In this study, Hayami suggests that the Karen in northwestern Thailand are located "betwixt and between" the peripheries and the mainstream of the modern nation-state. It demonstrates how the Karen actively adopt new religious practices in ways that enable them to maintain communal boundaries and cultural particularity at the same time as they integrate themselves into the broader stream of Thai society.

About Editors and Authors

HAYAMI Yoko is Professor at and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Her research interests include care and aging in Southeast Asia and ethnic minorities and religion in Thailand and Burma. She completed a doctoral program at Brown University, Rhode Island, obtaining a PhD in Anthropology.