東北タイ・ドンデーン村 : 自然, 農業, 村経済の全体像試論(<特集>東北タイ・ドンデーン村)

Abstract

Although Don Daeng village has long been involved in a market-oriented economy, rice production has neither been commercialized nor declined. Neither has it been intensified, despite the potential of a large increase of village population, which has not been realized because of emigration. The extreme instability and poor productivity of rainfed rice on one hand, and the unreliability of cash income from other sources, farm and off-farm alike, on the other, are responsible for the persistence of rice cultivation in the traditional style. This results in a two-sector economy : one for acquiring goods, mainly rice; the other for acquiring cash. The former limits the maximum accommodable population in the village, while the latter determines the level of income. Emigrants from the village today have a variety of destination, though many still, traditionally, make for the frontier lands. The slow increase of population prevents the increase of village income from being offset by that of population. The persistence of the traditional rice cultivation promotes the preservation of the traditional customs, institutions and the organization of mutual cooperation among kin.