Ethnic Identity of the Peripheral Provinces of Thailand

• Authors: Adam W. Jelonek
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

It could appear that the process of Thai people becoming a national group and Thailand – a modern national state, is nothing exceptional. However, the last two centuries of the country’s history makes Thailand to some degree unique. In the 19th century the country’s confrontation with the expansion of European colonialism resulted in the adoption of the “Western” concept of a national state. The ruling Chakri dynasty made attempts to impose a uniform national identity on various ethnic groups inhabiting the peripheral lands of the kingdom. A number of reforms gradually led to the elimination of any signs of a local political or cultural autonomy and creation of a centralized political organism. To establish the current condition of the ethnic identity of peripheral regions’ inhabitants and the state of progress of the “homogenous Thai nation” creation, field studies seemed expedient from the beginning. The paper below is an outlined report of the research project which I have decided to start in conviction to confront the identity of the main peripheral regions of Thailand’s population with the evaluation of “political” nation establishment in that state.

Keywords

EN

THAILAND; ETHNICITY; IDENTITY; NATION

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2011
• Issue: 24
• Pages: 97-123

Contributors

author

Adam W. Jelonek

• Jagiellonian University, Institute of Middle East and Far East Studies, 3 Gronostajowa St., 30-387 Cracow