By Pierre Bourdieu (London: Routledge, 2010), xxx + 607 pp. £15.99 paper. A combination of social theory, statistical data, illustrations, and interviews, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judg...

Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand

Proposant une ethnographie minutieuse des relations intervillageoises sur la frontiere Lao-thailandaise, mon travail entend analyser, d'une part, le role des usages nationaux et locaux du passe dans la structuration et l’etablissement de frontieres sociales se superposant aux frontieres etatiques et interrogent les relations ambigues que les differents acteurs transfrontaliers entretiennent avec les Etats-nations, leur histoire et leurs acteurs. D'autre part, par la description des usages et des acteurs de la frontiere ma recherche questionne les affirmations generales etablies par une generation de chercheur concernant la continuite sociale et culturelle des Lao et des habitants du nord-est thailandais, region fondamentale dans la comprehension de la politique thailandaise contemporaine.

Frontière nationale, frontières sociales : ethnographie de l'espace frontalier isan-lao.

Conjunctures of globalization and education have shaped the intersection of Buddhist monasticism and international tourism in the Northern Thai city, Chiang Mai. International tourism in Chiang Mai has been popular since the 1990s, while monks from all over Thailand and South and Southeast Asia have come to Chiang Mai in large numbers to pursue higher education in English since the 2000s. Focusing on Buddhist temples that contain a Monk Chat programme, where tourists and monks engage in conversation, this article analyses the responses of Buddhist monks towards a range of international tourists. Utilizing the perspectives of Buddhist monks through interviews reveals attitudes towards Western and Asian tourists as situated within broader discourses of Thai society. Investigating these attitudes and responses within the context of wider state, regional, and transnational influences, I argue that attitudes towards religious others are inextricably connected to missionization.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/EA26C8CC56A74E507BFFED7FC1655837/S0026749X16001013a.pdf/div-class-title-religious-others-tourism-and-missionization-buddhist-monk-chats-in-northern-thailand-div.pdf

Religious Others, Tourism, and Missionization: Buddhist ‘Monk Chats’ in Northern Thailand

INTRODUCTIONPrevious Studies of the PalaungThe Present StudyTHE PALAUNG IN BURMASettlement Patterns and Economic ActivitiesThe Life CycleSocial and Political OrganizationReligious Beliefs and PracticesDRESS AND IDENTITYThe Dress of Neighboring Mon-Khmer Speaking PeoplesThe Literature on Palaung DressSub-group DifferencesSilver Palaung DressFLIGHT FROM BURMAOppression and the Flight from Loi LaeLIFE IN NORTHERN THAILANDNo Lae Pang Daeng NaiOther Palaung Settlements in Chaing DaoCONFLICTS IN NORTHERN THAILANDREFERENCES INDEX

The Palaung in northern Thailand

Processes of exclusion and inclusion structure the relationship between Theravāda Buddhism and socio-ethnic identity in Northern Thailand. The Dara’ang, a Mon-Khmer speaking population, practice a form of Buddhism similar to that found amongst various Tai cultures of the region, but distinct in many ways from that propagated by the institutions of the modern Thai state. Fieldwork conducted in Dara’ang communities is the basis for an exploration of the ways in which adherence to Theravāda Buddhism supports both the presence of the Thai state within highland villages and the production of narratives that challenge the negative social representation of Dara’ang and other highland ethnic-minority peoples.

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sojourn_journal_of_social_issues_in_southeast_asia/v028/28.1.ashley.pdf

Sean Ashley

Papers

Narrating Identity and Belonging: Buddhist Authenticity and Contested Ethnic Marginalization in the Mountains of Northern Thailand