Publication

Social Networks and the Resilient Livelihood Strategies of Dara-ang Women in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Ayuttacorn, A. (2019). “Social Networks and the Resilient Livelihood Strategies of Dara-ang Women in Chiang Mai, Thailand”, Geoforum, Volume 101, May 2019, pp. 28- 37. (online: http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/63760)6.

Abstract

This study examines Dara-ang women’s livelihood strategies as they struggle to negotiate environmental conservation policies. The Thai state adopts conservation ideology as a form of legitimation for its governance practices. As part of this, members of the Dara-ang ethnic minority group, who are migrants from Shan State, Myanmar, are both racialized and vilified for being supposed forest encroachers. When they are dispossessed of their agricultural land and forest products, some are forced to migrate to cities and become wage laborers. Based on ethnographic research, this study identifies and describes some of the capital assets and institutions that support women in strengthening their leadership roles. Dara-ang women form networks with domestic and international NGOs, academics, and businesspeople as a way to negotiate state control. They create alternative practices – namely organic farming, performance groups, and off-farm activities – as livelihood strategies to achieve sustainable use of natural resources and increased income, food security, and well-being.

Air Male: Exploring Flight Attendant Masculinities in North America and Thailand

Ferguson, J. M., & Ayuttacorn, A. (2019). Air Male: Exploring Flight Attendant Masculinities in North America and Thailand. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 20(4), 328- 343. (online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14442213.2019.1634137)

Abstract

Flight attendant work, although now referred to with gender-neutral terminology, continues to be archetypically feminine. Male flight attendants are often assumed to be gay, which frequently includes an emasculated, hyper-sexualised dimension to the stereotyped minority within the female-dominated occupation. The ways in which straight men navigate this occupation and its gendered/hypersexualised connotations problematises both the notions of a gay community as well as flight attendant work as inherently or necessarily feminine. Based on ethnography amongst flight attendants who work for two international airlines, this paper considers how notions of masculinity and heteronormativity operate in a feminised occupational role and how workplace dynamics affect gendered senses of self and relations with others, including with coworkers and in the public.

Dhamma Detox at a Thai Buddhist (Asoke) Community. Merit-Making, Colon-Cleansing, and Excrement

Sitthikriengkrai, Malee. Nathan Porath. (2018). “Dhamma Detox at a Thai Buddhist (Asoke) Community. Merit-Making, Colon-Cleansing, and Excrement” in Anthropos. 113.2018. pp. 453- 466.

In Thailand there is a Buddhist movement called Santi Asok. In recent years one of its lay communities has developed a five-day bodily detoxification course for the good of the Thai public as a form of merit making. Participants who refrain from eating food and drink other than the intake of herbal tonics, undergo various forms of detoxification procedure and particularly colon cleansing. The course culminates in the inspection of the participants' stools followed by a lavish vegetarian meal. This paper analyzes the detox course as a ritual of the body constructed within the anti-materialist and merit-making moral values of the Asok Buddhist community. In this ritual human excrement becomes a symbol revealing the unhealthy polluting demerits of modern consumer society. It concludes that "shit" is a powerful and even dangerous "natural symbol" to moralize with. [Thailand, Buddhism, Santi Asok, detoxification, complementary and alternative medicine].

ชีวิตระหว่างการเคลื่อนย้ายของลูกเรือประมง

มาลี สิทธิเกรียงไกร. (2561) “ชีวิตระหว่างการเคลื่อนย้ายของลูกเรือประมง” ใน ชีวิตทางสังคมในการเคลื่อนย้าย, ประเสริฐ แรงกล้า (บก), หน้า 219-242, คณะสังคมวิทยาและมานุษยวิทยา

มหาวิทยาลัยธรรมศาสตร์

บทความนี้ให้ความสำคัญกับการอธิบายชีวิตลูกเรือประมงแต่ไม่ได้มอง ว่าพวกเขาเป็นแรงงานทาสหรือเหยื่อค้ามนุษย์ที่ยอมจำนนต่อการบังคับ ควบคุมของไต้ก๋งเรือเท่านั้น แต่พวกเขาพยายามดิ้นรนแสวงหาอิสรภาพ — 222 —มาลี สิทธิเกรียงไกร ออกจากขบวนการนี้ เมื่อได้หลุดรอดไปแล้ว ยังได้นำชุดประสบการณ์เดิม นี้ ไปใช้เพื่อช่วยเหลือผู้ที่ประสบปัญหาเช่นเดียวกับตนเอง โดยนำมิติด้าน เวลาและสถานที่มาอธิบายให้เห็นว่า การเคลื่อนย้ายของทุนในอุตสาหกรรม ประมงนั้นให้ความสำาคัญกับมิติด้านเวลาเพื่อให้การเคลื่อนย้ายของสิ่งของ และทุนดำเนินไปอย่างรวดเร็ว ลดต้นทุนค่าใช้จ่าย การเคลื่อนย้ายอย่าง รวดเร็วนี้บีบคั้นแรงงานจากลูกเรือประมง ทำให้ชีวิตลูกเรือประมงเสมือน เป็นเครื่องจักรทำงานอยู่ตลอดเวลา อย่างไรก็ตาม ลูกเรือประมงต่างก็ พยายามหนีออกจากการควบคุมของทุน บางคนสามารถหลบหลีกและนำประสบการณ์ตนเองไปใช้เพื่อประโยชน์คนอื่นต่อไป

การศึกษานี้ใช้วิธีการสัมภาษณ์เป็นรายกรณีและสนทนากลุ่ม อนึ่ง ด้วยข้อจำากัดของการเข้าถึงผู้ให้ข้อมูลและระยะเวลาการทำวิจัย ผู้เขียนจึงเลือกกลุ่มประชากรที่ศึกษาจากลูกเรือประมงที่ได้รับความช่วยเหลือจาก มูลนิธิเครือข่ายส่งเสริมคุณภาพชีวิตแรงงาน (Labor Rights Promotion Network: LPN) 3 กรณีคือ ทินกร พรชัย และเหยี่ยว

Thai Television Dramas, a New Player in Asian Media Circulation: A Case Study of Full House Thai

“Thai Television Dramas, a New Player in Asian Media Circulation: A Case Study of Full House Thai” in Nobuko Kawashima and Hye-Kyung Lee (eds.). (2018) Asian Cultural

Flows: Cultural Policies, Creative Industries, and Media Consumers. Singapore: Springer, pp.167-182.

This paper examines the success of Full House Thai , a Thai remake of popular Korean drama “Full House”. First, it explores the indigenization of Korean elements in the Thai remake Full House , arguing that the success of Full House Thai lies not only on the attractiveness of Thai actor and actress but also on the Thai-ization of Korean elements. The second part looks at the reception of Asian audience towards Full House Thai . Taking the case of Vietnamese audience, the paper explores how Vietnamese audience interpret Thai remake version in relation to the original Korean version as well as with respect to Thai culture portrayed in the series. The aspects of Thai culture the paper asks Vietnamese audience to reflect upon include views on gender, roles of men and women, the portrayal of social class as well as romantic love. Data presented in this paper come from textual analysis as well as in-depth interviews with 15 Vietnamese audiences.

Lead - polluted Water Changed our Lives’: A Thai-Karen Village’s Quest for Environmental Justice

Sitthikriengkrai, Malee. Nathan Porath. (2017) “Lead - polluted Water Changed our Lives’: A Thai-Karen Village’s Quest for Environmental Justice” in South East Asia Research, Vol 25(2), pp. 139 - 156, SOAS, University of London

Abstract

At the turn of the millennium, inhabitants of a small Karen village situated in one of Thailand’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites sought access to environmental justice in the Thai courts over industrial pollution that had contaminated their local stream with lead and caused them years of degraded health and social misery. The Karen villagers were only able to gain access to justice with the help of NGOs that served them as a support group during a period when Thailand was experiencing active civil and democratic awakening. The NGOs, which had a common cause with the Karen villagers, helped them enter the ‘environmental justice frame’ and its discourse. Their experience of lead pollution was framed within a moral ‘rhetoric of exposure’, which came to guide their activism against intransigent agencies and policies, as well as their mobilization for access to justice.

Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism

Porath, Nathan, Sitthikriengkrai, Malee (Reviewer) (2017), “Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism”, in Paul Cohen, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 90, Part 2, No. 313, December 2017, Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 140-143 (Book review)

The book's focus on charisma is important, but it does not go far enough. It takes Weber's idea that charisma comes from the individual and combines this with the Buddhist cosmological notion of barami. But what is needed is a more in-depth and integrated sociological analysis of what constitutes the charismatic phenomena of these monks. Although Charismatic Monks does supply a great deal of evidence that could be used for such an analysis, the book's angle when discussing the devotees' side of the relationship focuses mainly on upland peoples. Although this is interesting in itself there is very little focus on other followers. For example, although some mention is made of Thai elites, we are not told very much about their actual relationship with the monks or about their importance to the movements. We are also told very little about these monks' relationship to kon muang (northern Thai people).

Forever Transnational

Forever transnational: The ambivalence of return and cross-border activities of the Shan across the Thailand-Myanmar border. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. pp.75-89.

Over the past two decades, northern Thailand has experienced a massive influx of Shan ethnic nationals from Myanmar migrating to escape economic hardship and political conflicts at home. Myanmar's recent reforms raise the question of whether these migrants will return. The paper brings together the context of current changes in Myanmar with migrants' prospects of return and the impact of large‐scale migration on homeland politics. On the one hand, the paper explores the possibility that Shan migrants could remain forever transnational, for many of them will most likely never return. On the other hand, it considers the perspective of Shan elites in Myanmar on the fact a large portion of young Shan now spend their adult lives living and working in Thailand. While out‐migration of young Shan threatens the social fabric of Shan community in Myanmar, Shan ethnonationalists strive across the Myanmar border to regain loyalty among the Shan migrant population in Thailand. By examining the two aspects, this paper attempts to shed light on the impact of transnational migration on both migrants and their home country.

Khruba Bunchum: The Shift in a Millenarian Movement at the Thailand-Myanmar Border

“Buddhist Holy Man Khruba Bunchum: The Shift in a Millenarian Movement at the Thailand-Myanmar Border” Sojourn. 31(2): pp. 377-412

The study of holy men active in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries has associated them primarily with millenarian movements. In the twenty-first century, Thailand–Myanmar border has seen the emergence of a holy man to whom the concept of millenarianism is, in the current changing religious environment, not applicable. Khruba Bunchum, a contemporary Thai with a significant ethnic minority following in Myanmar, rose to fame in Thailand after being forced to leave Myanmar and spending three years meditating in an isolated cave. He has gained followers among wealthy and middle-class Thais. His case illustrates the effect of mobile media technology in transforming the practice of venerating holy men. It suggests the need for a new approach to studying religious movements, one that draws on religious, political and media sources.

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Myanmar’s Long Road to Federalism: The Case of Shan State

In reviewing the ongoing peace negotiation and the positions different Shan organizations have taken, we see that Myanmar’s peace process has a long way to go. Its major obstacles include concerns over trust, confusion over process, continued fighting in Shan State, and lack of ethnic unity.

But three years of peace talks have yielded success in that the negotiation strategy of both sides has become more sophisticated. We also see a willingness to compromise, as in how the government has recognized that the future of Myanmar is tied to a federal union. As for the Shan, two questions remain. Can the Shan unite in order to achieve the self-determination they have been fighting for over half a century? And how will the voices and interests of other ethnic groups living in Shan State be represented in this ethnically-defined state?