Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T05:33:10.173Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Modernity’ and ‘Tradition’ in ‘Thailand’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Michael R. Rhum
Michael R. Rhum
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the terms ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’ as an ideal-typical pair and shows how they are typically misused as descriptive terms. It discusses the transformation of these terms' use from one of description to one of prescription as they are adopted by ‘developing’ nations. Focussing on Thailand, the paper shows how the term ‘tradition’, which formely stood alone, shifts in meaning as it is put into opposition to ‘modernity’, and how the pair serve as legitimating terms in a political context, tied to ‘nation-building’ and the interests of different political groups. This process and its ambiguities are explored through an examination of ritual, public monuments, and semantic changes.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 325 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1990 ‘Cartoons and monuments: the evolution of political communication under the New Order’. In Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (revised edition). London: Verso.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1982 (BE 2525). Mimeographed document. Chiang Mai: Municipal Government. (In Thai: ‘Program of the city merit-making tradition’.)Google Scholar
Aung-Thwin, Michael. 1991. ‘Spirals in Early Southeast Asian and Burmese History’ In Journal of Interdisciplinary History 21.4: 575–602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bendix, Reinhard. 1977. Nation-Building and Citizenship (second edition). Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bowie, Katherine A. 1993. ‘Assessing the early observers: cloth and the fabric of society in 19th-century Thai kingdoms’. In American Ethnologist 20.1: 138–58.Google Scholar
Bruner, Edward. 1991. ‘Between tourism and ethnography in Indonesia’. Paper Present at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.Google Scholar
Davidson, Donald. 1982, ‘On the very idea of a conceptual scheme’ In Meiland, J. W. and Krausz, M. (eds), Relativism: Cognitive and Moral. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Demaine, Harvey. 1986. ‘Kāpatthanā: Thai Views of Development.’In Hobart, M. & Taylor, R. H. (eds), Context, Meanig, and Power in Southeast Asia. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. 1991. ‘Anthropology and the development encounter: the making and marketing of development anthropology’. In American Ethnologist 18.4: 658–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gusfield, Joseph R. 1967. ‘Tradition and modernity: misplaced polarities in the study of social change’. In American Journal of Sociology 72: 351–62.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. J. & Terence, Ranger. 1983. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. J. 1990 Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1971. ‘Buddhism and national integration in Thailand’. In Journal of Asian Studies 30.3: 551–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keyes, Charles F. 1975. ‘Buddhist pilgrimage centers and the twelve-year cycle: Northern Thai moral orders in space and time’, In History of Religions 15.1: 71–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, E. R. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma. London: G. Bell & Son. (Current edition: London School of Economics.)Google Scholar
Leith, James A. 1991. Space and Revolution: Projects for Monuments, Squares, and Public Buildings in France, 1789–1799. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Pramot, Thatsanasuwan. 1982 (BE 2525). Brah Buddharūp læh Anusāvarī Sāmgâ d'ua Brahdeś Daiy (In Thai: Buddha Images and Important Monuments throughout Thailand). Bangkok: Samnakphim Kiatsayam.Google Scholar
Ramsay, Ansil. 1988. ‘Contemporary thai political evolution’. In Ramsay, A. and Mungkandi, W. (eds), Thailand–U.S. Relations: Changing Political, Strategic, and Economic Factors. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Rhum, Michael R. 1987a. ‘The Cosmology of Power in Lanna.’ In Journal of the Siam Society 75: 91–107.Google Scholar
Rhum, Michael R. 1987b. ‘The Future of the Past in Northern Thailand’. In Southeast Asian Tribal Groups and Ethnic Minorities. Cambridge, Mass.: Cultural Survival, Inc.Google Scholar
Rhum, Michael R. 1989. ‘The Lords of Ava: Spirit Rites in Northern Thailand’. In Crossroads 4.2: 53–62.Google Scholar
Rhum, Michael R. 1989. ‘The Ancestral Lords: Gender, Descent, and Spirits in a Northern Thai Village. Dekalb: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Special Report No 29, Northern Illionois University.Google Scholar
Riggs, F. 1954. Thailand: The Modernization of a Bureaucratic Polity. Honolulu: East-West Center Press.Google Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1993. ‘Goodbye to tristes tropes: ethnography in the context of modern world history’. The 1992 Ryerson Lecture. In The University of Chicago Record 27.3: 2–7.Google Scholar
Szambien, Werner. 1986. Les projets de l'An II: concours d'architecture de la période révolutionnnaire. Paris: Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts.Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. J. 1970. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in Northeast Thailand. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tambiah, S. J. 1984. The Buddhish Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thak, Chaloemtiarana. 1978. Thai Politics: Extracts and Documents, 1932–1957. Bangkok: The Social Science Association of Thailand.Google Scholar
Thongchai, Winichakul. 1988. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of Siam. Ph.D. dissertation: University of Sidney.Google Scholar
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. 1983. The invention of tradition: the highland tradition of Scotland. In Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983.Google Scholar
Tylor, E. B. 1871. Primitive Culture. London: J. Murray: (Reprint: 1983, Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.)Google Scholar
Vella, Walter. 1978. Chaiyo! King Vajiravudh and the Development of Thai Nationalism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Waldman, , Marilyn, Robinson. 1986. ‘Tradition as a modality of change: Islamic examples’. In History of Religions 26: 318–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar