Lost Goddesses: The Denial of Female Power in Cambodian History

by Trudy Jacobsen

In a narrative and visual tour de force, Trudy Jacobsen examines the relationship between women and power in Cambodian history. Here, she seeks to describe when and why the status of women changed and what factors contributed to these changes.

"In Lost Goddesses, Trudy Jacobsen argues vigorously that high born and ordinary women played far more important roles in Cambodia’s past than other historians have been willing to suggest. Moving confidently across millennia of history, and drawing on an impressive range of sources, she has written an enthralling, pathbreaking and persuasive book. – David Chandler, Monash Asia Institute

"Lost Goddesses makes a fascinating and highly original contribution to deepening our understanding of Cambodian history. … [T]his is an exceptional book of considerable merit that will be of interest to a wide range of academics working in history, anthropology, gender studies, politics, religion and Southeast Asian studies. It is excellent value and would be a clear candidate to be published in Khmer so that the false constructs of earlier periods can be revealed." – Katherine Brickell, Royal Holloway, University of London

"This book is a major breakthrough in studies of the position of women not just in Cambodia, but also in Southeast Asia more broadly. Well researched, well argued, well written and clearly organised, Jacobsen’s book reveals the rich treasures possible from a feminist reading of traditional historical sources. I am looking forward to the debates this book is sure to provoke." – Katherine A. Bowie, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Trudy Jacobsen is Assistant Professor at the Department of History, North Illinois University where among other things she teaches the history of Buddhist Southeast Asia. Earlier, she was an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social and Political Inquiry, Monash University.

Publication year: 2008
350 pp / 229mm x 152mm
35 figures
ISBN: 978-87-7694-001-0, Paperback

NIAS Press