288 pp. August 2000
paper, ISBN 978-0-8248-2297-2, $22.00
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Keywords: |
Southeast Asia
anthropology
sociology |
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The Commercialized Crafts of Thailand: Hill Tribes and Lowland Villages
by Erik Cohen
ConsumAsiaN
“Destined to become a minor classic, both in the literature on rural Thailand and in the comparative study of contemporary arts and crafts. Cohen brings up important points and makes what he calls ‘Principal Conclusions’ which speak directly to key matters in the sociology and anthropology of contemporary folk and tourist arts.” —Nelson H. H. Graburn, University of California, Berkeley“Cohen is one of the masters of the study of tourism and tourist art....A critical model for future studies.” —Religious Studies Review
This volume brings together two decades of research into the process of commercialization of the folk crafts of Thailand: the conditions of its emergence, the parties involved in its development, the changes in the processes and organization of production which accompany it, the channels through which commercialized craft products are marketed, the nature of the audiences which they reach, and the transformations in appearance and meaning which the products undergo as a result of their commercialization. Each chapter deals with a specific issue in a particular context, but virtually all of them relate to one or another of these principal aspects of the process of commercialization. Part I explores the commercialization of hill tribe textiles, particularly those of the Hmong refugees from Laos. Part II presents a series of case studies of the various ways in which the products of lowland Thai “craft villages” became commercialized. For sale only in the U.S., its dependencies, Canada, and Mexico.
Erik Cohen is professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
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