This analysis of land tenure in relation to family groups is based on materials gathered in a village in Northeastern Thailand from September, 1964 to April, 1965. The village of Don-Daeng, located 19 kilometers south of the municipality of Khonkaen in the province of Khonkaen, is a relatively self-sufficient, homogenous, traditional conmmunity of 132 households.
Of the 132 households, there were 126 farm households, 1 indigent, 1 of a factory worker, 1 of a teacher, and 3 owner non-tiller households which consisted of the school headmaster, 1 ex-teacher and 1 widow, the latter three having no working dependents rented out their lands on a share-cropping basis, usually at 50%. Of a total of 2556
rai (1
rai=0.16hectare) owned by the villagers, 2344
rai (90.6%) were cultivated by 100 farm household, the remainder of 212
rai being rented out to other villages; of the 2344 cultivated rai, 180rai were rented, the balance being owner-cultivated.
Of the total of 126 farm households, 26 were related to and attached to 19 main households. Of the other 100 farming households 83 were full owner-tillers, and the other 17 were composed of 1 full tenant, 5 who owned and tilled land and rented part out to others, 8 who owned over 50% of the land they tilled and rented the balance from others, and 3 who owned less than 50% of the land they tilled and rented the balance from others.
The 26 attached farm households were attached to 19 main households of the 100 owner-tiller classification. These 26 families each formed a part of 19 extended family, usually through a parent-daughter relationship (23 cases) or a parent-son relationship (3 cases). These 19 extended families lived with each of the 26 attached and 19 main households in separate houses. Type Ex-E consisted of 8 main households each with one attached household, each maintaining separate houses. Ex-F consisted of 11 main households with 18 attached households, each in its own separate house.
Of the remaining 81 farm households living each under one roof, 48 were nuclear households and 33 were extended families. The extended families were of types : Ex-A consisting of parents, unmarried children, one married child, the spouse and their children (16 cases); Ex-B consisting of parents, one married child, spouse and children (12 cases); Ex-C consisting of parents, unmarried children, the wife's sister (3 cases); Ex-D consisting of members of four generations (2 cases).
In the extended families, usually the couple of the junior generation consisted of the daughter and her spouse. There were only 5 cases of parent-son relationships, . These latter cases were usually due to the absence of a daughter or sometimes due to the poverty of the wife's family.
In the extended families living in more than two houses (Ex-E and Ex-F), the junior generation seemed to be in the process of transforming itself into an independent nuclear family household, there by reducing the main household into type Ex-B. Each attached household worked on the land owned by the main household where generally the wife's parents lived. Production is divided and each household performs its own share. Where each household has its own rice barn (4 cases), the children keep their share separately; otherwise they keep their rice in the same barn as their parents' (22 cases). The profit from the cash crop of
kenaf fibre may be divided or sometimes may be used for a common purpose.
Some years after having worked the land, the dependent houshold (usually an attached one) may be assigned some of the land owned by the main household.
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