หนังสือแจกงานศพกับความแปรเปลี่ยนของอารมณ์ความรู้สึกและความใฝ่ฝันของคนภาคใต้ ประเทศไทยทศวรรษ 2460 – 2550

Abstract

The study of changes in the Thai southerners’ emotions and aspirations through the cremation volumes of local societies in the South from 1917 – 2007 is important. Not only do these volumes record the biography of the deceased and are evidence of historical fact, they also suggest that cremation volumes of southern societies are especially significant as a space to “read” the thoughts, emotions, and aspirations of local people. This study of cremation volumes of southern societies reveals changes in the emotions and aspirations of local people over four periods. Variation is found at different levels including the individual, family, locality, nation, and religion, all of which relate to the social, economic, and political context as well as the local cultural system. The results of this study are as follows: During the first period from 1917to early 1947, the cremation volumes in southern societies reveal economic, social, and political changes connected directly with the modern state. The southerners importantly adapted to be knowledgeable and skillful in becoming “mechanisms of modern bureaucracy.” This adaptation penetrated deeply into the value system and the meaning of life for local people, linking their identity to the modern Thai state. The second period from the mid-1947 to 1967 was an era of making a “pattern” of pride in personal success and economic status. It represented the position of a progressive and successful life as a model for the next generation to follow. The aspiration to create a “southern life” demonstrates a homogeneous relationship between the southern locality and Thainess. The third period from 1977 to 1987 presents the life-path highlighting the background of “country folk – rural people” but ones who could serve under the crown or attend to the modern production system. The successful life of local people built a sense of pride in “southernness” and the “bucolic rural South” which evolved into a collective sense of pride, affection, and connection to local societies. This is in line with the formation of academic knowledge of local scholars in the South that reinforced a specific characteristic of southerners and the rural South. The last period started in 1997 and continues to the present. Here the cremation volumes are not only a meaningful space of the deceased, but they also become a space for the expression of honor, dignity and positioning of those yet “living.” This space reveals a new set of emotions and feelings emerging amidst economic changes that provide pathways for success in life, and greater complexity of relations. The expression of this new set of emotions has its ultimate goal in valuing relations to royal power and the royal insignia bestowed from the King.