Political assassination by other means: Public protest, sorcery and morality in Thailand

Abstract

Since 1989 'rites of cursing', derived from Northern Thai folk-religious practices, have become common in public protests and demonstrations in Thailand. This essay argues that the employment of these practices and associated beliefs as aspects of civil society and contemporary nation-state making in the Thai context can only be understood in terms of the internal logic of sorcery and embedded conceptions of morality. © 2005 The National University of Singapore.