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E-book Designs on Pots : Ban Chiang and the Politics of Heritage in Thailand

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Penilaian

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I identify as an anthropologist, with a slight undercoating of archaeology, which was triggered f ifty years ago by seeing pots with unusual designs in a Bangkok market. In a grade seven project on choosing a career, I wrote that I wanted to be an archaeologist; much later I learned that anthropology was the best route to that career. I received my BA in anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1967, with several summer seasons of archaeological f ieldwork under my belt. But life does not always unfold in expected ways. Chapter 1 is much like a memoir in which I view a piece of my academic life retrospectively while envisioning it as somewhat integrated with an objective history (cf. Connerton 1989, 19)—in this case, the site reports from Ban Chiang, a prehistoric site in northeast Thailand. My life story is one rather trivial context (although not to me) for framing Ban Chiang painted pottery. But that frame has inf luenced subsequent frames used in this book, and therefore, it becomes embedded in the Ban Chiang story.After graduation, my husband John and I travelled to Thailand as CUSO volunteers (originally called Canadian University Service Overseas). How different our lives might have been if Thailand had not provided the forma-tive experience for participating in and learning about another way of life. We worked in Thailand from 1967 to 1969, part of the f irst group of Canadian volunteers in the country. We were a dozen or so, meeting up with hundreds of American Peace Corps volunteers who had received wonderful language training from courses provided by the US military. Our training in Thai language was minimal and inadequate except to get us through the basics of ordering food from the market. We were f irst assigned to work at the Tribal Research Centre in Chiang Mai; the assignments were rapidly changed for some unknown reason. I was assigned to teach technical English for anthropology students at Thammasat University and archaeology students at Silpakorn University. (“I am matrilineal, he is bilateral, they are Paleolithic.”) With an anthropology degree in hand, many of my male students aspired to become Border Patrol Police and some succeeded. The archaeology students were more resistant to English courses. I sometimes wonder if I failed some archaeology student in English who later in life became involved with excavations at Ban Chiang. Over the two years, we also participated in studies of rural Thailand, since John was assigned to assist Jacques Amyot at Chulalongkorn University in setting up a f ield school for ethnographic research and community studies.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

930.1593 VAN d

Penerbit

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press., 2023

Deskripsi Fisik

207 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9789463728461

Klasifikasi

930.1593

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Archaeology in Thailand

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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