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THAILAND-ALOOSELYSTRUCTUREDSOCIALSYSTEMB y JOHN F. EMBREE

H A IL A ND (Siam) lies in the heart of Indoch ina in th e midst of a broadT culture area which includes French Laos an d Cam bodia to th e east a ndthe Shan States of Bu rma to th e west. Th is region is mad e u p of T ha i speakingpeoples who came down from th e old kingdom of N anc hao in w hat is nowYunn an. Before th at th ey appe ar to have been inha bitants of Szechwan.Dodd, for instance, presents some linguistic evidence for this.2 B ut Crednerholds a different view an d th inks th at the y came into t he T ali region of Yu n-nan from th e east.3 Th e present distribution of Th ai speaking peoples in Szech-wan, Yunnan, and Kwangsi makes both theories plausible. Whichever mayprove to be correct, th e present Tha i people of Indochina ap pear to ha ve comeinto the southern area from Yunnan, spreading out into Thailand, northernBurm a (Shan), and the upper valleys of T onkin (Lao, Thai, an d Th o). Bo thDodd and Credner emphasize the fact that the Thai have a lways been wetrice cultivators and settlers in valleys and plains suitable for this type ofeconomy. The basis of Credners theory t ha t they came to Y unnan f rom th eeast is his view th at t he T ha i are not on ly valley dwellers bu t tropical p add ycultivating valley dwellers. T hus t he T ha i are q uite distin ct historically an dculturally from th e moun tain peoples of No rth Indochina suc h as th e Yao,Meo, Lolo, an d W a.All stu den ts of Th ai history are agreed on th e nor the rn origin of t h e prese ntT ha i people, The y are also agreed on th e historic influences of H in du cult urein the area as ref lected in the themes from th e R am ayan a in dram a an d l i ter-atu re, the form of dress (panung) , a n d t h e I nd ia n c ou rt t e r m i n ~ l o g y . ~Anotherimp ortant Indian influence which seems to have come to the T ha i via B urm awhen they were st il l in the N orth was M ahay ana Buddhism a nd some Brah-manistic practices; later, abo ut th e sixth centur y, A.D., t he Hinayana fo rm ofBuddhism became predom inantasThai cul ture is markedly different from that of Vietnam (Annam), aregion with long historic contact with China and under actual Chinese rule

* Studi$s of Th ai culture are few. Useful material is to be found in Grahams Siam, in DoddsThe Tai Race, in Landons Siam in Transition (Ch. 8 ) , and especially in Chandruangs autobio-graphical M y Boyhood i n Siam. A valuable old source is De la LoubBre, A New Historical Relationof the Kingdom of Siam. The only anthropological analysis of Thai cultural materials is ThaiCulture and Behavior by Ruth Benedict. The present paper is based on several trips to Thai-land, the first of which was in 1926 and the last in 1948. I n 1947, th e author was United State scultural officer in Bangko k an d lat er in Saigon, Frenc h In doch ina.2 Dodd, 1923. Credner, 1935.Coedb , 1944; Landon, 1949; Wales, 1937.Landon, 1949, pp . 100 et seq.

181

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182 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [ 5 2 , 1950for many centuries. Th e religion of Vietnam is a com bination of Tao ism andM aha yan a Buddhism, w ith rituals similar to those of Ch ina; family relation-ships and rituals are Confucianist.6 Thus despite their northern origin, theTh ai draw much of their cu ltura l heritage in religion, literatu re, an d a r t fromInd ia, while the Vietnamese heritage is dra w n from China.Thai culture is also markedly different from the Islamic Malayan cultureto th e south in the Peninsula and in Indonesia. B oth s hare Ind ian influences,bu t the dom inant religions in the tw o areas-Hinayana an d Islam-are differ-ent , and so are man y other aspects of their cultu re. For example, th e T ha i area land-bound people in contras t to the seafaring M alays; a nd th e Th ai modeof dress differs from t h a t found in Indonesia.

A t the same time, despite these important cultural diversities, there areseveral culture trai ts which Th ailan d shares in comm on with the w hole South-east Asiatic area: wet rice agriculture as a basis of subsistence, roastingof th e mo ther ju st af ter childbirth,* chewing of betel a nd blackening of th etee th,s play ing of kickbal1,O an d th e pis ton bellows.llIt is within this cultural context that some observations on certain char-acteristics of T ha i cu ltu re are to b e made , especially those which concern th equestion of relative integration of a culture in ter m s of a loosely as again st aclosely woven social str uc tur e; loosely integ rate d here signifying a cultu re in

which cons iderable var iation of ind ividual behav ior is sanctioned . Som e ofthese traits may be shared to some exten t by peoples of neighboring cultures,bu t for the most part the y are characteristics which mark off Th ailand an d th eculture area to which it belongs from the type of culture represented byVietnam in Ind ochina or Japan t o the n orth eas t. These last, of course, differfrom each other, but both contrast with Thai culture in having more tightlywoven cultures-that is, cultures whose pa tter ns ar e clearly m ark ed an d whichemphasize the impo rtance of observing reciprocal rights a nd du tie s in varioussituations to a greater degree th an is to be found among th e T hai.Th e first characteristic of Th ai culture to strik e an observer from t he W est,or from Japan or Vietnam, is th e individualistic behavior of th e people. T helonger one resides in T haila nd th e m ore one is struc k by th e almost determinedlack of regularity, discipline, and regimentation in Thai life. In contrast toJapan, Thailand lacks neatness and discipline; in co ntra st to Am ericans, theThai lack respect for administrative regularity and have no industrial t imesense.When two or three Th ai walk along the road together there is no att em ptto keep in ste p or to swing the arm s in rhy thm . On th e con trary, each individualBrodrick, 1942. Adams, 1948. * Cole, 1945.Huard, 1939,1948. lo Emhree, 1948;Kaudern, 1929. I1 Cole, 1945.

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E ~ R E E ] T H A I L A N D - A LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIAL SYSTEM 183walks along as if he were alone.12 Th is is a tra it comm on enough in no nli ter atesocieties and also in rural India, but it is in marked contrast to cultures suchas the Western European, American, or Japanese. Regimented walking to-gether, with clock time consciousness of minutes and hours and their signifi-cance in Western culture have been discussed for Western Europe by LewisMum ford in his Technics and Cki l i~al ion. ~Walking in step is no mere culturalcuriosity, bu t is an i m po rta nt index t o a whole way of life which stresses regu-larity of behavior of the keep in line an d b e on tim e var iety . C erta inly inThailand, individualism in walking is associated with a number of other traitswhich ma y well be more th an mere coincidences. Th e Th ai have often gone t owar against their neighbors in Burma and Cambodia, but until the 1920sthey never developed a regular standin g arm y of a ny size. Indeed , a t one timeth e king ha d guards of Japanese, French a nd Portuguese soldiers,14 who,however, were as much for mainta ining t h e balance of pow er uis d vis Europeancountries as they were for the conduct of organized warfare. Not only is themilitary tradition weak, b ut T hai peasants, when dra fted into military service,show little apt itu de for t h e life of a soldier. Th ey do n ot care for its discipline,and t hey show a m arked reluctance t o go into battle.I6Individualistic behavior is found in other aspects of Th ai life. In t h e family,the father is pu tativ e head, and children a re supposed t o obey their pare nts.B ut in practice, ther e is none of t he stron g sense of d u ty an d obligation toparents which is so characteristic, in diverse ways, of Vietnam, China, andJapan. Even t he family precepts in this regard are milder, since the T ha ifollow th e Buddh ist ra ther th an t he Confucian rules. C han dru ang , for example,quotes t he following Bud dhist rules of f amily obligations:

These are the duties of paren ts to their children: giving food, clothing, and shelter,forbidding wrongdoing, encouraging right conduct, giving education, assisting themin matrimony, and transferring properties to them in good time.Th e duties of children toward their parents are: taking care of them when they areold, helping them in their work, keeping the good name of the family, obedience, trust-worthiness, using their properties sensibly, and remembering them after their death.It is notable t h at these rules include du ties of p ar en ts t o children as well as ofchildren t o parents. Also, it is th e mother who tran sm its these teachings t o herchildren, not the father. She transmits them as sage advice rather than asmandatory obligations.

12 While tw o friends do no t walk in step they do maintain psychic contact by holding handsor by on e holding a finger or tw o of the other. This is a common action among young men aswell as young women, but not, traditionally, of a young man ond a young woman.l 3 Mumford, 1934, e.g., qp. %91. 14 Hutchinson, 1940, p. 34; Prabha, 1949.Thompson, 1941, p. 296. l6 Chandruang, 1940, pp. 141-142.

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184 A M E R I C A N ANTHROPOLOGIST [52, 1950By contrast th e Chinese system of filial pie ty emphasizes strongly th emasculine side of th e fam ily an d th e duties of children t o pa rent s, especiallyto th e father, and of wife to husband. T here is a strong emphasis on a clear-cu t system of reciprocal rights an d du ties which all proper people shou ld follow. In practice . . . hsiao (filial pie ty) is demanded of children tow ard all the mem-bers of the parental generation an d ab ove ; and ti (respectful obedience) must

be shown by young people tow ard a ny older person in their own generation.Th e fath er is head of t he family an d inheritance is thro ug h him. Variousmem bers of th e family a re expected to respect h is word. If the father dies,th e eldest son is supposed t o look aft er his mo the r and siblings. For exam ple,Chan druang writes, F at he r, as th e eldest son, was obligated to look after hismother and his younger brother and sister. He wanted, however, to go toBangkok for further education, an d so, he consulted with his mother on theidea. . . . She naturally refused, for she needed him to work on the farm.l*Nonetheless, he left for the city. Later he revisited her, and when he beggedher forgiveness, she gave it. T his kind of loose obligation an d adj us tm en t offamily relations to t he desires of individuals in it is not unco mm on. I n an oth erfamily with which first hand con tact was had in Bangkok, th e father, a govern-mental official, had left his family to marry another woman and the firstwife looked after th e children. One of her sons, also married , left B ang kok forpolitical reasons and left his small son with the grandmother. The man, inhis place of exile, married an othe r w oman. W hen informed of t hi s dev elopm entthe mother and sisters were interested but not surprised; and one sister re-marke d, H e always liked to ha ve a lot of women arou nd him.Th e point here once more is tha t th e stru ctu re of the family is a loose one,and while obligations are recognized, they are not allowed to burden one un-duly. Such as are sanctioned are observed freely by th e individual-he ac tsof his own will, no t a s a result of socia l pressu re.Thus, again, Chandruangs father took a second wife, Rieu, a girl not toowell educated an d one who had a difficult time in her relations with the o the rwomen of the household. La te r, Rieu went a w ay to Bangkok for her heal th,and after a time fell in love with someone there. Before she remarried, sheasked Chandruangs fathers permission, which he gave. F at he r fel t sorry forher and gave her a few hundred ticals to start a new life with her new hus-band.l9 He was under no social pressure to do this, bu t he felt sorry for her.Similarly, the political exile, while under no obligation to keep in touch withhis mother in Bangkok, did so when opp ort un ity offered because he wanted to.By co nt ra st, if some individual-often a woman-wishes to be uncoope ra-tiv e with other m emb ers of her family, sh e can become very difficult. R ieusuffered, not from t he first wifes jealousy, b ut fro m t he veno m of her m other.

I7 Titiev and Tien, 1947, pp. 261-262 (Emphasis supplied).I* Chandruang, 1940, p. 16. Chandruang, 1940, p. 180.

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E M B R E E ] THAILAND-A LQOSELY STR UCT UR ED SOCIAL SYS TEM 185Prince C hakrabongse , when he brought home a R ussian wife, faced oppositionfrom his mother, who upbraided her son and so made his brides position adifficult one.2o She should have received her daughter-in-law on arrival bysocial tradition ; but as a woman she did not wish to, and there was a n end toit . A year l ate r, however, she softened a nd did receive th e foreign daughter-in-law.W here social str uc tu re is close-that is, where th e behavior of th e peopleconforms closely to the formal social pa tte rn s of hum an relations, a s inJapan-it is difficult for an individual t o dev iate, an d reciprocal rights an d duties areclearly marked and carried ou t. Under such conditions, a foreign bride m ay notbe approved, but once she becomes a m ember of th e family, then th e formsat least will be observed. The mother would receive her even though it hurtto do so. I n Siamese society it is relatively easy to achieve a jait accompli bydoing something not approved by othe r members of t h e group. Bu t in so doingone does not necessarily achieve th e acceptance of th e others. T he accom-plished fac t does not accomplish much.Th e local group in Japa n, th e ham let, has a clearcut social un ity with spe-cial ceremonies for ent ry and exit and a whole series of rig hts a nd obligationsfor its members. Each m an must sooner or lat er assume th e responsibility ofbeing th e represe ntative of th e local grou p, each mus t assist on occasions ofhamlet cooperation such as road building or funeral preparations. I n T ha ila ndthe hamlet also has its own identity and the members also have rights andduties, but they are less clearly defined and less strictly enforced. Exchangesystems are less clear cut. T hu s in T hailand, with it s mobility of populationand lack of emphasis on long term obligations, we do not find the financialcredit associations (KO) which extend over twenty years or so in a Japanesefarm com mu nity. B ut th ey are found in China an d Vietnam, a reas in which wefind societies similar to Japan in the sense here used.21Th e difference in closeness and looseness of cu ltu ral pa tte rn as betweenThailand and such a culture as the Japanese may also be seen in games ofpoem exchange. In Japan a well known socia1game involves knowing byheart a hundred classical poems, so that when two lines are recited by onecontestant th e other can complete the poem with the remaining lines. In ruralJapan the folk poetry is less likely to take a contest form and there is someimprovisation, but by and large the texts are remarkably standard in anygiven region.22In Thailand also there a re poetic contests, bu t here, while thereis a general plot to which any given series of rhymes must conform, there ismuch room for improvisation a nd direction of th e sto ry to su it t he occasion.2sBoth societies have poem contests, but one is bound by tight formal rules

20 Chula, 1943, p. 16.21 Embree, 1939, pp. 138-151; Fei, 1939, pp. 267-274; Vinh, 1931.a Embree, 1949. *a Bidyalankarana, 1926.

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186 AMERICAN ANTEROPOLOGIST [52, 1950while th e other stresses individual variation within broad bounda ries of rh ym eand plot.Still another m anifestation of th e Th ai way is found in ca ba ret life. I nSingapore the Chinese have organized cabarets so that there is no dancingwith the taxi dance-girls without tickets, and the whole procedure is wellorganized to give a steady financial profit to the management. Bangkok alsohas cabarets-but no man ager ha s succeeded in runn ing one Singapore style.Each girl comes or does no t come on a given night as sh e pleases; she m ay ormay not require a guest to buy a dance tic ke t; an d if sh e goes home w ith himafterward she m ay or m ay not be mercenary ab ou t it, depending on how shefeels. A man from Singapore with some experience in cabaret managementcommented unfavorably to me on the casual way in which these things aredone in Bangkok. Ca ba rets are , of course, an innov ation in Bangkok fromthe W est, bu t the permissive behavior pa tt er n of man agers and th e individualbehavior of th e girls ar e characteristically Th ai. E ve n if th e m anager isChinese or European he finds it necessary to adjust his management to theThai way.This unreliability, as Westerners are likely to call it, does not reflectnaivet6. One evidence of this is th a t in th e average business deal it is th e for-eigner-not th e Thai-who loses his mo ney, And on a natio nal scale, Tha ila ndby a combination of good luck an d clever diplomacy, managed t o reta in herpolitical independence when all the small countries around her succumbed toEuropean colonial control. The good fortune was the Franco-British rivalryin Southeast Asia which made of Th ailan d a buffer s ta te between BritishBurma and French Indochina. But of itself this could not have saved theindependence of t he nation. W ha t saved it was the diplom atic skill of th e Th ai-a kind of delay an d doubletalk which doubtless irrit ate d more th a n oneforeign diplomat, but which succeeded in preventing them from ever joiningforces to carve up the country. In this regard Thailand has been more suc-cessful tha n an y African country or than such a buffer st at e as Poland.In her diplomacy Thailand succeeds in exploiting her cultural differencesfrom the West. While never so adamant in her resistance to some Westerndemand as to force a showdown fight and sure defeat, w hat the Th ai govern-mental official does is first to smile and if this is not sufficient to disarm theunwelcome stranger he also says, smilingly, Yes, Ill see. I n t he weeks,months , or yea rs of seeing how th e foreigners wish can b e impleme nted ,some new factor usually e nters th e pic ture either to make the foreigner changehis mind or to give the T ha i government some oppo rtunity backed by outsidestreng th to give a negative reply,To tell a lie successfully, to dupe someone else, is praiseworthy in Thaiculture-a tradit ion tha t, no doubt, has not been without uti l i ty to the nation

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EMBREE] THAILAN D-A LOOSELY STRUC TURE D SOCIAL S Y S T E M 187in its foreign relations. I t is not so praiseworthy to have ones lie discovered,however, an d one so discovered invites an y punishment he m ay receive. The reare many sayings bearing on the point, an d man y of the popular stories col-lected by Le May reflect an admiration for the man or woman who can suc-cessfully deceive another. It is sham eful to be caught, bu t clever to succeed;a n d the moral of ma ny of the stories an d sayings is th a t one shou ld alwa ys be

A good liar, of course, requires a cool tem per am ent , an d the T h a i accordconsiderable respect to this. There is a special term, choei, to refer to a cooltem peram ent; Landon has described this in his Siam in Transition:T he word is seldom applied in a derogatory manner unless used by a foreigner who

is trying to break down lassitude and indifference. Siamese regard it as complimentaryand the attitude it expresses as a virtue. It means the ability to take life as it comeswithout excitement. He who meets the crises of life with cool mien is choei. A certaingirl, who held a prominent position and who, when caught in adultery and theft andstood to lose both good name and position, met the situation with a coolness that wasmost astonishing, was described by Siamese as undeniably choei. The term impliescoolness of attitude toward work, responsibility, or tr0uble.2~A form er government official of cabine t ran k exp ressed th e belief th a tpolitical parties are not likely to succeed in Thailand because the people are

too individualistic and do not l ike to work in organizations. I n c ontras t t o th eJapanese th e Th ai do not allow a n obligation of loyalty t o a chief t o ta ke pre-cedence over other considerations. Th us one m ay often see a man prominentin one political grou p tod ay join forces with t he le ader of a d ifferent grouptomorrow if circumstances warran t. S everal of Prem ier Phibu ns op po nen ts of1947 were his po litica l allies in 1948.Together with Thai individualistic behavior within a loosely integratedsocial structure is an attitude of minding ones own business when it comesto ma tters of ac tion. A thief can steal from a mans house an d not be stop pedunless the owner himself raises the alarm. A man may assault someone infull view of onlookers, who will make no move to interfere. This is anothersharp contrast to traditional Japanese culture where personal property-atleast before 1945-was usually remarkab ly safe, an d house keys the exception.A thief or assaulter would soon be caug ht a nd su bdu ed by neighbors or by-sta nde rs if obs erved .An im portan t fact in Tha i life is th e ut ter insecurity of physical property.This applies not only to a piece of clo thing laid out t o dr y, bu t even to te mp le

14 LeMay, 1930.There are several tales in this collection which reflect this pointof view-forexample, The Snare, The Glass Stopper, and The Lo ve Lesson. Buddhist m orality, how-ever, condemns the lie, and schoolteachers stress the virtue of not telling one .26 Landon, 1939,p. 148.

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iaa AMERICAN ANTRROPOLOGIST [52,1950property. Eve ry temple altar m ust be locked up when no priests are present.In Bangkok all frame houses are supplied either with shutters, which arelocked a t night, or with iron bars on t h e windows. Th e more well-to-do ha vetheir property surrounded by a wall provided with a lockable gate. T his ever-present danger of house-breaking and theft, which is no new thing in urbanThai life, means that nothing of any value can ever be left unlocked. A tChulalongkorn University library, for instance, all books are kept in lockedbookshelves. Such a situatio n requires a co nst ant alertness on th e pa rt of eventhe small prop erty owner. It does not encourage either neighborly trust or asluggish mind.A t th e local group level, while th e people live by wet rice agriculture , thereseems to be a less closely woven pa tt e rn of coop erative organization for accom -plishing agricultural labor as compared with, say, Japanese society. In con-sidering this, and perhaps th e family struc ture , too, i t m ust be borne in mindth at th e number of people per sq uar e mile is not nearly so great in agricu lturalTh ailan d as it is in agricultural Japan or Vietnam. D ense population m ay en-force more carefully laid ou t modes of interpersonal conduct. Gro up pressuresan d set patte rns of behavior become more imp orta nt for harmonious gro up lifewhere many men live in little space.Th e lack of th e intense insular patriotism am ong th e T ha i, which is socharacteristic of th e Japanese islanders, affords a no the r co ntra st. T h ai a s arule are not ethnocentric; they are not anxious t o prove to themselves an d toothers th at they an d their co untry are superior. A t the sam e t ime there doesexist pride of race. Th e reaction of Prince Chakrabongses mo ther t o his ma r-riage with a Russian girl, already mentioned, was a n example of this. Prem ierPh ibu n ha s gained some of his pop ul ari ty by m eans of an tiforeign pronounce-ments. H e also, like some Japanese political leaders, trie d t o reform T h ai cus-toms, to modernize them . Y et though this resembles some of the Japanesereactions to Western cultural influence, the phenomenon is much less generalin Thailand. W hen Th ai intellectuals criticize Phibu n, they scorn his att em pt sto make us civilized. Such people assume that they are civilized and thatstriving t o im itate W estern cu stom too seriously is rathe r t o be ridiculed.Th e class structu re of Tha iland in th e day s of the absolute m onarchy pro-vided for the situa tion created b y th e custom of extensive royal polygynyby a rule that each succeeding generation lost rank until by the fifth genera-tion, the descendents of ro yal ty rank ed a s common people. F ormally t h e sys-tem was a neat one as follows:

The sons and daughters of the king and of the queens are born with the title SomdetChao Fa while those of the king and of ladies who are not queens are Phra Ong Chao.The children of Chao Fa and Phra Ong Chao are Mom-Chao, their children being Mom

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EHBREE] THAILAND-A LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIAL SYSTEM 189Racha Wongs, and the next generation Mom Luang and the next are without title ofany s0rt.~6However, it was always possible for th e king t o confer titles on m en of abilityor favor, and so raise them in rank. The declining descent rule, in turn, ap-plied to their children, but in this case, too, could always be counteracted byconferred rank.Succession to t he th ron e was through a younger brother, or th e eldest sonof one of th e queens-rules not so str ict bu t t ha t various asp irants to the thronefel t fre e to m ake personal bids for power. T his unc ert ain ty of succession oftenled to extensive assassinations. For example, when K ing B udayot F a died in1809 his son, fearing, or feigning to dread, conspiracies against him, put todea th one hundred and seventeen Siamese nobles, among whom were severalgenerals who had fou gh t a t his fathers side against th e bur man^."^'The lack of interest in exact procedures was dramatically demonstratedwhen King Chulalongkorn died and no one seemed to know in detail th e properritual procedures.

Preparations were then hurriedly begun for the b athin g ceremony which is alwaysperformed as soon as possible after dea th; and af ter th at for the conveyance of thebody to the G rand Palace for the lying-in-state. B ut now difficulties arose. The cere-monies to be observed were all laid down by an cient tradition bu t no one could be foundwho remembered them. It was 42 years since a Kin g of Siam had died. No preparationscould be made beforehand, for to ha ve discussed th e funeral rites w hile the King stilllived would ha ve been regarded as treason. T he details of th e procession had also to bearranged. So the archives were searched, old documents consulted; there were endlessdiscussions. It all meant delay, with the result that what should have happened in theafternoon did not begin till well after sunset. It was seven oclock and qu ite d ark beforethe bathing ceremony was over.2*

I n modern Thailand the school system is, as in Jap an, a national one, withteachers appointed an d curricula fixed by the s tate . In th e schools themselvesteachers and stud en ts wear uniforms an d t he children are expected to re-spect teachers, but there is none of the stiff formality in th e Th ai classroomcomparable to tha t in Japan. T he teacher may speak quite informally and thepupils are under no compulsion to sit at attention. And while the total sys-tem is sta te run , many schools operate largely on th eir own in itiativ e fo r lackof properly qualified teachers from norm al schools an d for lack of sufficienttext books and school equipm ent. T hi s is another example of how t w o struc-p6 Graham, 1912, p . 216.27 Mouhot, 1864, vol. 1, p. 92. Further evidenceof the loosenessof the rules of succession is to2* Smith, 1947, p. 120.be found in Kaempfer, 1906 (writing in the 17th century), p. 36 and ChuIa, 1943, p. 16.

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190 A M E R I C A N A N TH R O PO L O GI ST [52, 19.50t u r e s , s imi la r o n p ap e r , a r e q u i t e d i ff e ren t in o p e r a t i o n , t h e o n e ( t h e J a p a n es e )be ing c losely kn i t , th e o th er ( th e Tha i ) loosely woven .

Nea tn e s s a s a cu l tu r a l t r a i t s eems to b e r e l a ted to t h e c lo sen es s of a socials t ru c tu re . F o r ex amp le , t h e n ea tn e s s so s tressed in a Japanese household i sn o t a b l y a b s e n t in t h e T h a i h om e . I n a ro y a l h o u seh o ld , S mi th n o ted , T h eo th e r ro o ms in th e h o use wh e re th e f ami ly li ved w e re c l ean b u t n ev e r t i d y, 2 9a s t a t em en t eq u a lly t ru e of o rd in a ry T h a i h o mes to d ay . E v en in d re ss t h eT h a i a r e i n d iv id u a l , o r r a th e r u n u n i fo rm. A l e ss regu la r fo rm of d ress thanth e loosely d rape d paizung would be difficult to f ind. Officials now we ar W es ter ns ty l e u n ifo rms , b u t t h e ir g a r m en t s a r e s e ld o m v e ry n ea t .

T h e re a r e so me o th e r ch a rac t e ri s ti c s of Thai soc ie ty which may wel l beassoc ia ted wi th t he ind iv idua l i s t ic behav ior of t h e people an d th e loose in te -gra t ion of t he soc ie ty . O ne of t hes e is th e a t t i tu de of p eo p le to wa rd wo rk .

I n J ap a n, as i n p u r i t an New E n g la n d , wo rk is r eg ard ed as a v i r tu e , a n d a neasy li fe of se lf- indulgence is considered w rong. I n C hin a har d w ork is th eru le bu t , accord ing to I-Isii, it is not of itself a vir tue- indeed, t h e w ea l th ymans son i s expec ted n o t to w ork as a s ig n t h a t t h e f a t h e r is T h e V i et -n amese a r e a h a rd -wo rk in g p eo p le an d p u t a co n s id e rab le p remiu m o n th i st ra i t . F or th e poor , phys ica l labor i s a n eces s ity , b u t w i th t h e w ea l th y , wh i te -co l la r tasks in government o r as scho la rs a re p res t ige-g iv ing-and a Viet-n amese is w illin g t o wo rk lo ng an d h a r d an d d en y h imsel f m an y p l ea su re s i norder to ach ieve a n a m e i n t h e a d m i n i s t r a t i v e o r s c ho l ar ly w o rl d. T h i s is n o tt h e p o in t of v iew o f t h e T h a i . W o rk is n o t r eg a rd ed as good in i t se l f . Th er e i s,on t h e c o n t r a r y , a good dea l of a t t en t io n pa id to th ings w hich g ive en jo ym ent .P leasure is often considered a good th ing per se.

A word th at indicates an imp ort an t pa rt of the S iamese charac ter is th e wordsnuk. I n its simplest aspects it means fun-loving or pleasure-loving. The wordalso means a deep interest in som ething, mom entarily, t o t he exclusion of all else.T he Siamese are a pleasure-loving people, as is shown by the ir ready lau ghter. Th epeople they like are those who can make them laugh and feel happ y. Siamese ha ve re-marked that they respect those who make them laugh. They enjoy a show, a dance, agame, a trip to some near or distant point. To travel is definitely snuk. The ideaof snuk carries even into religion. A group of Siamese attended a Christian Churchservice for the first time. T hey remarked, a ft e r leaving th e church, th at the service wasnot snuk and that they would n o t come aga in. When they were asked if Buddhismwas snuk, they said that it was. Their religion not only provided a method of wor-ship, bu t also a system for satisfying the social needs of the group. T he temple is thefocal point of the community, the centre around which revolve the religious rites, thepicnics, the plays, and th e other amusem ents of the people. Th e religious year h as d aysfor boat racing, sports, games, trips t o holy places, shadow shows, and festive parades.So even religon becomes s n ~ k . ~ ~

29 Smith , 1947, p. 121. (Writing a s of th e late 19th century.)3o Hsu, 1948, p. 274. Landon, 1939, p. 143.

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EMBREE] THAILA N D - A LOOSELY STRUCTURED SOCIAL SYSTEM 191Related to this point of view is the problem of th e Th ai stude nt abr oad.The Chinese and Japanese drive for learning is not a Siamese characteristic.There is, however, a prestige associated with study in Europe or the UnitedStates; and then, travel is pleasurable. A reflection of these factors is thatma ny T ha i are not so much interes ted in going abroa d for the love of learnin g,but rather in order to visit some well known A merican or British institution .I t is more imp ortant to hav e attended Oxford, or Yale, or Princeton, even if onedoes not tak e a degree, than it is to have gradu ated from some smaller or lesswell-known college.Tha i stude nts, when th ey return hom e after a period of years abro ad, findit difficult to readjust to Thai l ife. They are not content with some lowly

office job or teaching post, but feel they m ust head a dep artm ent or a labora-tory, and if not , tha t their ta lents are wasted. T he net resul t is th at manyof these re turned students en ter poli tics or t r y to manage a n import-exportcompany or, better sti l l , obtain a government appointment overseas. Thusth e returned Th ai stude nt often does not join t h e lower ranks of a bod y of o the rThai scholars and scientists and so build up a strong university or researchcenter. Each m an rath er tries somehow to exploit th e prestige value of hisforeign residence so as to obtain a pleasant post . Th e net resul t is th at thereis no well-manned Thai university or scientific center in the country today,despite the generations of T ha i who have studied a t t h e worlds best univer-sities.Such evidence as has been given from Thailand, when c ontra sted w ith th atof J apan or Vietm an, would indicate t h a t there is considerable var iatio n inthe rigidity of th e stru ctur es of different societies even w hen these str uct ure sat certain points bear surface similarities as, for instance, in fam ily organiza-tion or the school system . T he permissiveness of individual behavioral varia-tion in the culture does not mean t h at th e society is poorly integrate d. On t hecontra ry, th e loose integration is a functio nal one, allowing not only va riationin individual behavior but also in national behavior. It has a survival valuewhich may well go back to th e early days of extensive T ha i migrations an dwhich has served the natio n well to th is da y. I n such a society th e processesof acculturation m ay prod uce fewer dysfunctional social situatio ns th an thosewhich ha ve occurred in, say , Vietnam society-that is, a loosely inte gra tedstructu re such as the T hai may adjus t t o external cultural influences with lessdrastic overall changes than a more rigid structure such as th e Japanese orVietnamese. Both types may adjust successfully in the sense of retainingtheir basic cultu ral values, but t he ad justm ents a re of different forms, a ndprobably th e Th ai type of adjus tme nt causes less nervous stra in on th e peopleinvolved tha n does th e Japanese. Thu s, in a broad sense, th e loose integrationdoes serve a social function. However, i t should be remarked th at the re seemst o be little if any relation between closeness or looseness of social integration

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192 A M E R I C A N A N T H R O P O L O G I S T [52, 1950and any immediate social or psychological needs of a people. Whether ornot this is true, studies of th e differences of behavior in different cu ltures w ithsimilar social structures should be made to tes t a number of current assump-tions in th e social sciences-e.g., th a t social stru ctu res ar e nea tly ad jus ted toindividual and social needs, and that similar social systems create similarculturally determined types of behavior.

YALEUNIVERSITYNEWHAVEN,CONNECTICUT

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