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Grace after Genocide is the first comprehensive ethnography of Cambodian refugees, charting their struggle to transition from life in agrarian Cambodia to survival in post-industrial America, while maintaining their identities as Cambodians. The ethnography contrasts the lives of refugees who arrived in America after 1975, with their focus on Khmer traditions, values, and relations, with those of their children who, as descendants of the Khmer Rouge catastrophe, have struggled to become Americans in a society that defines them as different. The ethnography explores America’s mid-twentieth-century involvement in Southeast Asia and its enormous consequences on multiple generations of Khmer refugees.
“Drawing on three and a half decades of intensive ethnographic research, anthropologist Mortland has provided a fascinating, clearly written, comprehensive account of the Cambodian American population…This remarkable book should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the changing US population. An outstanding work…Essential.” • Choice
“Having read her work, I have a stronger understanding of the Cambodian experience and of decolonized ethnography as a methodology.” • JASO
“Nothing really prepared me for the ambition and comprehensiveness of Grace after Genocide. It is hard to imagine that we are going to get a more thorough overview of Cambodians in the US than with Mortland’s book—which addresses not just the broad pattern of how these Cambodians deal with their history, but all the nitty gritty details of refugee agencies, sponsorship, welfare and work, and the ins and outs of community organization.” • John Marston, The College of Mexico
Carol A. Mortland is a cultural anthropologist who has been conducting research with Cambodian refugees since 1981 in various locations across the United States. She has also done research in Cambodia, and taught at universities in Washington and New York.
Dedication
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction: From Cambodians to Refugees
Chapter 1. Being in America
Chapter 2. Economic Survival
Chapter 3. Refugee Litanies
Chapter 4. Resettlement Realities
Chapter 5. Family
Chapter 6. Parents and Children
Chapter 7. Community
Chapter 8. Religion
Chapter 9. Health
Chapter 10. Homeland
Chapter 11. Preserving Culture
Chapter 12. Beyond Refugees
Bibliography
Index