Tools and Practices: Change and Continuity in the Cambodian Countryside

#474
Title: Tools and Practices: Change and Continuity in the Cambodian Countryside
Authors: Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan
Publisher: Reyum Publications (Phnom Penh)
Year: 2001
92 pages

This profusely illustrated catalogue includes an introductory essay and commentary throughout. It depicts two types of tools found in Cambodia: Traditional tools and implements still in use (for example, palm sugar collectors made of bamboo, because bamboo can be smoked to give the palm sugar the traditional flavor), and those that have been modernized (such as plastic soda bottles used as fishing net floats). It gives a terrific sense of the resourcefulness and versatility of the people, as well as sounding a cautionary note about non-biodegradable objects. Village waste is typically left to rot or is burned, and neither of these is a satisfactory solution to plastic trash.