Satum

With the countrywide rapid changes of living conditions and lifestyles, the people in the south-eastern Cambodian border region of Memot are also facing big changes: Traditional rural life, with its long-established annual cycle of ceremonies, old habits and economic system is vanishing quickly. It started with new roads and fast connections to the city, continues with the introduction of electricity, especially through TV and is already to progressing to the stage of introducing the Internet to countryside communities. Therefore, it is essential to find and record as many data on these traditional societies as possible, to communicate these details of local and national heritage for future generations before they disappear.

These research activities of the Memot Centre for Archaeology (MCA) and their results are a good opportunity to explain the villagers the purpose of the MCA and to provide them with knowledge about their cultural heritage. The purpose is to motivate the locals to cooperate in helping to stop the ongoing destruction of archaeological sites and other cultural heritage sources in the region.

A booklet on Satum Village has been published for free distribution. After the booklet on Memot it is the second MCA publication on an ethnographic subject.