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A Thai Village Headman as a Synaptic Leader

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Michael Moerman
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Extract

Anthropological data is typically produced in single villages, but consumed by persons interested in peoples, regions, and nations. Although this paper suffers from the disabilities implied by that situation, its goal is to attempt to ameliorate them. The status of headman which I will describe in Ban Ping is found, named, and assigned the same legal duties in all Thai villages. This should permit other fieldworkers to make straightforward comparisons with their communities.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , May 1969 , pp. 535 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1969

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References

1 A much abbreviated version of this paper, called “From Boss to Broker” was read at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies in 1962. The paper reached its present form largely through the stimulation of conversations with Jasper C. Ingersoll who, in addition to major suggestions and to formulations of role concepts, provided me with rich comparative materials (Ingersoll, n.d. Unpublished fieldnotes of 1960 research in Tambon Sagatiem, Thailand) from the Central Thai tambon of Sagatiem.

2 Ban Ping is in the Chiengkham district of Chiengrai province. Fieldwork there from 1959–1961 was supported by a Foreign Area Training Fellowship from the Ford Foundation. Although I returned to Ban Ping briefly in 1965, the data on which this paper is based were all collected and analyzed on the basis of our first field trip.

3 Blofield, John, People of the Sun (London, 1960), p. 54Google Scholar.

4 Lc Bar, F. M., Hickcy, G. C., and Musgrave, J. K., Ethnic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1964), pp. 206–213Google Scholar.

5 Moerman, M., Agricultural Change and Peasant Choice in a Thai Village (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

6 Moerman, M., “A minority and its government: the Thai-Lue of Northern Thailand,” in Kunstadter, Peter (ed.), Southeast Asian Tribes, Minorities, and Nations (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1967)Google Scholar.

7 Moerman, M., “Ban Ping's Temple: the center of a ‘loosely structured” society,” in Anthropological Studies in Theravada Buddhism (Yale University Southeast Asia Cultural Report Series), No. 13Google Scholar.

8 K. O. Jalekha, Study of the economy of a rice growing village in Central Thailand (Bangkok: Division of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture, 1955); Phillips, Herbert P., Thai Peasant Personality (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Sharp, , Lauriston, , Hauck, Hazel M., Janlekha, Kamol, and Textor, Robert B., Siamese rice village: a preliminary study of Ban Chan 1848–1949 (Bankok, Cornell Research Center: Cornell University Press, Southeast Asia Program No. 1, 1953)Google Scholar.

9 Kaufman, Howard K., Bangkhuad: a community study in Thailand (Locust Valley, New York: J. J. Augustin, 1960)Google Scholar.

10 Kingshill, Konrad, Ku Daeng—the red tomb: a village study in Northern Thailand (Chiengmai, Thailand: The Prince Royal's College, 1960)Google Scholar.

11 The reputation of the community implicates that of its individual members to the extent, for example, that one of them was willing to accept a false accusation of rape so that the village would not be embarrassed by a public official investigation.

12 Smith, M. G., “A Structural Approach to Comparative Politics”(paper read at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,New York City:1963)Google Scholar.

13 Ingersoll, J., “Role Analysis in the Study of Change,”paper read before the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association,1962Google Scholar; “The Priest and the Path,” unpublished dissertation (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1963)Google Scholar.

14 J. Ingersoll, unpublished fieldnotes of 1960 research in Tambon Sagatiem, Thailand, (n.d.).

15 Kaufman, op. cit., p. 77.

16 Sharp, et al., op. cit., pp. 41 ff.

17 Kaufman, op. cit., p. 75.

18 My description of role activities is even more dependent than are other sections upon the events, some of which may be accidental, that occurred during our fourteen months in Ban Ping.

19 Horrigan, Frederick J., “Provincial Government and Administration,” in Sutton, J. L. (ed.), Problems of Politics and Administration in Thailand (Institute for Public Service, Department of Government, Indiana University; 1962), pp. 58–61Google Scholar.

20 Subhamatra, K. P., “Administration of Thailand,” unpublished M.A. thesis in Political Science (Washington, D.C.: The American University, 1941), p. 75Google Scholar.

21 Moerman (1967), op. cit.

22 Moerman, op. cit. (1967).

23 Moerman, op. cit., (1968).

24 Cf. Moerman, op. cit., (1966) pp. 162–163.

25 cf. Goethals, Peter R., Aspects of Local Government in a Sumbawan Village (Eastern Indonesia) (Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, Modern Indonesia Project, Monograph Series: 1961), p. 39Google Scholar.

26 Hanks, L. M. Jr., “Merit and power in the Thai social order,” American Anthropologist (1962), 64:1247–1261Google Scholar.

27 The highest headman's salary received in Ban Ping was the 60 baht a month which Maj K attained to by the time we left the field. Chiengkham headmen rarely receive their full pay, however, since costs of entertainment, supplies, and publications are subtracted in advance. When the district office is short of cash, they sometimes go without any pay. In Maj K's case, officials to whom he had personal debts were able to attach some of his salary.

28 M. Moerman, “Western culture and the Thai way of life.” Asia (1964), pp. 36–42. The Asia Society. New York.

29 cf. Goethals, op. cit. p. 54.

30 A Chiengkham official reported that the law requires headmen to vacate their office when: they die, reach the age of 60, are absent from their jurisdiction for over three months, break a law punishable by imprisonment or severe fine, resign, or are asked to leave by more than half of their constituents.

31 Ingersoll, op. cit., n.d.

32 Wolf, Eric R., “Aspects of group relations in a complex society: Mexico,” American Anthropologist (1956) 58:1065–1078, p. 1076CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 cf. Fallers, L. A., Bantu Bureaucracy (Cambridge, England: W. Heffer, 1956), p. 3Google Scholar.

34 cf. ibid., pp. 19–20.

35 cf. Jay, Robert R., Religion and Politics in Rural Central Java (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies Cultural Report Series #12, 1963), p. 45Google Scholar; Goethals, op. at., pp. 38–51; Bailey, F. G., Politics and Social Change: Orissa in 1959 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

36 Geertz, Clifford, Old Societies and New States (Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

37 cf. Silverman, Sydel F., “Patronage and community-nation relationships in central Italy,” Ethnology (1965), 4:172–189CrossRefGoogle Scholar.