Historical reality or "seductive mirage" a history of the Isan peasant family economy : the case of a Chaiyaphum Village

Abstract

To investigate the argument that the rural Thai peasant family of the past was an indiscrete unit with no formal organizational principles guiding its economy. It is hypothesized that this argument is incorrect, and that the rural Thai peasant family, in Isan, was a discrete unit with deeply founded principles which organized its economic processes. The research site is a Chaiyaphum Village, located in the capital district of Chaiyaphum Province, with the time period covered in the study extending from settlement and expansion up to the early 1960's. Over 42 villagers were interviewed about their personal economic histories, with an emphasis on their rice production processes. Research findings suggest that the family was an economic unit defined by fundamental principles of organization. In particular, it was found that the Isan peasant family before the early 1960's, in the case of a Chaiyaphum village, was a cohesive and cooperative unit of production and consumption, with low level labor specialization that was divided only on the basis of productive ability and production demands. The most common form of land transfer was inheritance, from parent to child, informally upon the marriage of the children and officially at the death of the parents. Family membership was clearly defined, and limited only to those who were primary participants in its production and consumption activities. Social relations with family outsiders were often ego-based, however, as the family was a highly integrated economic unit, any economic contribution from these ego-based social relations would generally affect the entire family unit.