Book
Inside Thai society: interpretations of everyday life
The Pepin Press • Amsterdam • Published In 1996 • Pages:
By: Mulder, Niels.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is an ambitious work that seeks to identify the cognitive orientation of the Central Thai and Thai accommodation to modernity. Influenced by Buddhism and animism, the Thai see the world in terms of an inside realm of order and moral goodness (KHUNA) and an outside realm of raw power (DECHA). The inside realm includes family, reciprocity, and friendship. It is dominated by the image of the all-loving and self-sacrificing mother, to whom everyone is eternally indebted. The outer realm is one of hierarchy, status rivalry, and patron-client relationships, where one does nothing to offend and provoke others. The outside realm is an arena of careful presentation of self, which Mulder argues has been misunderstood by sociologists as an expression of individualism. This world view has resigned the Thai to rapid change, because the outside world lies beyond their control, however, it makes difficult the development of a civic society, that is a moral realm outside of the most intimate social relationships. Mulder's insights are based on participant observation, contemporary literature, and primary school text books
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Social personality
- Personality traits
- Ethos
- Status, role, and prestige
- Social relationships and groups
- Cosmology
- Sacred objects and places
- Theological systems
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Central Thai
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1998
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1965-1975
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1855-1995
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Thailand
- NotesAdditional notes
- Niels Mulder
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 182-186) and index
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Thais