Abstract
Most ethnographic research on Thai village communities tends to include spatial descriptions such as a map of the research field, the ecological environment, the arrangement of villages, and structures of houses. However, such details about place and space are mostly only background information for explaining the main research themes, such as kinship and social structure, courtesy and belief, exchange and distribution.
This paper analyzes how spatial factors such as occupancy, possession and use of land, and usage history have an effect upon the creation of social groups. It is specifically directed at market towns along the Damnoen Saduak Canal in the coastal zone of the Chao Phraya Delta, focusing on the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, where merchants living in the canal town make a living selling fruit and souvenirs. Then this article dissects the space recognitions of canals―recognitions of claims to canals based upon who invested in their creation―and the ways in which they are used.
Through this analysis I attempt to clarify two points. First, the possession and use of land in the market town directs the way one particular canal―the Klong Ton Khem Canal, a branch of the Damnoen Saduak Canal―is used and managed, which affects the creation of social relations in the floating market. Second, a body of water bordering land along this canal are used as space where merchants follow the land use rules of the market town; other parts of the canal are subjected to new land use rules, which leads to the creation of new power relations among market members.
