Tides of Empire: Religion, Development and Environment in Cambodia by Courtney Work (review)

This book about chthonic powers and translocal political, economic and religious connections in a mixed Khmer and Cham village in western Cambodia offers a wealth of insights and opportunities for reflection. It joins a growing literature about the marginal and rural areas of mainland Southeast Asia that is striving to overcome the dichotomy between ‘traditional’ community rules and cosmologies on the one hand and government regulations, globalizing economies and transcultural religions on the other. Scholars interested in the relations enacted by ‘ritual’ used to convey a different image of these communities than those focusing on ‘power’ or ‘economy’. Work—and others of her generation—however, tend to see cosmology, religion and ritual as political and historical, and communities as open to the outside. This synthesis of different analytical priorities is timely, necessary and eye-opening. It requires, though, as-yet-untested analytical terminologies. At least for anthropologists, these should be suggested by the intersection of local conceptual worlds and the requirements