Abstract
This chapter pursues three goals: First, to describe and characterize the neakta spirit cult in Cambodia for an Anglophone readership. Within that description, It makes one contribution to the existing characterizations: that despite the description and widespread understanding of this cult as 'ancestral,' both by Khmer and others, the means of coming into relationship with these spirits takes place through an adoptive paradigm. Supplementary to that first point, the chapter characterizes the Cambodian Buddhist idea of moral development as significantly influenced by paradigms of adoption and affiliation into a hierarchical relationship, which is understood to have transformative capacities. Finally, this chapter identifies a diversity of Chinese Cambodian varieties of spirit possession cults, and in so doing modify the important typology of spirit possession in diasporic communities originated by Smith to include the possibility of a relocalized diasporic community.Keywords:Cambodia; Chinese spirit mediums; Khmer spirits; spirit possession rituals
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
