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Podcast: New Books in Buddhist Studies
Episode: Justine Chambers, "Pursuing Morality: Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar" (NUS Press, 2024)
Description: What is the right way to live? This is an old question in Western moral philosophy, but in recent years anthropologists have turned their attention to this question in what has been called, a âmoral turnâ. In this original ethnographic study, Pursuing Morality: Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar (NUS Press, 2024), Justine Chambers examines the Plong (Pwo) Karen peopleâs conception of themselves as a moral people. In the decade between Myanmarâs opening up in 2011 and the military coup in 2021, the Plong Karen community near the Myanmar-Thailand border has experienced rapid political, economic, and social change. These changes ar...