A spirit house is a shrine to the protective spirit of a place, found in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It is usually a small roofed structure mounted on a pillar or dais, and can range from a small platform to a house large enough for people to enter; many include images or carved figures of people and animals. Spirit houses provide shelter for spirits that could cause problems for people if not appeased, and votive offerings are left at them, with larger ones including an altar. In mainland Southeast Asia, most houses and businesses have one, placed in an auspicious spot, most often a corner of the property, sometimes chosen after consulting a Brahmin priest. In Thai it is called san phra phum, 'house of the guardian spirit', in Khmer rean preah phum, 'shrine for the guardian spirit', and in Burmese nat sin. In the Philippines, spirit houses are connected to ceremonies and offerings for the anito spirits and have many local names. In Cambodia the most common offering is fruit, while in Thailand people traditionally leave food and drink such as rice, bananas, coconuts and desserts.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.