A Neo-Marxist Anthropology of Urban Workers and Peasant Farmers in Thailand

Abstract

This article is an original cultural anthropological study that is based on fieldwork done by the principalinvestigator,  Antonio  L.  Rappa,  on  groups  of  urban  workers  and  peasant  farmers  of  Bangkok,  Chiangmai,  andPattaya  from  1998  to  2016.  The  focus  of  this  article  is  on  how  these  workers  survive  late  modernity  within  theneoliberal capitalist world scenario. The fieldwork also showed the importance of materialism among Thai workersand  how  they  remain  trapped  in  giving  up  the  surplus  labor  value  of  their  work  to  the  bourgeoisie  (MarxianTheory). Since 1932 (the Siamese and since 1946), the Thai workers have been suppressed and exploited by the rulingelite (Power Elite Theory). Whether we use a Cultural Anthropological/Marxian, neo-Marxist Anthropological, orPower Elite theory (C. Wright Mills’ Theory) approach, it remains clear in 2022 that the Thai people still continueto be imprisoned by a desire for luxury goods and services (Thorstein Veblen). Then, there is the complication ofreligion. At least 93% of all Thai people are Theravada Buddhists and staunchly believe in worshipping the Buddhaas well as in various superstitions. The remaining 5–7% are Muslims and Christians. It is only the Muslims who haveconsistently given political trouble to the Bangkok capitalists but the Muslims are not socialists or communists sincethey believe in the god known as Allah. Ever since the 1970s, Thailand came under serious threat from communismlike many Southeast Asian states. King Bhumiphon Adulyadej (Rama IX) was already a deeply respected monarchand  a  virtual  demi-God  to  the  superstitious  and  animistic  Thai  Buddhists.  Few  Thais  realized  at  that  time  thatthe  King  was  also  a  well-read  scientist  knowledgeable  in  urban  planning  and  agriculture.  Rama  IX  applied  theknowledge  that  he  garnered  from  Switzerland  and  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  toward  building  a  new  kind  ofthinking, called Self-Sufficiency Economy (SSE). Rama IX’s SSE was not unique to Thailand and commonly practicedto various effects in South Asia, the Far East, and Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, the king thought that the SSE wouldbe a good way out for his people. He believed that if eachTambonor village could cooperate using existing resources,provincial  assistance  in  agricultural  knowledge,  and  the  model-village  concept,  then  the  Thai  people  would  beself-sufficient  in  many  aspects.  This  was  also  known  as  the  One-Thambon,  One-Product  (OTOP)  policy.  This  isitself a manifestation of the materialist cultural anthropologic of Thai culture itself. The article concludes with ananalysis of the dual pricing system or two-tier pricing system, and why the Thai people appear to support ThorsteinVeblen’s Theory and C. Wright Mills’ Theory rather than any neo-Marxist theory of land distribution and propertyownership.