Farmers' Views of the Forest: Perceptions of the Forest and the Natural Environment in Northeast Thailand

Abstract

Intensive field research in a Lao village in Northeast Thailand revealed that the villagers, Lao peasants, perceive or classify the forest or other natural environments from two different perspectives. One is a concrete, zero-or one-dimensional perspective based on their interaction with the natural environment in daily life. However, the definition or boundary of each category is ambiguous. The other is an abstract, two-dimensional perspective regarding land tenure or other social relationships, which places emphasis on the boundary of each category or territory rather than the situation within the boundary. These two contrasting perspectives correspond to the plurality of their mode of subsistence, which consists of not only agriculture but also hunting and gathering, and show the cultural importance of the interaction between man and forest in everyday life in a peasant society.