Spirits and thieves, religious deviants and sexual/liberal others: Shifting idioms of danger, disruption, and crime talk in Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Anthropologists’ analyses of the idioms and discourses of disruption, danger, and vulnerability encountered in their fieldwork tend to be synchronic, rarely drawing on longitudinal research to engage the historical and cultural-political dynamics contributing to transformations in these domains. This article addresses the latter dynamics based on multi-sited, historically oriented ethnographic fieldwork in Malaysia spanning the period 1978–2018. One set of empirical and theoretical objectives involves examining how and why fears and anxieties having to do with local spirits and human thieves become entwined with – if not superseded by – disquiet concerning the risks and dangers associated with pluralism, liberalism, and sexualized Others. Another involves illustrating some of the ways crime talk in the new millennium incorporates both ‘traditional’ and late modern themes and for these and other reasons is usefully regarded as a global assemblage.