Toward a Genealocy of Thai-Western Relations
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THAI-ED CJP,UN-THAI-ED: TOWARD A GENEALOCY OF THAI-WESTERN RELATIONS Nancy Lewis A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the deyee of Doctorate of Philosophy Graduate Department of Anthropology University of' Toronto 8 Copyright by Nancy Lewis 1999 National Library Bibliotheque nationale W1 .canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, fue Wellinglon ûîîawa ON K1A ON4 WwaON K1AON4 Canada Canada Vour hb Votre teterence Our lile Notro ref4rence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive Licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fomat électronique. The author retains ownershp of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Thai-ed Up, Un-Thai-ed: Toward a Genealogy of Thai-Western Relations Doctorate of Philosophy, 1999 Nancy Lewis Graduate Department of Anthropology University of Toronto A bstract This thesis is an exploration of Thai-westem relations using Foucault's genealogical method. The complex interactions of Thailand and the west are examined through readings of texts in the domains of history, ethnography, and feminism, paying particular attention to how western writers have conceptualized Thailand and Thai life and how Thai academics have wsponded to those constructions. The historical inquiry focuses on two moments in Thai history, the first in the 1680s when embassies flew between Europe and Thailand, then Siam, and the second in the 1860s when Anna Leonowens spent some years in the kingdom and laid the foundations for the views of Siam which were to metamorphose into the fabulous musical fantasy "The King and 1". The ethnographic examination looks at English-language Ilterature on Thailand, organized around themes of emotion and affect on one hand and structure and hierarchy on the other. The feminist investigation evaluates whether or not women are subordinated in Thailand, paying special attention to the topic of prostitution; the chapter concludes with a discussion of transgender individuals and how they function in the Thai sedgender system. These academic and published discounes are contrasted to the personal and immediate understandings of nine couples who the author interviewed whiie living in Thailand, one member of which was a Thai, one a white westemer. It is suggested that sociocultural analysis take account of powerful discursive conshuctions like orientalism yet allow individuals agency. In this study this is accomplished in two major ways: in the historical, ethnographie, and feminist analyses by juxtaposing western voices wherever possible to Thai ones; and in the work as a whole by contrasting acadernic and generalizing discourses to the particular, momentary, and practical experiences conveyed in the interview material. He wonders what on earth he is doing here. 1s he in search of a story of himsel f, or of an answrr to the riddles of history? Or is he merely trying to colour in the globe? (Margaret Drabble, The Gates of Ivory) Al1 ethnography is part philosophy, and a good deal of the rest is confession. (Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures) Table of Contents Introduction: Methodological Considerations ...................................... 1 WorkingThrough ................................................. 10 Silence and Disclosure ............................................ 16 Teminology ..................................................... 20 One: Historical Moments .....................................................22 hurung and Siam in the 1680s ......................................-25 Anna and the King of Siam .........................................49 Diversity. Assimilation. and Positionality .............................. 72 Two: Ethnographie Preoccupations ............................................-74 Affect and Expression ............................................. 77 Structure and Power ...............................................89 Heterogeneous Visions ........................................... 106 Three: Sexual Permutations .................................................. 109 Men. Women. and Power .........................................III Prostitution .....................................................128 GenderBenders ................................................. 146 Theory, Application, and Agency ...................................159 Four: Siamese Connections ...................................................161 Research and Ethics ..............................................163 introductions ................................................... 168 Meetings ....................................................... 172 Families ....................................................... 182 Communication .................................................193 Past Relationships ............................................... 206 GoingAbroad ...................................................210 Good Points, Bad Points .......................................... 218 Human Relations ................................................---333 Conclusion: Power and Resistance ............................................-229 Referencescited ...........................................................241 Introduction Methodological Considerations t the risk of seeming trivial or, even worse, sloppy, i would like to bcgin by Asaying that serendipity was my corn panion through the formative period of this project. The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines serendipity as "the facul ty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident", a rendering which perfectly captures the mood of Felicitous happenstance which characterizes much of this project and, indeed, of my entirr acquaintaiice with Thailand and things Thai. It was wanderlust which over a decade ago tirst brouçht me through Asia to Thailand - and beyond, 1 had planned - and delight in the tastes, sights, smells, and sounds 1 experirnced there which caused me to end my travels and stay for five years. It was chance that connected me with a long-term partner in Thailand and my drive to understand the political, cultural, gendered, and sexualized vagaries of our relationship which prompted the researches that have led me here. 1 admit that it was serendipity, too, that led me to many of the authors and ideas 1 work with and to the interviewees whose words I gratefully reproduce in the pages that fol low. Though these admissions may seem to flaunt scienti fic conventions of methodical study and reportage, serendipity need not denote haphazard or shoddy research, but can instead imply openness to unforeseen circumstances and ideas, and engagement with the unexpected twists and tums that an investigation such as mine tums up. This project is a genealogy in the sense that Foucault, followinp Nietzsche, intended: it is a historical exploration and a meditation on power. Genealogy, in Foucault's view, does not entail a search for origins, nor does it reveal a linear unfolding of events; instead, the genealogicai method cultivates a non-continuous view of history and explores diverse lineages of descent ( 1984: 80- 1 ). Genealogy draws from subjugated knowledges, a tenn designating two distinct types of leaming: erudite studies periphenlized by grand theoretical perspectives; and "local mernories", "incapable of unanimity", so particular and unsysternatized as to be disqualified from the academe altogether. What unites these two disparate knowledges is that tiiey cany "the memory of hostile encounters": they are concemed with power struggles (1980a: 82-3). Thus, for Foucauli, gencalogy is not disinterested: it restags again and again a "single drama", endlessly repeating the play of relationships of power and domination (1911.1: 85). Foucault conceived of power not as a possession - it is "never in anyone's hands" - but as something that circulates through people: "individuals are the vehiclrs of power, not its points of application" ( 198Oa: 98). He used the metaphors of nets (1980a) and capillaries ( 1980b) to describe the dispersed yet ubiquitous distribution of power through the social fabric. Power is exercised in relationships between individuals, each of whom has some possibility of action. The exercise of power by one does not erase the other's freedom: the other must always be "thoroughly recognized and maintained to the very end as a person who acts". Though in any particular instance one person may have greater potential for "guiding the possibility of conduct 3 and putting in order the possible outcorne", resistance is always possible (1983: 220-1). "Where there is power, there is resistance" ( l980b: 95). Foucault's researches focused on the ways in which human beings in the west are subjects of and subject to power ( 1983: 2 12). Foucault's introduction to his History of Sexuality, for example, showed how the development in the last few centuries of scientific discourses