Buddhist 'nuns' (mae chi) and the teaching of Pali in contemporary Thailand

Bibliographic Data

ID3631480
AuthorsSteven Collins (0000-0002-5245-6611, University of Chicago), Justin Mcdaniel (University of Pennsylvania)
Year2010
Volume44
Issue6
Pages1373-1408
Publication date2010-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x09000079
OpenAlexW2059962026
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited53

This paper presents an ethnographic account of Buddhist 'nuns' involved in the teaching of Pali language andAbhidhammain contemporary Thailand. It also reflects on both the emic-Buddhist (Pali and modern vernacular) and etic-interpretative (English-language) vocabularies which have been used to describe these women and their social role(s) and status(es). The aims of the paper are to go beyond the Weberian vocabulary usually used to describe what we will call 'professionally celibate Buddhist women', to escape from the ubiquitous emphasis on the issue of re-establising the Nuns' Order (bhikkhunī-s) in the modern world in scholarship dealing with such women, and to encourage further ethnography and further civilizational interpretation of gender and asceticism

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Asceticism · Buddhism · Buddhist studies · Emic and etic · Epistemology · Ethnography · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Order (exchange · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Vernacular · Vocabulary · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · History · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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