Trakun, Politics and the Thai State Katja Rangsivek To cite this version: Katja Rangsivek. Trakun, Politics and the Thai State. Social Anthropology and ethnology. University of Copenhagen, 2013. English. tel-00850357 HAL Id: tel-00850357 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00850357 Submitted on 6 Aug 2013 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. TRAKUN, POLITICS AND THE THAI STATE Katja Rangsivek Southeast Asian Studies Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies Prinicipal Supervisor: Dr. Dr.phil. Cynthia Gek Hua Chou Associate Professor with Special Qualifications Southeast Asian Studies Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies Co-Supervisor: Dr. Martin B. Platt Associate Professor Southeast Asian Studies Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies PhD Thesis February 2013 Faculty of Humanities University of Copenhagen i ii Abstract in English Political trakun are patrilineages that have distinguished themselves through engaging in politics over several generations by filling key positions of the state, such as the cabinet and parliament. The study of political trakun though has not yet been given academic attention. Despite most accounts of Thai political history being simultaneously the accounts of the royal and other elite families, little research has aimed to understand the entanglement of families and the state. The literature on Thailand after 1932 offers even less insight into Thai kinship politics. Political trakun, if they are mentioned at all, generally appear in footnotes, as anecdotes or as part of biographies. In this thesis I will address this gap. This thesis will show what political trakun are and how they are established. Their evolvement over the course of history and the way they adapted to changing political circumstances will also be examined. It will be explained how political trakun have been able to become entwined with the Thai state. This will be demonstrated through the analysis of the case studies of five political trakun in the larger context of Thai society and politics. Particular events from these trakun’s lives and careers, such as marriages, election campaigns and funerals, will function as lenses through which to critically reassess the intersection of seemingly disparate strands: the trakun and the state. This study will argue that political trakun have taken crucial positions in the Thai state over decades. In this way they have control of the state and amass resources which they can transform into economic and symbolic capital. This capital is used to win elections and to maintain the influential position of political trakun. Capital is reproduced through socialization from one generation to the next. Strategic marriages create alliances or strengthen cooperation in the trakun. Upon the death of one member of the trakun, the funeral mediates the possible loss of symbolic capital in all its forms. Hereby, the traditional funeral rituals are utilized and reinvented for the proliferation of the trakun’s symbolic capital. The role of political trakun shows that the Thai state is an abstract concept of an institution exercising sovereignty over a given territory, relating fundamentally to the maintenance of order within its territory and to the business of government. This has given rise to the image of an organizational structure, which is recognized as the state. The praxis of government, however, is performed by an entangled mass of interlocking relationships between individuals and groups of individuals. One type of such relationships that is integral to the Thai state is kinship relationships, which are manifest in the political trakun. iii iv Abstract in Danish Politiske trakun er patrilineære slægtsgrupper der har udmærket sig gennem engagement i politik igennem adskillige generationer ved at udfylde nøglepositioner i staten, såsom i kabinettet og parlamentet. De er endnu ikke blevet viet akademisk opmærksomhed. På trods af at de fleste redegørelser for Thailands politiske historie samtidig er beretninger om kongefamilien og andre elitefamilier, findes der ikke megen forskning der har søgt at forstå hvordan familierne og staten smelter sammen. Litteraturen om Thailand efter 1932 giver endnu mindre indsigt i slægtskabsrelateret politik i Thailand. Hvis de overhovedet nævnes optræder politiske trakun generelt i fodnoter, som anekdoter eller dele af biografier. I denne afhandling vil jeg behandle dette hul i litteraturen. Denne afhandling vil vise hvad politiske trakun er og hvordan de er blevet grundlagt. Ydermere vil deres udvikling gennem historien samt måden hvorpå de har tilpasset sig skiftende politiske omstændigheder blive undersøgt. Der vil blive givet en forklaring på hvordan politiske trakun har været i stand til at smelte sammen med den thailandske stat. Dette vil blive demonstreret gennem analyse af beretningerne om fem politiske trakun set i forhold til den bredere kontekst der udgøres af det thailandske samfund og af politik i Thailand. Specifikke begivenheder fra disse trakuns liv og karrierer, såsom ægteskaber, valgkampagner og begravelser fungerer som linser der skaber en optik som muliggør en kritisk gentænkning af krydsfeltet mellem tilsyneladende separate størrelser: trakun og staten. Dette studie vil argumentere for at politiske trakun har indtaget nøglestillinger i den thailandske stat gennem årtier. På denne måde kontrollerer de staten og samler ressourcer som de kan transformere til økonomisk og symbolsk kapital. Denne kapital bruges til at vinde valg og til at fastehold de politiske trakuns indflydelsesrige positioner. Kapital reproduceres gennem socialisering fra en generation til den næste. Strategiske ægteskabspagter skaber alliancer eller styrker samarbejdet i en trakun. Når et medlem af en trakun dør medierer begravelsen det mulige tab af symbolsk kapital i alle dets fremtrædelsesformer. Herved bliver traditionelle begravelsesritualer benyttet og genfortolket for at tjene til udbredelsen af trakuns symbolske kapital. Den rolle politiske trakun spiller viser at den thailandske stat er en abstrakt forestilling om en institution der udøver sin suverænitet over et givent territorium, og relaterer grundlæggende til opretholdelsen af orden indenfor dens territorium og til regeringsudøvelsen. Dette har frembragt et billede af en organisationsstruktur, der anerkendes som staten. Regeringspraksissen udføres af en sammenfiltret masse af relationer mellem individer og grupper af individer. En af disse typer af relationer, som er en uadskillelig del af en thailandske stat, er slægtskabsrelationer, som er åbenbare i de politiske trakun. v vi Contents Tables .............................................................................................................................................. x Figures............................................................................................................................................ xi Acknowledgment ......................................................................................................................... xiii Note on Translations, Transliteration and the Usage of Names ................................................... xv Chapter 1 Introduction............................................................................................................... 17 Kinship and Politics: Positioning this Study............................................................................. 18 Kinship Politics in the Philippines ........................................................................................ 19 Thai History and Political Trakun......................................................................................... 21 The Modern Thai State and Political Trakun........................................................................ 24 The Argument ........................................................................................................................... 28 Thesis Outline ........................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 2 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 34 Talking to Political Families ..................................................................................................... 35 Observing Political Families ..................................................................................................... 38 Written Sources on Political Families....................................................................................... 40 The Researcher.......................................................................................................................... 41 Identifying Political Families.................................................................................................... 43 Research Sample ....................................................................................................................... 46 The Choonhavans.................................................................................................................