Speaker: Ward Keeler, professor of anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin

Taking religious discourse and practices as commentary (witting or unwitting) as well as instances of social relations, Professor Keeler sees in the institution of the monkhood in Burma an idealized rendering of how people, and especially males, should enter into relations with others. Specifically, Burmese males should seek to maximize their autonomy. Whereas in many societies, masculinity implies sexual athleticism and the exercise of power, in Buddhist Burma withdrawing from attachments wins individuals special prestige. Monks, for whom both sexual activity and overt intervention in worldly affairs are forbidden, instantiate this idealized pattern particularly dramatically.