Rural Thai
Spirit Mediums and Magic Monks in Thailand [journal article review]
Buddhist magic monks and spirit mediums in Thailand assist people both morally and spiritually, and they give them guidance on financial matters that may help them to become rich. Essential actors of what could properly be called “popular Buddhism,” they provide important services to the urban and rural Thai—in some ways, perhaps, more than the […]
Gender Equality in the Education of Thai Children [journal article review]
Sometimes numbers can be intriguing, particularly when they deal with challenges to fundamental social values such as equal opportunities for public school education. Umaporn Pattaravanich and others, in a recent journal article, cite several interesting statistics as part of their analysis of Thai secondary school attendance. The authors relate the changing statistics they cite to […]
Land Ownership and Internal Migration in Rural Thailand [journal article review]
In 2004 the journal Demography carried an article by Leah K. VanWey (reviewed here on April 7, 2005) that reported how rural female Thai migrants exhibit more altruistic behavior than rural males when they send remittances back to their villages. Van Wey has published another journal article about remittances in rural northeast Thailand, this time […]
Guns, Violence, and Thai Robin Hoods [journal article review]
A recent historical study on the rise of violent crime in mid-20th century rural Thailand provides an interesting balance to the analysis of their non-confrontational Buddhist peacefulness by Phillips (1965). Chalong Soontravanich, who is on the history faculty of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, describes the lack of weapons available to villagers 100 years ago. A […]
Spanking Fosters Anxiety and Aggression [journal article review]
Research conducted in America has shown that spanking children may foster their aggressive tendencies, but a recent investigation indicates that the cultural context of discipline is quite significant. In the current issue of Child Development, Jennifer E. Lansford from Duke University and a team of 14 co-authors report on the results of their study of […]
Well-Being among Thai Elders [journal article review]
According to a recent study, elderly Thai people have a generally positive sense of their own well-being, the result, in part, of the social interconnections that they emphasize in their culture. A study by four researchers published last year in the journal The Gerontologist points out that psychological well-being in many cultures is tied to […]
Thai Women Cherish Motherhood [journal article review]
While most mothers cherish the joy of having children, women all too often also become disillusioned by motherhood, their feelings heightened by the sense that, as mothers, they have lost their own identities. Feelings of inadequacy, of being “just a mother,” are mentioned frequently in the research literature about motherhood—at least in the research carried […]
Rural Thai Tolerate Transvestites and Transsexuals
A beauty contest for transvestites and transsexuals, held in Thailand on Saturday, highlighted the toleration for human differences practiced by the Rural Thai people. An AP dispatch about the Miss Tiffany Universe beauty pageant, carried by the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Boston Globe, Wilmington Star (North Carolina), Tuscaloosa News (Alabama), and numerous other media outlets […]
Thai Women Migrants More Altruistic than Men [journal article review]
In order to develop the rural areas of countries such as Thailand, families and communities often depend on the money and goods sent home by relatives with jobs in cities, such as Bangkok. Two different theoretical models, depending on the country under examination, have been described in the social science literature to explain the behavior […]
Forceful Mediators Foster Rural Thai Harmony [journal article review]
The people of rural Thailand dislike conflict so much—they feel it destroys social harmony—that they frequently turn to mediators to settle their disputes. For the Rural Thai, conflict not only undercuts positive social relationships, it may also result in a loss of face, which is a very important value for them. Their desire to avoid […]
