Sacred Beings Worship and the Uncertain Economy: Religious Practices of the Contemporary Thai Neoliberal Subjects

Authors

  • Neeranooch Malangpoo Department of Anthropology, Silpakorn University

Keywords:

Buddhism, Neoliberalism,, Uncertainty

Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of sacred beings worshiping in contemporary Thailand, discussing the religious life of the Thai neoliberal subjects in which uncertainty is part of their everyday lives. It argues that the current socio-economic condition in Thailand has heightened and multiplied different forms of uncertainties in the people’s everyday life. Sacred beings have become one of the main actors that propel the economy of uncertainty, transforming risks into potential uncertainty, helping the clients accumulate wealth and creating economic opportunities. 

References

นิธิ เอียวศรีวงศ์. 2536. “ลัทธิพิธีเสด็จพ่อ ร. 5.” ศิลปวัฒนธรรม 10(14): 76-98.

Atime. 2021. “ดีเจมดดำเปิดใจ ชีวิตใหม่หลังไปถ้ำนาคา.” YouTube, November 3, 2021. https://youtu.be/PNV05cLXzEs. สืบค้นเมื่อ 8 กันยายน 2565.

Beck, Ulrich. 1992. “Modern Society as a Risk Society.” In The Culture and Power of Knowledge: Inquiries into Contemporary Societies, edited by Nico Stehr and Richard V. Ericson, 199-214. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Bonanno, Alessandro. 2022. “Global Inequality, Competition, Uncertainty, and the Legitimation Crisis of Neoliberalism.” In Twenty-First Century Inequality & Capitalism: Piketty, Marx and Beyond, edited by Lauren Langman & David A. Smith, 279-292. Leiden: Brill.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1998. The Essence of Neoliberalism: What is Neoliberalism?: A Programme for Destroying Collective Structures which May Impede the Pure Market Logic: Utopia of Endless Exploitation. Le Monde Diplomatique.

Brenner, Neil, Jamie Peck, and Nick Theodore. 2010. “Variegated Neoliberalization: Geographies, modalities, pathways.” Global Networks, 10(2), 182–222.

Comaroff, Jean and John L. Comaroff . 1999. “Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony.” American Ethnologist, 26(2), 279–303. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.1999.26.2.279.

Comaroff, Jean and John L. Comaroff. 2001. “Millennial Capitalism: First thoughts on a Second Coming.” In Millennial capitalism and the culture of neoliberalism edited by Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff, 1-56. Duke University Press.

Dein, Simon. 2016. “The Anthropology of Uncertainty: Magic, Witchcraft and Risk and Forensic Implications.” Journal of Anthropology Reports 1(1): 1–7.

Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1988. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Foucault, Michel, Arnold I. Davidson, and Graham Burchell. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-1979. Springer.

Freeman, Carla. 2014. Entrepreneurial Selves: Neoliberal Respectability and the Making of a Caribbean Middle Class. Duke University Press.

Gershon, Ilana. 2011. “Neoliberal Agency.” Current Anthropology 52(4): 537–555. https://doi.org/10.1086/660866.

Giddens, Anthony. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford University Press.

Harvey, David. 2007. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

Hassan, Roberts. 2009. Empires of Speed: Time and the Acceleration of Politics and Society. Brill.

Jackson, A. Peter. 1999. “Royal Spirits, Chinese Gods, and Magic Monks: Thailand's Boom-time Religions of Prosperity.” South East Asia Research, 7(3): 245-320.

Jackson, A. Peter. 2563. “Beyond Hybridity and Syncretism: Kala-Thesa Contextual Sensitivity and Power in Thai Religious and Gender Culture.” วารสารมานุษยวิทยา, 3(1): 1-37.

Kirsch, Thomas. 1977. “Complexity in the Thai Religious System: An Interpretation.” Journal of Asian Studies 36(2): 241–266. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911800161364.

Kitiarsa, Pattana. 2011. “Buddha Phanit: Thailand’s Prosperity Religion and Its Commodifying Tactics.” In Religious Commodifications in Asia: Marketing Gods, edited by Pattana Kitiarsa, 120 –144. New York: Routledge.

Kitiarsa, Pattana. 2012. Mediums, Monks, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism Today. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.

Klima, Alan. 2019. Ethnography# 9. Duke University Press.

Krajaejun, Pipad. (2018). Sceptres of instability: Why spirit mediums haunt Thailand’s junta. In New Mandala, June 15, 2018. Last modified September 19, 2018. http://www.newmandala.org/sceptres-instability-spirit- mediums-haunt-thailands-junta/.

Malangpoo, Neeranooch. (2020). Nationalism and Tourism: The Case of Thai Buddhist Pilgrimage in Myanmar. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Milky Praiya. 2021. “ขุ่นแม่สายมู บูชาอะไรบ้าง.” YouTube, April 21, 2021. https://youtu.be/-9kvZB3JN14.

Rosa, Hartmut. (2013). Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. Columbia University Press.

Samimian-Darash, Limor. (2022). Uncertainty by Design: Preparing for the Future with Scenarios. Cornell University Press.

Scharff, Christina. (2016). The Psychic Life of Neoliberalism: Mapping the Contours of Entrepreneurial Subjectivity. Theory, Culture and Society 33(6): 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415590164.

Additional Files

Published

2023-04-27

How to Cite

Malangpoo, Neeranooch. 2023. “Sacred Beings Worship and the Uncertain Economy: Religious Practices of the Contemporary Thai Neoliberal Subjects”. Social Sciences Academic Journal, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University 35 (1):162-87. https://so04.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jss/article/view/259713.