The Village of the Damned? Narrative, Structure and the Coproduction of Translocal Mobility

Abstract

Focusing on the re-emergence of an ancient folk tale about begging migration, Chapter 6 address the relationship between myths, moral narratives, and translocal livelihoods in Cambodia. Specifically, it interrogates a popular myth, known throughout Cambodia, about the cursed village of Prey Veng province where all inhabitants, rich or poor, must migrate to beg at least once a year. The chapter examines how the resurgence of this story is not only related to the rise in begging migration from some of Cambodia’s most agro-ecologically vulnerable southeastern provinces, but dynamically intertwined with the structural characteristics of that mobility. Specifically, it highlights how moral narratives of the ‘deserving poor’ shape translocal begging, engendering overlaps and interlinkages with other forms of labour migration that in turn serve to proliferate and entrench the curse myth. By comparing the form of the curse myth in Phnom Penh and Prey Veng, Chapter 6 concludes by considering how discourse is shaped, sustained and reproduced in translocal environments.