R Stolz
Biographic Data
| ID | 35212 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Stolz |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Stolz |
| SIGNATURE | STOLZ R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Freie Universität Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4509-076X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Heritage and the Making of Political Legitimacy in Laos: The Past and Present of the Lao Nation, by Phill Wilcox
Anthropologists rarely walk alone
Article
Vie et mort des maisons khmu dans le Nord-Laos
À partir d'une étude de cas dans le Nord-Laos, cet article examine les « longues vies » des maisons en se focalisant sur la question de la temporalité. En prenant comme point de départ les études sur les maisons en Asie du Sud-Est, qui explorent le lien entre la biographie des personnes et leurs maisons, nous insistons sur l'importance de la mobilité pour la compréhension des rythmes et dimensions de l'habitation. Il s'agit par ailleurs d'être pl…
The end of bamboo houses in northern Laos
While we know much about the beginnings of houses, we rarely know about their endings. Yet, to understand the temporality of houses and the entanglement of the biographies of houses and their residents, the analysis of their endings is particularly relevant. The case of Khmu houses is especially suggestive here, for it shows that the end of a house is not an exceptional phenomenon, nor a symptom of crisis, but an inevitable and intended part of i…
Fatherless Children and Listening Spirits: Measuring Kinship in Ritual in Northern Laos
Kinship among Khmu villagers of northern Laos is usually presented in anthropology as patrilineal. However, the ritual of a ‘small marriage’ can confirm a child’s belonging to the mothers’ house. The affirmation of the child’s maternal belonging is simultaneously about separation and exclusion from paternal ties and requires for its success careful measurements of kinship. During the ritual, quantities of food, gifts, and money become indicators …
‘Before others’: Construction pioneers in the uplands of northwestern Laos
Given that houses have become a key signifier of an orientation towards the future, several villagers in Pliya can be regarded or regard themselves as pioneers of the construction of a new type of house. I will suggest here that the construction of new concrete houses is not to be understood merely as an adoption of lowland styles but as a self-conscious and selective use of a style of building. Those who are pioneering these houses also discuss …
The Disease will Come!’ Contingency, Irony, and Challenging Closures in Ethnographic Writing
Drawing on a brief ethnographic encounter in north-western Laos, this paper argues that fleeting encounters in the field can bring unforeseen topics and phenomena to the fieldworker’s attention – in this case rumours circulating about an antidote to the impending coronavirus disease. The paper explores the resonances of this rumour with experiences from previous fieldwork and discusses a variety of local reactions, including mockery and self-depr…
Being a Parent in the Field: Implications and Challenges of Accompanied Fieldwork
How does being a parent in the field influence a researcher's positionality and the production of ethnographic knowledge? Based on regionally and thematically diverse cases, this collection explores methodological, theoretical, and ethical dimensions of accompanied fieldwork. The authors show how multiple familial relations and the presence of their children, partners, or other family members impact the immersion into the field and the constructi…
Listening through houses: Changing communities of sounds in Northern Laos
In the uplands of northern Laos, in which bamboo and timber houses prevailed, concrete houses are now on the rise. It will be argued that houses can be used as prisms to illuminate processes of social change. Drawing on experiences of staying in both a timber house and a new concrete one over the course of long-term ethnographic fieldwork among the Khmu, a key experiential difference will be analysed: their different soundscapes. While one can ea…
Upland pioneers: An Introduction
Drawing on various ethnographic case studies from upland Southeast Asia, this special issue explores uplanders' pioneering agency and challenges the stereotype of the remote and marginal uplander. We consider upland areas as dynamic sites of future-making and change - initiated by pioneering individuals or local elites who seek out and explore different potential sources of (economic and spiritual) potency. By using the figure of the pioneer as h…
Making Aspirations Concrete? ʻGood Houses' and Mockery in Upland Laos
In the hills of northern Laos, dotted with more or less circular arrangements of wooden and bamboo houses, concrete houses have recently been appearing. The physical but also imaginary emergence of concrete houses has triggered local re-examinations of what good houses entail. With this change in vernacular architecture being hitherto unprecedented, house building projects have become a salient topic of talk among the Khmu, upland dwellers of nor…
On Being a Parent in the Field: Practical, Epistemological, Methodological and Ethical Implications of Accompanied Fieldwork
Falling in and out of Sync in Upland Laos: Relative Immersive Processes and Immersive Processes with Relatives in a Khmu Village
Authors
Emerging public space in rural Laos
While urban settings stand at the forefront in discussions about public spaces in socialist East- and Southeast Asia, rural public spaces in the region have been hitherto largely unexplored. Drawing on two different upland cases from the northern part of Laos, this contribution identifies local vernacular public spaces on the one hand, and emerging state-connected public spaces on the other. The latter will be argued to comprise: (1) state-contro…
By means of squirrels and eggs: Kinship and mutual recognition among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos
This article explores the relevance of an ostensibly unpretentious gift exchange of squirrels and eggs in order to illuminate how asymmetric kin ties among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos are realized. Employing the concept of mutual recognition, it will be shown that this particular gift exchange amounts to an act of mutual recognition between asymmetric kin that makes the recognized relationship efficacious vis-à-vis observing others and spirits…
Spirits Follow the Words”
A general conundrum for the Khmu of northern Laos is the persistent unknowability of spirits. The locals gauge the potency of spirits by keeping track of spirit stories. Spirit narratives can be conceived of as transient traces of intangible spirit phenomena, as will be exemplified by the story of a young man’s spirit affliction. Sharing and silencing spirit stories are a means of determining the strength of spirits, as well as an efficacious way…
Making Aspirations Concrete? ʻGood Houses' and Mockery in Upland Laos
In the hills of northern Laos, dotted with more or less circular arrangements of wooden and bamboo houses, concrete houses have recently been appearing. The physical but also imaginary emergence of concrete houses has triggered local re-examinations of what good houses entail. With this change in vernacular architecture being hitherto unprecedented, house building projects have become a salient topic of talk among the Khmu, upland dwellers of nor…
Vie et mort des maisons khmu dans le Nord-Laos
À partir d'une étude de cas dans le Nord-Laos, cet article examine les « longues vies » des maisons en se focalisant sur la question de la temporalité. En prenant comme point de départ les études sur les maisons en Asie du Sud-Est, qui explorent le lien entre la biographie des personnes et leurs maisons, nous insistons sur l'importance de la mobilité pour la compréhension des rythmes et dimensions de l'habitation. Il s'agit par ailleurs d'être pl…
The end of bamboo houses in northern Laos
While we know much about the beginnings of houses, we rarely know about their endings. Yet, to understand the temporality of houses and the entanglement of the biographies of houses and their residents, the analysis of their endings is particularly relevant. The case of Khmu houses is especially suggestive here, for it shows that the end of a house is not an exceptional phenomenon, nor a symptom of crisis, but an inevitable and intended part of i…
Upland pioneers: An Introduction
Drawing on various ethnographic case studies from upland Southeast Asia, this special issue explores uplanders' pioneering agency and challenges the stereotype of the remote and marginal uplander. We consider upland areas as dynamic sites of future-making and change - initiated by pioneering individuals or local elites who seek out and explore different potential sources of (economic and spiritual) potency. By using the figure of the pioneer as h…
Listening through houses: Changing communities of sounds in Northern Laos
In the uplands of northern Laos, in which bamboo and timber houses prevailed, concrete houses are now on the rise. It will be argued that houses can be used as prisms to illuminate processes of social change. Drawing on experiences of staying in both a timber house and a new concrete one over the course of long-term ethnographic fieldwork among the Khmu, a key experiential difference will be analysed: their different soundscapes. While one can ea…
Emerging public space in rural Laos
While urban settings stand at the forefront in discussions about public spaces in socialist East- and Southeast Asia, rural public spaces in the region have been hitherto largely unexplored. Drawing on two different upland cases from the northern part of Laos, this contribution identifies local vernacular public spaces on the one hand, and emerging state-connected public spaces on the other. The latter will be argued to comprise: (1) state-contro…
Spirits Follow the Words”
A general conundrum for the Khmu of northern Laos is the persistent unknowability of spirits. The locals gauge the potency of spirits by keeping track of spirit stories. Spirit narratives can be conceived of as transient traces of intangible spirit phenomena, as will be exemplified by the story of a young man’s spirit affliction. Sharing and silencing spirit stories are a means of determining the strength of spirits, as well as an efficacious way…
On Being a Parent in the Field: Practical, Epistemological, Methodological and Ethical Implications of Accompanied Fieldwork
Falling in and out of Sync in Upland Laos: Relative Immersive Processes and Immersive Processes with Relatives in a Khmu Village
Authors
Emerging public space in rural Laos
While urban settings stand at the forefront in discussions about public spaces in socialist East- and Southeast Asia, rural public spaces in the region have been hitherto largely unexplored. Drawing on two different upland cases from the northern part of Laos, this contribution identifies local vernacular public spaces on the one hand, and emerging state-connected public spaces on the other. The latter will be argued to comprise: (1) state-contro…
By means of squirrels and eggs: Kinship and mutual recognition among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos
This article explores the relevance of an ostensibly unpretentious gift exchange of squirrels and eggs in order to illuminate how asymmetric kin ties among the Khmu Yuan of Northern Laos are realized. Employing the concept of mutual recognition, it will be shown that this particular gift exchange amounts to an act of mutual recognition between asymmetric kin that makes the recognized relationship efficacious vis-à-vis observing others and spirits…
Fatherless Children and Listening Spirits: Measuring Kinship in Ritual in Northern Laos
Kinship among Khmu villagers of northern Laos is usually presented in anthropology as patrilineal. However, the ritual of a ‘small marriage’ can confirm a child’s belonging to the mothers’ house. The affirmation of the child’s maternal belonging is simultaneously about separation and exclusion from paternal ties and requires for its success careful measurements of kinship. During the ritual, quantities of food, gifts, and money become indicators …
‘Before others’: Construction pioneers in the uplands of northwestern Laos
Given that houses have become a key signifier of an orientation towards the future, several villagers in Pliya can be regarded or regard themselves as pioneers of the construction of a new type of house. I will suggest here that the construction of new concrete houses is not to be understood merely as an adoption of lowland styles but as a self-conscious and selective use of a style of building. Those who are pioneering these houses also discuss …
The Disease will Come!’ Contingency, Irony, and Challenging Closures in Ethnographic Writing
Drawing on a brief ethnographic encounter in north-western Laos, this paper argues that fleeting encounters in the field can bring unforeseen topics and phenomena to the fieldworker’s attention – in this case rumours circulating about an antidote to the impending coronavirus disease. The paper explores the resonances of this rumour with experiences from previous fieldwork and discusses a variety of local reactions, including mockery and self-depr…
Being a Parent in the Field: Implications and Challenges of Accompanied Fieldwork
How does being a parent in the field influence a researcher's positionality and the production of ethnographic knowledge? Based on regionally and thematically diverse cases, this collection explores methodological, theoretical, and ethical dimensions of accompanied fieldwork. The authors show how multiple familial relations and the presence of their children, partners, or other family members impact the immersion into the field and the constructi…
Listening through houses: Changing communities of sounds in Northern Laos
In the uplands of northern Laos, in which bamboo and timber houses prevailed, concrete houses are now on the rise. It will be argued that houses can be used as prisms to illuminate processes of social change. Drawing on experiences of staying in both a timber house and a new concrete one over the course of long-term ethnographic fieldwork among the Khmu, a key experiential difference will be analysed: their different soundscapes. While one can ea…
Upland pioneers: An Introduction
Drawing on various ethnographic case studies from upland Southeast Asia, this special issue explores uplanders' pioneering agency and challenges the stereotype of the remote and marginal uplander. We consider upland areas as dynamic sites of future-making and change - initiated by pioneering individuals or local elites who seek out and explore different potential sources of (economic and spiritual) potency. By using the figure of the pioneer as h…
Making Aspirations Concrete? ʻGood Houses' and Mockery in Upland Laos
In the hills of northern Laos, dotted with more or less circular arrangements of wooden and bamboo houses, concrete houses have recently been appearing. The physical but also imaginary emergence of concrete houses has triggered local re-examinations of what good houses entail. With this change in vernacular architecture being hitherto unprecedented, house building projects have become a salient topic of talk among the Khmu, upland dwellers of nor…
Vie et mort des maisons khmu dans le Nord-Laos
À partir d'une étude de cas dans le Nord-Laos, cet article examine les « longues vies » des maisons en se focalisant sur la question de la temporalité. En prenant comme point de départ les études sur les maisons en Asie du Sud-Est, qui explorent le lien entre la biographie des personnes et leurs maisons, nous insistons sur l'importance de la mobilité pour la compréhension des rythmes et dimensions de l'habitation. Il s'agit par ailleurs d'être pl…
The end of bamboo houses in northern Laos
While we know much about the beginnings of houses, we rarely know about their endings. Yet, to understand the temporality of houses and the entanglement of the biographies of houses and their residents, the analysis of their endings is particularly relevant. The case of Khmu houses is especially suggestive here, for it shows that the end of a house is not an exceptional phenomenon, nor a symptom of crisis, but an inevitable and intended part of i…
Heritage and the Making of Political Legitimacy in Laos: The Past and Present of the Lao Nation, by Phill Wilcox
Anthropologists rarely walk alone
Article
Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (11 works) · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (10 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History (6 works) · Art (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works) · Cambodian History and Society (4 works) · Law (4 works)