Everyday Care and Precarity: Buddhaghosa and Thai Social Story-Making

In this article, Buddhaghosa's fifth century philosophy provides a productive framework for deciphering contemporary social caregiving in Thailand. In particular, his work and the tradition it inspired helps bring forth a local theory of mind and related narrative forms that, when utilized in examination of group patterns of interaction, illuminate the intertwining of care and precarity in everyday practices of providing for others. In turn, I call for experimentation in anthropological storytelling, including ensemble work, to ensure that habits of professional practice do justice to the care manifest in the precarious conditions in which anthropologists so often engage.