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,/+01$22-.$,,-

“The Pretas are coming”3humans. During this ‘dark fortnight’ of the waning moon, the

pretas

search for gifts of food that their living relatives and descendants are supposed to leave them at Buddhisttemples. They are supposed to search in at least seven temples during this period; if they find food, they will give their blessings. If, on the other hand, they find nothingand return to hell as hungry as when they left, they may choose to curse theirdescendants, so that they will share in the ghost’s hunger and desperation. If theycannot eat together, the ghosts will ensure that they at least starve together.

Pretas

aremanifestations of deep need, and obligate giving.

Pchum Ben

is the one holiday a year inwhich gifts may be given to the

pretas

.During the Fall festival of

Pchum Ben

, people from the cities crowd buses, cars,and small motorcycles to travel along the muddy dirt roads back to the villages of their birth. Almost no one in Cambodia has lived off the farm for more than a generation,and nearly all can identify an agricultural village somewhere in the countryside as‘theirs.’ In 2005, I was crammed into a minibus with fifteen others, mostly elderlywomen and men, traveling from the city to the countryside for the festival. Villagerslined the roads to watch the buses and cars rush by, and often shouted comments likethese: “The

pretas

are coming! The

pretas

are coming! This bus is full of really old

pretas

!Hey youngster, make sure that those old ghosts don’t grab you!” And then the villagerslaughed at us without smiling.At first I laughed too, but quickly realized that none of my fellow pilgrims foundit funny. Instead, their faces fell. Some were angry, but most seemed hurt and dejected.A friend of mine with whom I was traveling kept saying, “They’re so angry at us. Theyreally want us to go back home.” If the riders in my minibus didn’t laugh, the folksstanding on the side of the road—skinny shirtless men, older women in faded sarongs,young naked children with taut bellies and reddish hair—more than made up for ourlack of delight.When country folk greet their city relatives—who spend all but the mostimportant religious festivals of the year far away from their birth country—as

pretas

,what are they doing? Why is this joke funny to rural Cambodians, and why in theworld would they want to denigrate and humiliate the very people who are bringingthe food, money, and gifts that make their village festivals so enjoyable? I believe theanswer lies in the economic relationships between these two groups, and the differing