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Local Knowledge, Dynamism and the Politics of Struggle: A Case Study of the Hmong in Northern Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2006

Aranya Siriphon
Aranya Siriphon
Affiliation:
Social Science Faculty at Chiangmai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. He may be contacted at: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Hmong are not passive actors who wait for help from development workers and other authorities. Instead, they actively engage themselves within a process of social negotiation between unequal socio-economic and political groups, a ‘dynamic knowledge system’. Three case studies from a Hmong Thantam community are used to better understand the process of social negotiation with multiple actors within complex power relations. More importantly, their dynamic local knowledge is used as a strategy to struggle against, and reconcile with, more powerful forces; the result of this process is the ‘complexity’ which happens as a response to power

It's possible to find knowledge from any place in the world when we humans learn from one another. Throughout the generations we Hmong have learned from many diverse sources. In order to fulfil our lives, we young Hmong still learn from the whole world. Laoyeng Saehang, A headman of Thantam village, Northern Thailand, 1998.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 2006 , pp. 65 - 81
Copyright
2006 The National University of Singapore

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