Losing the Remote

Exploring the Thai Social Order with the Early and Late Hanks

Bibliographic Data

ID2145164
AuthorsHjorleifur R Jonsson (0000-0002-8624-0608, Arizona State University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume32
Issue1
Pages76-94
Publication date2022-01-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2022.2049698
OpenAlexW4224263971
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited37

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

Context (archaeology) · Diversity (politics) · Ethnic group · Identity (music) · Ideology · Indigenous · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Scholarship · Social group · Social identity theory · Social order · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Gender Studies · History · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies