Global change and moral uncertainty: why do Cambodian women seek refuge in Buddhism?

Abstract

Using Cambodia as a case study, this article takes an anthropological stance to explore how the penetration of global neoliberal values impacts upon understandings of moral order and thereby influences gender-based violence in war-torn societies. It argues that the International Monetary Fund's structural adjustment programmes and radical free-market reforms affect not only the politico-economic climate but also moral, social and cosmological order. This can generate fears about the decay of ‘culture’ and, since female propriety is often equated with national virtue, the female body may then be subjected to intense policing and violent disciplining. The article describes how some Cambodian women are responding to violations by seeking moral rehabilitation in the Buddhist temple. Although the patriarchal structure of the temple may seem to be anything but empowering for women, religious participation by violated women makes cultural sense. The material presented here therefore challenges us to consider whether Cambodia's brutal history and supposedly misogynistic culture is experienced as the greatest threat for vulnerable women today, or whether it is the absorption of war-torn societies by the global system, and the cultural disintegration this is felt to engender, that is the more pernicious factor.