Date Available
12-7-2011
Year of Publication
2001
Document Type
Thesis
College
Arts and Sciences
Department
Anthropology
First Advisor
Deborah L. Crooks
Abstract
In this thesis I describe Khmers' negotiations of circumstances surroundingthe disassembly, reconstruction, and redefinition of Khmer identity fromtheir homeland in Cambodia to a traditional Khmer village recreated in theUnited States. Using a framework derived from a constructivist perspective,I have placed processes of negotiation and identity transformation withinthe lived context of Khmers' lives. Thus, a holistic understanding of theinterrelatedness of multiple changes in Khmerness is made possible.Ethnographic data collected between 1997 and 1999, through participantobservationand interviews, inform this study. Findings from this studyreveal three levels of identity transformation as told by members of a smallKhmer village established along the U. S. Gulf of Mexico. However, thesethree levels of transformation are not mutually exclusive nor are theynecessarily sequential. Each transformation of Khmers' identitiesconstitutes permeable aggregates of other past and continuingdisassemblies, reconstructions and redefinitions of Khmerness. Findingsfrom this study demonstrate that Khmer identity shifts and is transformedby past and present experiences and with their changing circumstances,from endangered Cambodian, to refugees, to re-established Khmers inAmerica.
Recommended Citation
Lewis, Denise Clark, "From Cambodia to the United States: The Disassembly, Reconstruction, and Redefinition of Khmer Identity" (2001). University of Kentucky Master's Theses. 185.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/gradschool_theses/185
