Province of Thieves: On Violence, Reflexivity and The Cross‐Cultural Encounter

Abstract

SummaryTo understand another human being, sometimes vividly imagining another person’s lifeworld is better than analysis. I seek a kind of writing that allows both modes of understanding. This mostly nonfiction essay is based on events of nearly two decades ago, when I lived in Cambodia as a young white female development worker, before I formally studied anthropology. I describe several months of work and travel in a rural village by myself and my Khmer colleagues, and explore the various ways in which I and others experienced and understood several violent incidents. I attempt to reflexively reflect upon my own cultural positioning versus that of my Buddhist colleagues. This piece moves from narrative non‐fiction to several sequences trying to envision the past of someone living in an entirely different cultural milieu than my own. These pieces are wholly imagined, so this piece of writing is a hybrid between creative non‐fiction and fiction.