{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.028275862068965516, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007586206896551724, 'mean_word_length': 4.896341463414634, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Laos. Fields of desire: Poverty and policy in Laos By Holly High Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 221. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Laos Fields of desire: Poverty and policy in Laos By HOLLY HIGH Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. Pp. 221. Maps, Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. This monograph by Holly High, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, studies peasants' relations with the state in Laos. Although based on her doctoral thesis in anthropology, one should not dismiss Fields of desire as just another thesis. For one, it is very readable. It does not deliver new empirical material or a groundbreaking theory on Lao society, but offers an interesting new and original approach in Lao Studies. The guiding research question is directly related to James Scott's work and asks why Lao peasants have not been rebelling against the state (p. 3). The answer is developed on the basis of an approach inspired by Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Lacan, interpreting the symbolic sphere as a socially shared unconscious. The author argues that peasants and state share concepts of power and mutual aid, which they interpret differently while drawing on shared symbols. The peasants are symbolically tied to the state by their desire directed at the vacant and incoherent places in this symbolic configuration. The author's use of the core term of desire is borrowed from Deleuze, who used it to analyse the structure of French capitalism in the 1960s. Drawing on the concept of desire, the author develops a symbolic anthropology of the Lao peasants' attitude toward the state, or rather their symbolic interpretation of the state. The study draws on more than a year of fieldwork in a village in Champasak province. Using a program of poverty reduction, conducted jointly by development organisations and government agencies, as a case study, the author develops her argument in compelling prose, intertwining anthropological narrative, story-telling and theoretical reflection. The book consists of seven chapters, a long introduction, and a conclusion. The introduction is a mixture of literature review and theory chapter. It is not at all comprehensive and tedious but focuses on state-directed desire preventing peasants from rebelling against the state. Brief overviews of Champasak and the structure of the book complement the introduction. The first chapter outlines the ambivalent character of the state, and more generally, power, for the Lao peasants by studying metaphors of 'eating' which play a prominent role in their everyday lives. Chapter 2 very aptly deals with the establishment of the nation-state at the local level of Champasak. The author describes how, to this day, the locals transgress the national border, literally and figuratively (p. 66). The third chapter introduces the concept of desire with regard to the poverty symbolically perceived by the peasants. …