Living on the Margins:

Transcription

1 Living on the Margins: Minorities and Borderlines in Cambodia and Southeast Asia Siem Reap, Cambodia March 14-15, 2008

2 Conference Coordinator: Chean Rithy Men General Editors: Peter J. Hammer Graphic Design: KHENG Pytou Kethya Photo: Fence at a border crossing between Burma and Thailand (Peter J. Hammer, 2007) The articles that appear in this publication are edited versions of selected papers delivered during the International Conference Mainland Southeast Asia at its Margins: Minority Groups and Borders, March 14-15, 2008, at the Center for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia. The Conference was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation as part of the Capacity Building in Cambodian Higher Education Program. The contents of this book and additional papers presented at the conference are available in PDF form from the Center for Khmer Studies website, ISBN: Copyright 2009 The Center for Khmer Studies

3 Table of Contents Preface 5 Introduction: Living on the Margins: Minorities and Borderlines 7 in Cambodia and Southeast Asia Peter J. Hammer Part One: Borderlines and Border Crossings Spaces of Resistance: The Ethnic Brao People and the International 19 Border Between Laos and Cambodia Ian G. Baird Religious Conversion on the Ethnic Margins of Southeast Asia 45 Robert L. Winzeler Women, Pregnancy and Health: Traditional Midwives among the 65 Bunong in Mondulkiri, Cambodia Brigitte Nikles Part Two: Development and Indigenous Communities: Targeting the Marginalized Development - In Whose Name? Cambodia s Economic Development and its 91 Indigenous Communities From Self-Reliance to Uncertainty Jeremy Ironside Changes in Gender Roles and Women s Status among Indigenous 129 Communities in Cambodia s Northeast Margherita Maffii Development as Tragedy: The Asian Development Bank and Indigenous 141 Peoples in Cambodia Peter J. Hammer When the Margins Turn One s Step Toward an Object of Desire: 177 Segregation and Inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in Northeast Cambodia Frédéric Bourdier

4 Part Three: Constructing Self and Others: Understandings Beyond Borders Minorities, the State, and the International Community in Cambodia: 189 Towards Liberal Multiculturalism? Stefan Ehrentraut The Making of an Invisible Minority: Muslims in Colonial Burma 221 Stephen L. Keck The Cham Muslims of Cambodia: Defining Islam Today and the 235 Validity of the Discourse of Syncretism Allen Stoddard Disability, Democracy, and the Politics of Civic Engagement in Cambodia 249 Darren C. Zook The Important Forgotten Men Living in Rural Indonesia Who Have Sex With Men: 265 The Implications for HIV Education Ed Green Conference Agenda 297 Conference Participants 303 Conference Attendees 305

5 Preface Cambodia is undergoing dramatic political, economic and social changes, placing new pressures on minority groups and vulnerable peoples. Some changes are driven by Cambodia s uniquely troubled history. Other forces are global, affecting Cambodia and all other nations in the region. The conference invites innovative interpretations of margins, borders and minority groups. The problems of ethnic groups are one central concern. Transnational and crossborder influences are creating new challenges and opportunities for ethnic minorities. The Cham and other Muslim communities are reconnecting to international Islam. Labor markets cross national boundaries. Vietnamese migrant workers travel to Cambodia, as Cambodian workers travel to Thailand. International loans, agencies and programs targeting development, itself an often disruptive cross-border force, are transforming many Cambodian institutions and redefining traditional social margins in the process. This clash of forces is most profoundly felt by the indigenous peoples of the northeast. The conference invites examination of other minorities and vulnerable groups on the margins who have been systematically denied access to important social resources. Theories of social exclusion teach that the landlessness, street children, victims of domestic violence and gay and lesbian persons are on the margins of different Cambodian institutions and that borders and boundaries need not be of a strictly geographic nature. Developing from the fifth semester session of the Center for Khmer Studies Rockefeller Foundation-funded Building Capacity in Higher Education program covering vulnerable peoples and ethnic minorities in Mainland Southeast Asia, this two-day conference provides a forum in which early career Cambodian academics present their research alongside international scholars with related interests. With an emphasis on developing comparisons between Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia, individual presentations and panel discussions provide opportunities for the presentation of research, trends and analyses covering minority groups in Southeast Asia. Chean Rithy Men, Program Director Peter J. Hammer, Visiting Scholar