Protestant Christianity and the Transformation of Northern Thai Culture

Protestant Christianity and the Transformation of Northern Thai Culture PDF Author: Graham S. Fordham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Funeral rites and ceremonies
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Protestant Christianity and the Transformation of Northern Thai Culture

Protestant Christianity and the Transformation of Northern Thai Culture PDF Author: Graham S. Fordham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Funeral rites and ceremonies
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Book Description


A New Look At Thai Aids

A New Look At Thai Aids PDF Author: Graham Fordham
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782387145
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Following the detection of the first HIV infections in the early 1980s, by the 1990s Thailand was routinely depicted as having the world’s fastest moving HIV/AIDS epidemic. However, by the early 2000’s the bulk of scholarly and medical AIDS literature portrayed the epidemic as being largely under control, and claimed that Thai AIDS prevention efforts during the 1990s had been successful. Based on long-term ethnographic research conducted in Northern Thailand this book makes an in-depth study of the social construction of Thailand’s HIV/AIDS epidemic over this period. In addition to his own field research the author draws on an extensive corpus of English and Thai language social science and medical HIV/AIDS literature to examine the modeling of Thailand’s AIDS epidemic, and addresses concepts and issues such as risk groups, risk behaviour, alcohol use, gender and class, masculinity, the scapegoating of female prostitutes and men in the underclass, the reporting of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand’s indigenous Thai language media, and sexual activity amongst Thai youth. The analysis demonstrates the contribution of anthropology as an interpretative social science, and the use of anthropological theory and research methods, to finding alternative ways of framing the problems of Thai AIDS and of posing new questions that will lead to more effective points of intervention. It emphasises the necessity for critically reflexive approaches that question the ‘taken for granted’ and demonstrates how qualitative research techniques guided by social theory have the potential to take account of local meanings in complex social contexts where traditional values and cultural practices are rapidly transforming due to economic and social change. The book offers a sustained and powerful criticism of the limitations of the normative model of the Thai AIDS epidemic and, in its aim of promoting critically reflexive AIDS research techniques in order to produce a better understanding of issues ‘on the ground’ and hence better health policy and more effective AIDS interventions, speaks not only to the Thai AIDS epidemic but to AIDS epidemics throughout Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This is the only English language study of Thailand’s HIV/AIDS epidemic to draw on long-term qualitative research in Northern Thailand as well as on a broad range of Thai (and some Khmer language) materials. Its contextualised and subtly nuanced analysis of the AIDS epidemic and of the impact of AIDS control initiatives, in concert with the theoretical and methodological contributions it makes to AIDS research and policy and behavioural interventions, makes it a timely publication of vital interest to scholars in the social sciences, as well as to the members of non-governmental organisations and international organisations working in the HIV/AIDS, health and development fields.

Confronting Christianity

Confronting Christianity PDF Author: Sven Trakulhun
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824897986
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Confronting Christianity explores the history of religious encounters between Christian missionaries and Thai Buddhists during the nineteenth century, a period of Western imperialism in Southeast Asia that fundamentally transformed Siamese society and religious institutions. From about 1830 onwards, discussions on religion became a central arena of conflict between rival regimes of knowledge in Thailand, confronting traditional Buddhist views on nature and man’s existence with the ideals and practices of science and rationalism coming from the West. Protestant missionaries, mostly from the United States, became important brokers of knowledge, as one of their strengths was the ability to offer religion in tandem with modern science and technology. Historian Sven Trakulhun explains why the intrusion of evangelical Christianity strengthened the position of Theravāda Buddhism rather than undermining people’s belief in traditional forms of worship. Based on a wide range of Thai and Western primary sources, the volume describes how Christian missionaries unwittingly contributed to the making of what scholars of Buddhism have later rendered as “Buddhist modernism.” In response to Christian assaults on the traditional cosmology, Buddhist reformers fashioned an orthodox version of Buddhism that acknowledged the findings of modern science and at the same time deemed even more rational than Christianity. This new orthodoxy became a major source of moral authority for Thai kings and an important ideology for pushing their claims for religious leadership in the Theravāda Buddhist world. Trakulhun offers a thorough study of the encounter between Christianity and Buddhism and places the history of Siamese Theravāda Buddhism within the broad context of global intellectual history.

HIV/AIDS and the Social Consequences of Untamed Biomedicine

HIV/AIDS and the Social Consequences of Untamed Biomedicine PDF Author: Graham Fordham
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317632745
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Drawing on the case of HIV/AIDS in Thailand, this book examines how anthropological and other interpretative social science research has been utilized in modeling the AIDS epidemic, and in the design and implementation of interventions. It argues that much social science research has been complicit with the forces that generated the epidemic and with the social control agendas of the state, and that as such it has increased the weight of structural violence bearing upon the afflicted. The book also questions claims of Thai AIDS control success, arguing that these can only be made at the cost of excluding categories such as intravenous drug users, the incarcerated, and homosexuals, who continue to experience extraordinarily high levels of levels of HIV infection. Considered deviant and undeserving, these persons have deliberately been excluded from harm reduction programs. Overall, this work argues for the untapped potential of anthropological research in the health field, a confident anthropology rooted in ethnography and a critical reflexivity. Crucially, it argues that in context of interdisciplinary collaborations, anthropological research must refuse relegation to the status of an adjunct discipline, and must be free epistemologically and methodologically from the universalizing assumptions and practices of biomedicine.

Thai Protestant Christianity

Thai Protestant Christianity PDF Author: Patrica Rose McLean
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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A History of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide 1876-2012

A History of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Adelaide 1876-2012 PDF Author: Nick Harvey
Publisher: University of Adelaide Press
ISBN: 192206436X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The Bachelor of Arts (BA) was the first recognised degree at the University of Adelaide. Although informal classes for some subjects were held at the University between 1873 and 1875, the first official University lecture was a Latin lecture at 10 am on Monday 28 March 1876. This was followed by lectures in Greek, English and Mental Philosophy. By 1878, the first BA student, Thomas Ainslie Caterer, completed his studies for the BA degree and in 1879 became the first graduate of the University of Adelaide. Even though the BA was the first degree it was not until eight years later in 1887 that the Faculty of Arts was inaugurated (after the Faculty of Law in 1884, a Board of Studies in Music in 1885 and the Faculty of Medicine in 1885). Following the creation of a separate science degree in 1882 many scientific subjects were removed from the BA. For the next five years the subjects were Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Logic, English, History, and Comparative Philology. Later other subjects such as French, German and Political Economy were added toward the end of the nineteenth century. In 1897 the Elder Conservatorium of Music was created as the first music school of its type in Australia, although at that time it was not part of the Faculty of Arts. In the first 50 years of the Universitys existence, less than ten BA students graduated each year. At the start of the 21st century this figure had climbed to over 300 BA graduates per year but what is interesting is that by 2010 the number of BA graduates was equalled by the number of graduates from separate named degrees within the Faculty plus 70 Music graduates. In addition, during the first decade of the twenty-first century, there were over 60 coursework postgraduates plus more than 40 research postgraduates graduating each year.

Thai Buddhism and American Protestantism in Their Social, Cultural, and Historical Setting

Thai Buddhism and American Protestantism in Their Social, Cultural, and Historical Setting PDF Author: Bruce Morgan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buddha (The concept)
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Thai Protestant Christianity

Thai Protestant Christianity PDF Author: Patricia Rose McLean
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 820

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About Face

About Face PDF Author: Christopher L. Flanders
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 149827532X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
"For Thais, face is a fact," writes Flanders. However, "whether in theology, evangelism, or issues involving sin, salvation, or atonement, Thai Christians and missionaries alike seem either uninterested in or possibly incapable of addressing issues related to face. This glaring incongruity between the value of face for Thais and the lack of intentional engagement within the Thai Christian community is deeply troubling. "Surely, such a lack of careful attention to face is a dangerous posture. Uncritical views of face, furtively attaching to the theology of the Thai church, are potentially detrimental for its life and mission. Such seems to be an unavoidable situation without proper attention to face. Additionally, to ignore face is to run the risk of missing valuable cultural resources, implicit in the Thai experience of face, for the critical task of authentic Thai theological reflection. "This lack of engagement with face raises critical issues with which we must wrestle. How is it that such a central sociocultural issue has not been a more significant part of the Thai Christian vocabulary or experience? How pervasive are these negative attitudes regarding face? What lies behind them? Might this lack of self-conscious engagement with face have any relationship to the persistent Thai perception of Christianity as a foreign, Western religion? How should Christians understand this notion of face and how it relates to the ways we understand and proclaim the gospel?"

Development Or Domestication?

Development Or Domestication? PDF Author: Don N. McCaskill
Publisher: University of Washington Press
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
This fascinating collection offers a range of grassroots perspectives on development among indigenous peoples of Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia. Twenty-four essays -- including a number written by indigenous people themselves -- present both theoretical analyses and case studies spanning such topics as tourism, forest conservation, agriculture, prostitution, AIDS, and drugs. These are linked to the pivotal and much broader issues of environment, culture, religion, and government policy.