Civility and Savagery: Social Identity in Tai States

‘I highly recommend Civility and Savagery to scholars of the history and culture of Tai-speaking peoples.’ – The Australian Journal of Anthropology

The states, and other local political systems in question are part of the historical Tai language speaking cultural area, that ranges from the Yunnan province of China to the northern states of Malaysia, and from the eastern frontiers of Assam to northern Vietnam. ‘Thai’ (or ‘Siamese’) and ‘Lao’ states predominated but so did various ‘Shan’ and ‘Dai’ and other states which were under the suzerainity of Burma, China, and Vietnam. The book offers perspectives on pre-colonial and early modern situations, with links to the 1990s.

Concrete themes include contestations of ritual power, millenarianism, autocthony, language and literacy, labour policies, Islam-Buddhist relations, state ethnic policy, and royal involvement in discourses of Tai and neighbouring identities. Particular peoples include the Karen, Hmong, Akha, Tai Lue, Lao, Tai Dam, the Sam Sam of southern Thailand and Malaysia, the Khon Muang of Chiang Mai and Nana in northern Thailand, and the Thai within and beyond their present borders.

The insights and analysis are relevant to contemporary public attitudes and policies on social inclusion, social distinction and differentiation; to national language and cultural policy; and to debates about cultural nationalism.

The book marks a breakthrough in comparative studies in the Tai speaking region of South East Asia which have become more possible with the growth of scholarly as well as other social interchange, and of social and historical awareness and interest in indigenous history among ‘minority’ peoples in the region.