Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Online ISSN : 2424-1377
Print ISSN : 0563-8682
ISSN-L : 0563-8682
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Volume 51, Issue 2
Displaying 1-13 of 13 articles from this issue
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Articles
  • The Implications of Community-based Forest Management in an Upland Village in the Philippines:
    The Maasin Watershed Rehabilitation Program from the People's Viewpoint
    Hiroko Nagai
    2014 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 197-226
    Published: January 31, 2014
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.51.2_197
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    Since it was proclaimed as a watershed reserve in 1923, the Maasin Watershed in Central Panay, Philippines has been a site of conflict and negotiation for issues such as environmental protection, development and the survival of residents. When a government rehabilitation program was carried out in 1997, more than 60 percent of the area was cultivated land. Through the implementation of community-based forest management under the larger framework of sustainable development, the Maasin Watershed Rehabilitation Program was held up as one of the success stories of the country. The area is now covered in green, the residents are organized, and the social enterprise of non-timber forest products is flourishing. An ethnographic study, however, reveals its downside on the community level: loss of farms and food production, the failed ideal of social equity and the possibility of impoverishment. This study examines the project from the people's viewpoint, and scrutinizes the problems in recontextualization in relation to the dominant framework of community participation, the existing customary ownership of the land and resources, and community governance on local bamboo production.
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  • The Struggle for Reign in the Mekong Delta:
    The Local Order and “Refuge” of People in Local Community (1976–1988)
    Hisashi Shimojo
    2014 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 227-266
    Published: January 31, 2014
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.51.2_227
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper attempts to consider the struggle for reign between local community and state in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam during the controlled economy era (1976–88). It examines the influence of the communist government's socialistic reforms on the local community composed of Khmer, Chinese and Vietnamese, and how the people dealt with these reforms. In an attempt to socialize the Mekong Delta region, the government transformed local orders to a new state order, one that prioritized public interest. Local orders were cooperative relations based on private interests of individual or family subsistence and were formed in various places in the local community. The subsistence crisis provoked by the socialistic reforms drove the people to depend on local orders. People hid paddy in their houses, selling it on the black market. Some living in disputed border areas left their village, seeking refuge in Buddhist pagodas, while others escaped to Cambodia. As more and more people, including local officials, participated in local orders, the weaker the state order became. Finally, the authorities were obliged to abolish the socialistic reforms as a result of the people's boycotting.
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  • The Historical Process of the Establishment of Kayan Tourism in Northern Thailand:
    Rethinking the Framework of Anthropology of Tourism
    Tadayuki Kubo
    2014 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 267-296
    Published: January 31, 2014
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.51.2_267
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    Tourism has been a key topic in anthropological studies since the 1990s. Previous studies have highlighted many issues with regard to culture, such as invention, authenticity and objectification of culture. Debates in anthropology of tourism reveal the dynamism of culture in the context of unfair power relations between hosts and guests. Exposure of such findings is one of the crucial achievements of earlier studies on anthropology of tourism.
     However, tourism anthropology tends to focus its discussion only on the tourism site; it ignores the context of daily life in the tourist site. Moreover, it overlooks how “objectified culture” in the context of tourism would be changed. The framework of post-colonial anthropology analyses the field in a simplified manner, that is, whether hosts are exploited or not. As such, researchers may fail to understand the field in depth given the lack of ethnographic description beyond the current condition. For this reason, the current paper discusses the attitude of the hosts’ community towards culture from a diachronic standpoint. This paper uses as case study Kayan tourism in northern Thailand.
     The Kayan are also known as “Longneck Karen” among tourists. Tourism in their villages has been criticized as having a “human zoo” set-up because of the vulnerable status of Kayan as refugees from Burma (Myanmar). They reportedly have no choice but to wear rings for the sake of tourism in order to survive; thus they are oppressed. Although such a perspective fits in the macro context of tourism, it overlooks the essence of Kayan culture and how their condition of life is changing. This paper employs ethnographic methodology to present a clear depiction of the historical process of the establishment of Kayan tourism and its changes since the 1980s.
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  • The Emergence of Wealthy Farmers in the Coffee-planting Area of Southern Laos
    Arihiro Minoo
    2014 Volume 51 Issue 2 Pages 297-325
    Published: January 31, 2014
    Released on J-STAGE: October 31, 2017
    DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20495/tak.51.2_297
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
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    This paper studies the emergence of wealthy people in the farming area of Lao PDR through an analysis of their livelihood strategies. Barbara Grandin's wealth ranking is used to define the criteria of wealth. After the Lao government adopted a market-oriented economy, a monetary system was extended to the Lao plateau and mountain villages, which used to run on self-sufficient farming. As a result, cash income has become indispensable for everyday consumption.
     Previous studies on the introduction of a monetary economy in the mountain areas of Lao PDR have focused on economic inequality. Some studies pointed out the factors that led to the emergence of wealthy people in these areas, such as the brokerage of non-timber products and the introduction of cash crops. Other studies examined the flow of money, which is brought into the villages by people living outside, such as migrant workers and refugees.
     This case study of Boloven plateau in southern Lao PDR suggests that these factors are not the primary reasons for the emergence of wealthy people in this area. It can be attributed instead to farmers' experimentation with new varieties of cash crops and organic fertilizers, as well as new forms of trade with foreign importers.
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