The politics of ritual and remembrance : Laos since 1975 / by Grant Evans.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 196-207) and index.

Communism Remembered -- Identity@Lao.net -- National Day -- The "Cult" of Kaysone -- That Luang: "Symbol of the Lao Nation" -- "Buddhism is Inseparable from the Lao Nation" -- Mediums and Ritual Memory -- Bodies and Language -- Recalling Royalty -- Statues and Museums -- Customizing Tradition -- Minorities in State Ritual -- Rote Memories: Schools of the Revolution -- Mandala Memories -- Lao Souvenirs.

Communist revolutions in this century have suppressed existing ritual and symbolic structures and invented new ones. Armed with new flags, new national celebrations, or new school textbooks, they have attempted to reconstruct social memory. This fascinating work of political anthropology examines the case of Laos from the heady days of the 1975 revolution to the more sober "post-socialist" present.

Grant Evans traces the attempt at ritual and symbolic change in Laos, and the recent reemergence of older and deeper cultural structures, while identifying what has perhaps been irretrievably lost. In this challenging study of the cultural consequences of failed total revolution, Evans reaches some striking conclusions concerning the nature of social memory, cultural possibilities foregone, and the need for cultural continuity.