Hierarchy and Power in Pre-national Buddhist States
Author(s)
Vandergeest, Peter
Abstract
A study of the Songkhla province in Southern Thailand raises questions about S.J. Tambiah’s representations of pre-national social hierarchy in terms of Buddhist cosmology. Tambiah’s approach exemplifies the school of thought that sees pre-national Buddhist states as having had a natural order. Such an interpretation imposes modern concepts, derived from nation-building, on the past. This approach ignores the socio-political reality of resistance, discontinuity and material relations. There is need for a revision in Thai and Southeast Asian studies where Buddhism is not seen as the sole factor in the socio-political and economic life of the region.
