Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

Die Thailand Study Group des Seminars für Südostasienstudien am Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften der Humboldt-Universität lädt ein zu zwei Vorträgen von:

 

Peter A. Jackson, Professor für pazifische und asiatische Geschichte an der Australian National University.
Peter A. Jackson gehört zu den renommiertesten Persönlichkeiten auf dem Gebiet
der Thai- und Südostasienstudien und ist vor allem bekannt durch seine
wegweisenden Arbeiten zu thailändischer Religion und durch seine Beiträge zum
Feld der Queer Studies. Zu beiden Schwerpunkten wird er auch in Berlin
sprechen:

Mittwoch, 28. November 2012, 18:00 - 20:00, Raum 117

"Putting Transgenderism and Intimate Friendship Into Transnational Queer
History: Perspectives from Southeast Asia"

Abstract:

Many accounts of the history of sexuality mark transgenderism as “premodern”
while interpreting gay and lesbian identities as breaking out of “traditional”
gender-defined modes of same-sex identity.  In these accounts, contemporary
Southeast Asian transgender/transsexual identities – e.g., Thai kathoey,
Indonesian waria, Filipino bakla – are seen as continuing premodern forms of
ritualised transgenderism described for a number of regional societies.
Recent research from Southeast Asia (e.g. Boellstorff, Jackson) challenges
this model, pointing to major breaks between premodern transgender roles and
all contemporary same-sex and transgender/transsexual identities in the
region.  In this paper Jackson considers the implications of this Southeast
Asian research for transnational queer theory.  He argues that the central
question for the transnational history of sexuality is not only how “modern”
gay and lesbian homosexualities emerged out of “premodern” categories such as
the sodomite, the virago, and the hermaphrodite, but rather the much more
complex question of how the contemporary array of equally modern transgender,
transsexual, gay, lesbian, and other queer identities all emerged across the
same period.


Freitag, 30. November 2012, 16:00 - 18:00, Raum 117

"Thailand's Magical Stamps of Approval: Icons of Chinese Ascendancy"

Since Thailand’s economic boom decade of 1987-1997, a wide range of new
supernatural movements have become highly visible additions to the country’s
spiritual landscape and religious marketplace.  Seeking supernatural
intervention to achieve success, wealth and prosperity in Thailand’s new urban
economy, these movements are often only tangentially related to orthodox
Theravada Buddhist teachings and practice.  They have continued to grow in
popularity despite the economic setback of the 1997 Asian economic crisis and
the political conflicts that have destabilized Thai society over the past
decade.  In this paper Jackson discusses the legitimation of non-Buddhist,
success-oriented and highly commodified forms of supernaturalist practice in
early 21st century Thailand. He argues that the large number of colourful
special issues of Thai postage stamps devoted to supernatural cults of
prosperity and success since the turn of the new century indicates the
mainstreaming of non-Buddhist magic within Thailand’s political, economic and
cultural elites.