National University of Singapore Press
Being Present
Emerging Ethnographic Perspectives and the Study of Laos
9789813253032
Distributed for National University of Singapore Press
Being Present
Emerging Ethnographic Perspectives and the Study of Laos
As Laos navigates development and globalization, Being Present examines the shifting role of ethnography in capturing the country’s changing realities.
Ethnography has long called on researchers to immerse themselves in the worlds they study—but what does it mean to “be present” in the field today? Being Present investigates this question through innovative research on Laos, a country rapidly changing at the crossroads of Southeast Asia and China. This volume brings together a new generation of scholars to explore Chinese-built railways, shifting farmlands, urban mourning rituals, and changing aspirations in Laos.
Covering infrastructure, health, trade, and spirituality, these studies challenge assumptions about ethnography. They show how immersion and reflexivity remain essential in a connected world. Being Present offers a fresh look at contemporary Laos and a timely reflection on ethnographic practice.
Ethnography has long called on researchers to immerse themselves in the worlds they study—but what does it mean to “be present” in the field today? Being Present investigates this question through innovative research on Laos, a country rapidly changing at the crossroads of Southeast Asia and China. This volume brings together a new generation of scholars to explore Chinese-built railways, shifting farmlands, urban mourning rituals, and changing aspirations in Laos.
Covering infrastructure, health, trade, and spirituality, these studies challenge assumptions about ethnography. They show how immersion and reflexivity remain essential in a connected world. Being Present offers a fresh look at contemporary Laos and a timely reflection on ethnographic practice.
288 pages | 20 color plates, 1 map | 5.98 x 9.02 | © 2026
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Asian Studies: Southeast Asia and Australia
Table of Contents
FOREWORD by Liana Chua
INTRODUCTION by Paul-David Lutz and Rosalie Stolz
PART 1: ETHICS, IMMERSION AND AFFECT
CHAPTER 1 Fieldwork, literally – ‘indolence’, immersion and perceptions of poverty in upland Laos by Paul-David Lutz
CHAPTER 2 Ethical evaluation—and its absence—at a wake in Luang Prabang by Charles P. Zuckerman
CHAPTER 3 Embarrassment and social belonging: Pathways of participant feeling in northern Laos by Rosalie Stolz
PART 2 EXPERIENCING INFRASTRUCTURE
CHAPTER 4 The politics of dammed rivers and their futures: insights from the Nam Ou basin in northern Laos by Sumiya Bilegsaikhan Taij
CHAPTER 5 Refrigeration after relocation: What refrigerators can (not) do to improve lives in a resettled community in northwestern Laos by Floramante S. J. Ponce
CHAPTER 6 Cycling as method, train as transect: Exploring infrastructural friction and flow through mobile ethnography on the Laos-China Corridor by Jessica DiCarlo
CHAPTER 7 Closer together, but still apart: reflections on the Laos-China Railway and the (re)making of neighbour relations by Phill Wilcox
PART 3: SPIRITS, EFFICACY AND THE STATE
CHAPTER 8 Potency and phitsanu; medicinal efficacy in the southern lowlands by Elizabeth M. Elliott
CHAPTER 9 ‘Do just enough for riid’: the contemporary understanding of health and the reduction of rituals in Yrou communities by Thipphaphone Xayavong
CHAPTER 10 When new shamans enter the stage: ecstatic healing and the neutralisation of messianism among Akha in northwestern Laos by Giulio Ongaro
AFTERWORD by Sophie Chao
INTRODUCTION by Paul-David Lutz and Rosalie Stolz
PART 1: ETHICS, IMMERSION AND AFFECT
CHAPTER 1 Fieldwork, literally – ‘indolence’, immersion and perceptions of poverty in upland Laos by Paul-David Lutz
CHAPTER 2 Ethical evaluation—and its absence—at a wake in Luang Prabang by Charles P. Zuckerman
CHAPTER 3 Embarrassment and social belonging: Pathways of participant feeling in northern Laos by Rosalie Stolz
PART 2 EXPERIENCING INFRASTRUCTURE
CHAPTER 4 The politics of dammed rivers and their futures: insights from the Nam Ou basin in northern Laos by Sumiya Bilegsaikhan Taij
CHAPTER 5 Refrigeration after relocation: What refrigerators can (not) do to improve lives in a resettled community in northwestern Laos by Floramante S. J. Ponce
CHAPTER 6 Cycling as method, train as transect: Exploring infrastructural friction and flow through mobile ethnography on the Laos-China Corridor by Jessica DiCarlo
CHAPTER 7 Closer together, but still apart: reflections on the Laos-China Railway and the (re)making of neighbour relations by Phill Wilcox
PART 3: SPIRITS, EFFICACY AND THE STATE
CHAPTER 8 Potency and phitsanu; medicinal efficacy in the southern lowlands by Elizabeth M. Elliott
CHAPTER 9 ‘Do just enough for riid’: the contemporary understanding of health and the reduction of rituals in Yrou communities by Thipphaphone Xayavong
CHAPTER 10 When new shamans enter the stage: ecstatic healing and the neutralisation of messianism among Akha in northwestern Laos by Giulio Ongaro
AFTERWORD by Sophie Chao