weddings. Unpublished PhD thesis. Australian National University, Australia.Google Scholar
Sicard, Marie-Noëlle and Sicard, Didier, 1981. Au nom de Marx et de Bouddha. Révolution au Laos: un peuple, une culture disparaissent (Paris, Inter Editions).Google Scholar
Sisouphanthong, Bounthavy and Taillard, Christian, 2000. Atlas de la République Démocratique Populaire Lao. Les structures territoriales du développement économique et social (Paris, La Documentation française/reclus).Google Scholar
Stuart-Fox, Martin, 1996. Buddhist Kingdom, Marxist State. The Making of Modern Laos (Bangkok, White Lotus).Google Scholar
Stuart-Fox, Martin, 2001. Historical Dictionary of Laos, second edition (Londres, The Scarecrow Press).Google Scholar
Stuart-Fox, Martin, 2005. Politics and Reform in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Working paper, 126. University of Queensland, Australia.Google Scholar
Stuart-Fox, Martin, 2006. “The Political Culture of Corruption in the Lao PDR” Asian Studies Review, 30, pp. 59-75.Google Scholar
Max, Weber, 1992. Essais sur la théorie de la science (Paris, Plon).Google Scholar