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Despite their profound differences all of Cambodia's post-independence regimes have exhibited a unique obsession with protecting the country's borders from the depredations of neighbouring states. Some of this is fall-out from the colonial inheritance but this paper argues that older indigenous categories related to Theravada Buddhism have also played a significant role in the aetiology of modern Khmer territorialism. By showing how the traditional mandala arrangement of space was being eroded at around the same time as the old monastic conception of a ritual boundary was purified, rationalised and extended under the influence of Buddhism modernism the author seeks to provide a Southeast Asian illustration of Carl Schmitt's insight that certain important elements of the modern state are, in fact, secularised religious concepts., 'I am glad that I am a nomad.... I have always regarded the significance given by people to borders as ridiculous.' Roman Polanski Introduction Today the idea of territorial sovereignty [...]

The practice of divination that is a ritual used as a sourced of social and political power and its elaborate forms that are important to state control and have influence that is widespread is discussed. It is seen that more elaborate divination procedures were associated with bureaucratic institutions as state power based on the divination remains from the Neolithic, Zhou and Shang periods.

The article is a contribution to a cross-cultural theory of grief. It examines the relationship between individual/family continuing bonds with the dead and cultural narratives that legitimize political power. The dead are collective representations (Dirkheim) that mediate the larger culture to individuals and to smaller communities and that reinforce social solidarity and identity. The political question is which collective--family, community, church, party, nation--owns the dead and controls the rituals by which bonds with the dead are maintained or relinquished? The article discusses one historical condition: times of rapid change in power arrangements. Bonds with the dead have a power in individual, family, or tribal life that can threaten the narrative that legitimizes the new political power holders. Ancestor rituals that support identity as a family or tribal member are surpressed and replaced by allegiance to collective representations of the new political order. Two historical examples are given: China under Chairman Mao and the Wahhabi reform in Arabic Islam.

Dictators should be given a ritual funeral every year, since this type of ritual could serve both artistic and political purposes . Persons who become dictators want control over all aspects of life, but death is an experience beyond their control. Each dictator could choose architects to construct a mausoleum, arrange a fantasy funeral, and record a personal oration. Providing annual funerals for dictators would satisfy their desire to be adored while granting oppressed populations a ritual which could be regarded as art.

An analysis of conflicts over timing of a specific Indonesian ritual indicates the contradictions in the much publicized national notion of 'unity in diversity.' The slogan has been in use since Indonesian independence but it reflects only the efforts of the state to conserve cultural diversities in their original forms. The conflict between the village chief and an important adat official in the village of Bemun in Aru, Indonesia, over the timing of a ritual performance illustrates the clash between adat or custom and President Suharto's New Order.

Ritual has been acknowledged as an important form of social practice, especially as it is employed by subordinated peoples to demonstrate their opposition toward a dominant ideology. So far, however, the recognized effects of such ritual activities have been limited to simple consciousness-raising. The following analysis assigns a more instrumental role to the performance of ritual itself. It adopts a historical perspective in examining how an innocuous drum ritual, which originally marked the beginning of a local Shinto shrine festival, emerged as a medium of political resistance during Japan's modernization. More specifically, it interprets the ritual as an institutionalized opportunity for negotiating power relationships and redressing perceived social injustices. These assertions are supported by the symbolic structure of the ritual, continual efforts by the authorities to suppress its development, and several instances in which the ritual performance escalated into genuine acts of politically motivated violence.

Zhangjia is a small village about eight kilometers from Rongwu (Tongren) in Huangnan (Malhu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture(1) of Qinghai Province.(2) Situated between two mountains near the Gecha River, the community [...]

Shechita is a way of killing animals for food which is affected by regulations passed in the UK in 1990. The Humane Conditions Regulations restrict shechita and make it more expensive. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the Chief Rabbinate have been cited as examples of a successful way for Jewish people to be represented in the UK to government. The example of shechita shows that this is not always the case since disputes have arisen within the Jewish community.

By means of a detailed analysis of the relationship between the political body and a particular species of tree among the Aluund of Southwestern Zaire, this article demonstrates the specific ways in which traditional political structure and ideology are constituted by ritual and vice versa. Secondly, it offers a reflection upon the ways in which vernacular concepts are translated into anthropological motalanguage and presents a reconsideration of the currently used concepts of symbol and metaphor. [Central Africa, enthronement ritual, kingship, metaphor theory, personhood, tree symbolism]