This chapter introduces the history of manners in Thailand, linking it to the sociological concept of habitus or 'second nature': how historical experience leaves its imprint on the way people speak, act, and think. It surveys the sociological literature about habitus, discussing in particular detail the work of Norbert Elias, including his famous study of the history of manners in Western Europe, The Civilizing Process. The chapter argues that Elias’s concept of a civilizing process may be adapted to the Thai context to better understand how manners in Thailand have evolved. It proposes that the history of manners in Thailand may be divided into four periods: the age of colonialism and absolutism (the second half of the nineteenth century); the age of revolution (the first half of the twentieth century); the age of reaction (the post-World War II period); and the age of democracy and development (since roughly the 1970s). The chapter also discusses the related concepts of civility and civilization.

This chapter argues that as the European powers moved into South, East, and Southeast Asia in the second half of the nineteenth century, the Thai kingdom, while remaining formally independent, was drawn into the diplomatic and economic orbit of the British Empire. One of the effects of this shift was that the old courtly styles of conduct were challenged by new bourgeois ideals of how to behave. This led to the emergence of the concept of the phu di, the gentleperson. The key aspect of the concept of the phu di was that one did not have to have been born into a noble family in order to perform good behaviour. The Thai court promoted the new ideal especially in what would become Thailand’s most famous manners manual, Qualities of a Gentleman (the manual continues to be published today). The chapter outlines how the Thai gentleperson ought to behave. The chapter also argues that from this period there were intense debates about what constituted good conduct, which was a reflection of the growing political tensions between the aristocracy and Western-educated civil and military government officials.

This chapter examines debates about manners and civility in the first half of the twentieth century. Tensions between aristocrats and Western-educated civil and military government officials culminated in the overthrow of the absolute monarchy in 1932. This period saw an outpouring of works about politeness and manners targeting the bureaucratic elite and the emerging middle class. Thai statesmen devoted a remarkable amount of attention to what they perceived to be the problem of manners and morals. Leading political figures on all sides of politics wrote about the subject. The model of ideal conduct that the absolute monarchy had developed for bureaucrats in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a hybrid between the palace courtier and the English gentleman, began to be challenged by new and more diverse conceptualizations of social relations, pushed by supporters of a more progressive political order. Yet the new rules for how to behave were resisted by supporters of the old aristocratic order. Some of them attempted to salvage what was left of the old courtly ways in books and novels and their own etiquette manuals.