タイ東北部のムアンと郡

─「地方的世界」論からのアプローチ─

抄録

　　　Japanese rural sociologists have contributed to the study of rural societies in East Asian countries on the basis of their approaches to Japanese rural society. I have also tried to study the rural society in Northeast Thailand, so called, Isan according to this tradition, namely to study it in the context of “local world”. Its basic phase is equivalent to “the 4th social district”, which can be extracted from the “natural village” theory of Eitaro Suzuki.

　　　In principle, the “local world” of Isan before the 20th century can be detected in muang system. Some old documents show processes of establishing muang, and its internal structure. The uniqueness and abundance of Isan muang becomes revealed in detail through them. Isan Travels, a survey report written by a French scholar shows that Chinese merchants became evident particularly in larger muang.

　　　After the reformation of Thai local administration in the last of the 19th century, the basic phase of “local world” has been transformed into amphoe. Though Isan was neglected for a long time, the Vietnam War notified Thai society of its importance, because Isan peasants had sympathy for people in Laos, and sometimes for communism. In response to this problem, Thai government promoted the development of Isan in various fields. Because amphoe, and its constituents: muban (village) and tambon (a group of villages) play important roles, the government has reorganized these units adequately. As a consequence, amphoe societies have been strengthened. Around the same time a lot of Chinese migrated into local towns to develop amphoe commercially. Today, amphoe societies in Isan are confronted with a new stage under the influence of globalization.