Tracks and Traces. Thailand and the Work of Andrew Turton

This book traces the threads that tie together an understanding of Thailand as a dynamic and rapidly changing society, through an examination of the work of one major scholar of the country, Andrew Turton. Turton’s anthropological studies of Thailand cover a wide spectrum from politics and economy to ritual and culture, and have been crucial in shaping evolving models of Thai society. In this collection, ten leading specialists on Thailand from a variety of disciplines critically consider aspects of Turton’s work in relation to the changing nature of different aspects of Thai society. The book tracks the links between past and present scholarship, examines the contextuality of scholarship in its times, and sheds light on the current situation in Thailand.

Philip Hirsch is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sydney and has published widely on issues of environment and social and economic development in Thailand and neighbouring countries.

Nicholas Tapp is a Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National University and has published on the Hmong minority peoples of Thailand and the region.

Table of contents

Introduction
Philip Hirsch and Nicholas Tapp

Opening Reflections: Northeastern Thai Ethnoregionalism Updated
Charles Keyes

Transforming Agrarian Transformation in the Globalising Economy of Neoliberalism
Anan Ganjanapan and Philip Hirsch

Local Leaders and the State in Thailand
Paul Cohen

Roots of Ongoing Conflict: Reflections on Andrew Turton’s Analysis of Thailand in the 1970s
Jim Glassman

Censorship and Authoritative Forms of Discourse: A Reconsideration of Thai Constructions of Knowledge
Nicholas Tapp

‘Modernising Subjects’: Moral-Political Contests in Thailand’s Drive towards Modernisation
Jamaree Chiengthong

An Early Critical Foray into Participation in Thailand
Jonathan Rigg

Thai Institutions of Slavery: Their Economic and Cultural Setting
Craig Reynolds

British Diplomatic Missions to Tai States in the Early Modern Period: A Reappraisal
Volker Grabowsky

Appendix: Andrew Turton - A Select Bibliography