The dispossessed : an anthropological reconstruction of Lawa ethnohistory in the light of their relationship with the Tai

Abstract

My thesis has three major components, two of which are conventionally ethnographic. The first is based on the Lua of Nan (Thailand) whom I lived with for five years (1978-1982) and emphasizes their matrifocality and matriliny (Part I). I then compare the Lua with other Lawa in Chiang Mai (Thailand) and in Yunnan (China) where I carried out a shorter period of fieldwork. The social structure of both latter groups of Lawa is patrilineal (Part II). One of my main purposes is to relate this contrast to variations in the historical experiences of Lawa in different regions of the Thai-Yunnan periphery. The third section is an enquiry into one of the major Lawa states in the past, reconstructed in my thesis, Lanna, within which women not only enjoyed prestige, power and authority over land and political domains, but also became the rulers and the foci royal memorial cults (Part III). The major argument of the thesis deviates from mainstream Southeast Asian ethnography which has typically categorized less 'developed' societies in the region as 'primitive,' 'tribal,' and 'stateless.' I argue to the contrary that the Lawa deemed themselves as the active agents of state-formation that has flourished since the early Buddhist era, that both matrilineal and patrilineal features and the social systems among these three groups of Lawa may be understood as having experienced a form of 'devolution' from earlier, far more complex and complicated political organization. The Tai expansion in Lanna had an impact on the social structure and system of the Lawa. After over 500 years of Lawa-Tai relationship, the Lawa ruling house appears to have adopted aspects of the royal Tai Yuan ruling order: male royal successors had become the first priority, and the patrilineal ruling order had been strongly practised. However, 'brother-sister marriage,' which had been a continuingly institutionalized tradition among the Tai Yuan court did not take hold within the Lawa matri-centred structure and system. It is suggested that such practices have developed into customs which take the form of matriliny in contemporary Lua (of Nan) society. In this connection, I suggest that the so-called present-day Northern Thai whose spirit cults are organized around matrilineal descent groups and provide a context for leadership by women and social control by females are heirs not only of Tai tradition but also of an earlier cultural heritage, i.e., Lawa tradition. Because of the resilience of such customs, Lawa collective identity persists without Lawa labels. 'Lawaness' and 'Thainess' have intermingled both socially and culturally, so that separate identities may no longer be distinguishable except through scholarly analysis. At present, the Thai (Siamese) have been able to incorporate Lanna into the centralized political system of modern Siam and to present their version of Lanna history to posterity, while suppressing contradictory views of the past. Nevertheless, an analysis of the Lua village society cannot dispossess them of the past, nor can deny them the cultural identity they have struggled to defend and to preserve. Show more