TY - JOUR
T1 - Losing the Remote
T2 - Exploring the Thai Social Order with the Early and Late Hanks
AU - Jonsson, Hjorleifur R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The University of Western Australia.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This article challenges the common understanding of Thailand’s ethnic divide as marked by unfamiliarity and an absolute difference between Thai society and the hill tribes in the country’s north. Much scholarship has overlooked how the negotiation of diversity and complexity has been foundational to Thai and other Southeast Asian societies and cultures for millennia. An ideology of ethnically singular and exclusive Thai identity framed the historical context in which Lucien Hanks initially wrote about Thai social life and its logics. I draw on his later work, particularly the research he conducted with Jane R. Hanks in the northern hills, to revisit diversity in Thai society and history. Hanks identified merit and power as the key principles of the Thai social order. A third notion, parity, enables inclusive and diverse social networks. It offers an indigenous challenge to any association of Thai identity, worldview, or social organisation with intolerance and ethnic chauvinism.
AB - This article challenges the common understanding of Thailand’s ethnic divide as marked by unfamiliarity and an absolute difference between Thai society and the hill tribes in the country’s north. Much scholarship has overlooked how the negotiation of diversity and complexity has been foundational to Thai and other Southeast Asian societies and cultures for millennia. An ideology of ethnically singular and exclusive Thai identity framed the historical context in which Lucien Hanks initially wrote about Thai social life and its logics. I draw on his later work, particularly the research he conducted with Jane R. Hanks in the northern hills, to revisit diversity in Thai society and history. Hanks identified merit and power as the key principles of the Thai social order. A third notion, parity, enables inclusive and diverse social networks. It offers an indigenous challenge to any association of Thai identity, worldview, or social organisation with intolerance and ethnic chauvinism.
KW - Thailand
KW - history
KW - pluralism
KW - power
KW - society
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126669076&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/00664677.2022.2049698
DO - 10.1080/00664677.2022.2049698
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126669076
SN - 0066-4677
VL - 32
SP - 76
EP - 94
JO - Anthropological Forum
JF - Anthropological Forum
IS - 1
ER -