貨幣経済の浸透と儀礼をめぐる社会関係の変容 : 中部タイの稲作村における冠婚葬祭

Abstract

Thanks to constant technological innovation in rice farming, there has been considerable economic growth in rural areas of Central Thailand since the 1960s. In K Village, a progressive rice-growing village in Suphanburi Province, the rice crop has doubled over the past thirty years and the income level of farmers has increased considerably. With the infiltration of the monetary economy and the rise of the standard of living of the villagers, a lavish style of celebration had spread on various ceremonial occasions including the rites of passage sponsored by each household, such as weddings and ordinations. Many villagers nowadays celebrate these occasions by giving a banquet of Chinese cuisine accompanied by a professional band, imitating the wasteful style of wealthy urban dwellers. The increased expense of these ostentatious and costly functions has also boosted the amount of money gifted, which is reciprocated on these occasions among villagers and their relatives and friends living outside the village. There has also emerged an equivalent monetary exchange system with rather clear and strict rules, which has weakened the personal and religious significance that former gift exchange had often had. The formations of such a standardized gift exchange system and its escalation have primarily been caused by the widespread use of money as a medium of exchange. Money is (1) an universal standard of value and (2) an impersonal and convenient instrument of exchange. Therefore, the formation of such a monetary exchange system is associated with, and promotes, the formalization and dilution of personal relationships between villagers, who now have close connections with people outside the village in various aspects of life.