**story of human sacrifice in Ba Phnom in the 19th century by troops trying to overthrow Norodom (who was helped by the French).

(209) Statues of Me-Sa (Uma/Durga, Siva's consort) found in Ba Phnom area--at least 20 free standing statues and 6 bas reliefs have been noted from 7th to 10th centuries AD in S. Vietnam and S. Eastern Cambodia (not the Angkor region).

*scholars agree that cult developed among Khmer in the 7th century AD

*also very popular in Javanese sculpture (author believes that images of Uma./Durga were most popular in Pallava sculpture of India around the time of Cambodia's "Indianization."

(215) evidence that this cult activity, sacrificing humans and later bufallo for purification, had royal patronage, despite Theravada Buddhism

**signs of Hinduism still found in Ba Phnom in the 1860s.

(220) typically, those sacrified were already condemned to death for committing crimes, but later, they changed to bufallos (see also articles on Durga cults under Indonesia/Java).

Chakravarti, Adhir L 1970-71. "The Caste System in Ancient Cambodia." Journal of Ancient Indian History, 4:14-59.

Chandler, David P. "Normative Poems (Chbap) and Pre-Colonial Cambodian Society." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), pp?.

(277) Important to note: these poems of the post-Angkorean era (14th-18th centuries) were available in written form only to monks and well-to-do literati.

*Family life is focus of morality in the poems, rather than to focus upon the harshness that comes with class distinctions--one must know how to behave to one's family members.

*author's main point: that these poems do not offer ways to create change, but rather explain how to bear hardship, which perhaps led to the ease of colonization.

Ebihara, May 1984. "Societal Organization in 16th and 17th Century Cambodia" Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), 280-295.

(284) Polygyny and concubinage occured among aristocracy...also important: the function of marrying princesses from Laos and Vietnam to enlarge scope of power.

(287) Another body analogy (see, in Burma, F. K. Lehman): "dignitaries form the eyes, mouth, and bones, rich people constitute the flesh, and the skin is made up of all other inhabitants who have few resources."

(289) Ebihara agrees with Chandler that the aristocracy successfully transformed the people into subservient workers who accepted their fate in life, thus creating ideal conditions for future aggression from outside.

Kirsh, A. Thomas 1976. "Kinship, Genealogical Claims, and Societal Integration in Ancient Khmer Society: An Interpretation. in Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D.G.E. Hall, eds C. D. Cowan and O. W. Wolters. Ithaca: Cornell University press.

(191) The proposition of an ideal "underlying matrilineality" in Khmer society, put forth by Eviline Poree Maspero (in French and unavailable), is upheld by O'Sullivan, but Kirsch gives a different perspective.

*First lays out Maspero argument of "underlying matrilineality" based on the mention of matrilineal kinship in genealogies of the Angkor period

*then gives O' Sullivan's response: difference between commoners and kings, but what is common is bilateral kinship. However, kings pretended to follow matrilineal kinship patterns in their written genealogies, although they did not actually do so. Matrilineality is presented as an ideal that the kings thought they should adhere to, because it was considered sacred, in comparison with the commoners bilateral patterns.

(193) Kirsch discusses some background: observations of the Chinese observer Chou Ta-kuan in the 13th century (commoners):

--neo-local residence at marriage

--marriage was individual choice

--brideprince relatively unimportant

--divorce relatively easy

(194) In royal geneologies, female links are stressed. Example: Yasovarman I (889-910/12) emphasizes his mother's (Indradevi's) connections to the ancient kings of the pre-Angkorean centers of power (Vyadhapura)

(195) According to Kirsch, actually, the lineage can be traced on father's side as well, but was not. His argument:

(196) More on role of women: Where power waned in areas away from centers of power, women were used to counter threats posed to the king's authority--the women of his harem were brought in from these outlying areas, creating relationships--high ranking officials, priestly families, and semi-independent kings would marry their women to the deva raja.

*Upon the king's death, many wives, each with many children: who has claim to the throne? --Each would call upon their kinsman linked matrilineally to support claim to kingship. Thus, genealogy streesed mother's side.

(200) Moreover: priestly class, it would appear, remained celibate. Their officers were passed down to the sons of their sisters.

Maxwell, Stewart 1964. The Naga King's Daughter. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.

Worth mentioning because of how extremely bad it is. Purportedly about the Funan Queen said to have married Kaundinya, the Indian Brahmin, but in reality is Maxwell's narrative of travelling around the southern part of Mainland Southeast Asia, attenting rituals and shooting photos of naked young women.

O'Sullivan, Kevin 1962. "Concentric Conformity in Ancient Khmer Kinship Organization." Academia Sinica, 13: 87-96.

(308) important to compare the "Book of Good Government of the Hong-Duc Period," which specifies appropriate ways in which marriage negoriations and ceremonies ought to be carried out (whereas the Le Code is a penal code).

(309) Mandarin Law to become "natural Law" for all people."

(311) patriliny in the Le Code: offenses committed against paternal side (violence, etc) dictate harsher punshiments

*distinct lack of equality between husbands and wives indicated in code follows Chinese legal codes in this regard: for example, wives who struck husbands faced harsh penalities, while husbands were allowed to strike wives (see also Thailand: Kirsch--this would suggest that this type of law is not necessarily "Southeast Asian). Wives were subject to punshiment even for verbal complaints.

*author believes that, while there may have been some external factors used to maintain some semblance of equality, the code itself states clearly a husband's superordinate status, but goes on to say:

(313) patrilineality was more restricted under the Le than in recent times.

John Whitmore 1984. "Social Organization and Confucian Thought in Vietnam." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), 296-306.

*Looking at the Le Code:

*Continuing on the theme of the importance of the family unit: [nuclear]

(300) Legal status of women in the Le Code:

--wife brought her own property in marriage, had a say in its disposal

--took it and her equal share of the joint property in marriage from the marriage when she left (widowhood or divorce)

--legally administered part of her deceased husband's share

--sale of family property required wife's signature

--equal inheritance

--great freedom of movement

(305) From the Ming Dynasty: stressing the passing of land from the eldest son to the eldest son, whenever possible

(306) Inference: that the role of women and her freedom was dependent upon a given ruler's wish to maintain the "flexibility" thought of as "Southeast Asian" or reduce it, in favor of "neo-confucian" morality" and "proper" kin relations.

Ta Van Tai 1984. "The Status of Women in Traditional Vietnam: A Comparison of the Code of the Le Dynasty (1428-1788) with the Chinese Codes." Journal of Asian History 15, 2 (1981) 97-145.

Extremely complete--difficult to summarize or to extract important information, as all is important. One noticable aspect is this: in another article, another writer says: "according to the code, women can inherit the family's ancestral lands, providing that she has no living male relatives." This writer does not try to argue, with great caveats, that women had rights that were close to the rights of men. His approach is far more textual, through which he simply provides the gory details, as well as comparisons to the Nguyen and T'ang, Ming, and Ch'ing Codes though which he does wish to show that the Le period was not necessarily a period of indigenous feminism as some had argued.

Wolters, O. W. 1974. "Le Van Hu'u's Treatemnt of :y Than Ton's Reign (1127-1137). in Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D.G.E. Hall, eds C. D. Cowan and O. W. Wolters. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

*Reading a text through which a Le dynasty writer points out the deficiencies of Ly rulership. One of the main points concerns the problems that arise with a disorganized polygamous system with no set method for determining primogeniture.

(206) Example: section of text which tells of three wives coming together in court intrigue to assure that the sone of a concubine does not become the next ruler, at the deathbed scene of Ly Than Ton. Le writer's problem is not with polygamy, but with the lack of a solid (Chinese) method for determining an empress (208).

More problematic successions throughout the Ly Dynasty, including 1072, when the new emperor's mother murdered late ruler's legal wife

(220) Than Ton made his mother the empress

(221) issued an edict that no officials' daughters should marry before the ruler had selected or rejected them as his concubines (for similar abuses of power, see Malaysia: Andaya).

Woodside, Alexander 1984. Medieval Vietnam and Cambodia: A Comparative Comment. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), 315-319.

When patrilineal (Confucian-leaning) took over exogamous (indigenous?) in Vietnam? Exogamous kinship patterns were not taboo by the 1200s.

(316) Many violations of "Confucian marriage punctilios"--his point is that flexibility was not necessarily only Southeast Asian, but Chinese as well.