In the Place of Origins: Modernity and Its Mediums in Northern Thailand

The tale of modernity in northern Thailand, discerning its oblique signs in the performances of contemporary spirit mediums. In a world driven by the twin fantasies of pastness and newness, Rosalind C. Morris reveals that spirit mediumship is not simply a theatre of atavistic tendency but an arena in which it is possible to read the relationships between new forms of representation and subjectivity, as well as new modes of magic and political power. Through her examination of the transformation of spirit mediumship wrought by the mass media, Morris takes readers into the world of northern Thai past to discover the anticipations of future histories. She then turns her eye toward the relationship between commodification and prosaic form and photography and the discourses of gendered and national identity. There are accounts of right-wing militarism and ritual revival in the 1970s, and of the democracy movement in 1992. Finally, considering the claims that mediums make to magical power in the face of both AIDS and the Asian economic crisis, Morris reveals the potency of extra-judicial forms of power and violence in the late modern era.