Village background

Pa Pae villagers have passed on the oral narrative that their ancestors migrated from Chiang Mai to settle-in the village, which is similar to the settlement of Laveue in Mae Chaem District of Chiang Mai as I have already mentioned in the historical background part of Laveue people in northern Thailand. The little Səmaŋ (see below in Figure 2.8) explained that after the territorial division and allocation of seven Səmaŋ (Khun) to govern Laveue people, Khun Te governed Pa Pae village. Chanthaboon and Somkiet (1996: 184) explain that due to the approval to respect only the eldest Səmaŋ in Om Phai village, the younger Səmaŋ migrated to rule other Laveue villages.

The recent history of Pa Pae village dated back to the 1810s was elucidated by Kunstadter (1965). Pa Pae village (^ʔjuəŋ caɨ) is the united village of primary three constituent villages: Mo Hong (^ʔjuəŋ chaə), Mo Pae (^ʔjuəŋ pɛ) from Um Long Noi area, and Mo Pan (^ʔjuəŋ pʰeñ) from Huay Phueng area, all of which are located apart in this mountain.⁸³ Due to the mutual fear to the robber bands (probably Karenni or Red Karen from Burma), these villages with their own Səmaŋ aristocratic lineage forged an alliance of one village under the territorial authority of the Səmaŋ of Mo Hong (^ʔjuəŋ chaə).

Then in the 1840s, some Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ (^ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ) villagers were sent by their big Səmaŋ to Pa Pae village in compensation for the loss of the Mo Hong Səmaŋ’s wandered water buffalo, which was killed by a tiger in Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ territory (presently Chang Mo village). The buffalo’s ear was cut off by a Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ villager. Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ (^ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ) comers had continued their adherence to the Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ Səmaŋ and had preserved some of Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ origin ritual practices, obviously in a division of the village spirits’ propitiation. Not later than the 1880s, some La? Up (^ʔjuəŋ la ^ʔ awk) villagers were invited by the Mo Hong Səmaŋ to live in Pa Pae village which is more habitable. They were the latest Laveue group that moved into Pa Pae village.

Therefore, “^ʔjuəŋ [Constituent village] is a clan-level group of relatives that is comparable to Hmong clan” (DSDW, 2012: 12, my translation). Each constituent village has its male ritual leader (or Pu Lam) who presides over the animistic rituals with the help of his two assistants. Pu Lam are different from Sgaw Karen shamans due to the fact that they do not exclusively deal with healing divination and magical spell casting. The previous account of Kauffmann (1972: 279) states that “[a]part from B. Pa Pae [Pa Pae

83 Chanthaboon and Somkiet (1996: 183) list 24 names, among which they noted there might be some duplicate names, of Laveue constituent villages (^ʔjuəŋ chaə) surveyed in La Up, Dong, Pa Pae, and Om Phai villages in Mae Hong Son Province. Except for ^ʔjuəŋ chaə, the list involves ^ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ, ^ʔjuəŋ pɛ, and ^ʔjuəŋ pʰeñ.

village] I think that probably in all villages there is a man we could call medicine-man or sorcerer or spirit-doctor (Thai: mo phi)”. Rather, these seniors are respected for their oldest ages so they are supposed to inherit the offices of the preceding Lams.

It was not until 1830 that Sgaw Karen came to beg permission for settling in Laveue territory. They were permitted to live in this hill with an obligation to pay ten percent of their rice yields to the big Səmaŋ (Kunstadter, 1966a: 66). Sgaw Karen had rapidly expanded their population and cultivated lands, especially in the original village areas of Mo Pae and Mo Pan as well as the northward area known as Hak Mai of Mo Hong’s Pa Pae village.

Since the consolidation period of Pa Pae village and possibly after the joining of Cɑ̂ŋ Mɔ villagers in 1840, Laveue villages including Pa Pae village were obliged to pay tributes such as cultivated rice, pliable materials for weaving, and available forest products, to Tai princes in Chiang Mai by elephant caravan. In recognition of Laveue tributaries, Tai princes gave them the privilege to collect and earn some of total rents from Sgaw Karen.

This tribute relationship to Tai king had improved the living conditions of Pa Pae villagers until the expansion of central Siam government around the early 20th century. Unlike Lanna Kingdom, Siam did not pay special attention to the occupancy of Laveue people. As a result, Pa Pae villagers lost their priority and wealth at the same time.

Kunstadter (1966: 66) provides the numbers of the constituent villages’ household and lineage. Based on his previous paper (1965), he assumes that there possibly were matrilocal marriages of other constituent villages’ husband into ^ʔjuəŋ chaə’s wives, in order to obtain a land access of ^ʔjuəŋ chaə privilege, which increased the members of ^ʔjuəŋ chaə and ^ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ while decreased others during the early twentieth century. Currently, more than half of the village households belong to ^ʔjuəŋ chaə as shown by Table 2.1 below.

Compared to Kunstadter’s figure, I found that the household numbers have increased four times in ^ʔjuəŋ chaə’s and double in ^ʔjuəŋ pheñ and ^ʔjuəŋ pɛ, whereas less than double in

ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ (see Table 1 and Figure 2.7).

Table 2.1 The constituent villages’ household and lineage

Constituent village

Kunstadter (1966a: 66)

My survey (2016, 2017)⁸⁴ House Lineage House Lineage

ʔjuəŋ chaə (mo hoŋ) 13 6 53 20

ʔjuəŋ pɛ (mo pɛ) 5 3 10 5

ʔjuəŋ pheñ (mo pǎn) 3 1 8 4

ʔjuəŋ ^ŋgoŋ (cɑ̂ŋ mɔ) 14 3 20 4

ʔjuəŋ la ^ʔawk (la^ʔ up) 1 1 - -

Səmaŋ 3 1 4 1

Total 39 15 95 30

Figure 2.7 Households in constituent villages

Cholthira (1991) conducted her field research in the four main Laveue villages in Mae Chaem District of Chiang Mai Province in 1988 and claimed that the social structure of Laveue of Mae Chaem was the same as Laveue of Mae Sariang (1991: 189). She altered the term lineage (mo ʔeʔ, or literally means our group) translated by Kunstadter (1966a) to

84 Here, I accurately revise the numbers show in my paper presented at the APSA conference (Kanokwan, 2016: 6).

the term clan in her discussion on the Laveue hierarchical system which is symbolically evident through a drum house.⁸⁵ I found no drum remained in Pa Pae village; however, each Laveue village used to have the large drums for calling Laveue neighbor villagers on an assembly according to Kunstadter (1965: 3). In my study, therefore, I prefer using the term lineage.

Figure 2.8 Səmaŋ lineages in Pa Pae village

Traditionally speaking, the youngest brother inherits the stem house from his parents, except for Səmaŋ cases. The eldest brother inherits the stem house and Səmaŋ power. As Figure 2.8 shows, the big Səmaŋ is the little Səmaŋ’s older parallel cousin’s oldest son. Although the big Səmaŋ is in one generation descending to the little Səmaŋ, he inherits the house and the high rank from the previous big Səmaŋ, who is his maternal grandfather. Nevertheless, when animistic rituals take place, the little Səmaŋ plays remarkable role because he knows more precisely how to prepare and perform the rituals.

A little Səmaŋ said that females, regardless of their ethnic group and religion, who married members of Səmaŋ lineage (big and little Səmaŋ) will be regarded as having the Səmaŋ status because they become under the control of Səmaŋ.

As Table 2.2 shows, more than half of the total households, especially Catholic households, are nuclear families that consist of only parent(s) and child(ren). These nuclear families are branch households of the extended families’ stem households. Patrilocal residence is followed; meanwhile, matrilocal residence is practiced by Catholics whose husbands are Sgaw Karen. Protestant families are more likely to live outside the village. To

85 While Kunstadter (1966a: 62) terms Səmaŋ as “a royal or princely lineage”, Cholthira (1990: 84) proposes to categorize Səmaŋ as “ruling clan” (chüa khun, the line of the ruler in Thai language) rather than lineage.

discuss in more detail, I am going to illustrate the residence patterns of intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic married couples in Chapter 4.

Table 2.2 Household compositions in three religions Religion

Household Composition

Animist-Buddhism Catholicism Protestantism Total

H’s P + HW + C 13 4 7 24

W’s P + HW + C 1 5 6

HW + C 25 17 8 50

HW + C + H’s sister 1 1

HW 1 1 2

Widow 3 3

Widower 1 1

Empty 3 5 8

Total 44 28 23 95

Note: H and W used in the column headings stand for Husband and Wife. P and C stand for Parent(s) and Child(ren), respectively.

The blanks on the table are zero, but I do not put the number (0) to make the table easier to read.