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Uta Wagner
MA Anthropology
Lawyer
Sophienstr. 2 D 70180 Stuttgart
[email protected]
11th International Conference on Thai Studies, July 2011
Social Norms in Ageing Society
The paper is based on the plans for a doctor’s dissertation on
Legal Pluralism in Thailand:
An anthropological field study on the impacts of legal norms on social
security and on intergenerational relationships, coming from customary law,
religious law, traditional Siamese law, and modern civil and administrative law.
Impressions of everyday life
It is a personal experience, that generational relationships in Thailand work in a different way
how they do in Europe. In many Western countries, social security is granted by allowances
and pensions. But evident or subtle discrimination due to female sex and old age is sort of
normality in everyday life. In contrast, as an elderly woman in Thailand, in general I feel
respected and treated with kindness and dignity.
When talking with Thai people about generational relationships you will usually get similar
answers, which may sound like that:
We respect our parents and our elderly. We owe them so much. They gave birth to us,
gave us food, education, everything. We love them and we are proud of being able to
reciprocate their good deeds by respecting and helping them in their old age. In doing
this, we will accrue merit. These obligations are part of our culture.
Norms and values
Obviously there are norms and values which have an impact on the manner of
intergenerational relationships in Thailand. Prof. SASIPAT (TU) states:
„Believes, values and traditions, which come from Buddhism, are social norms in Thai
society. Living with older parents, showing respect and taking care of them are
considered normal way of family life and are highly commended in Thailand. On the
other hand, children who neglect their parents or behave improperly to them are
blamed by the society. These social norms are still strong ... “ (in Sutthichai 2008: 14)
For anthropologists, legal scholars and politicians the following questions arise:
What sort of special norms have the power to motivate in that way? Can their origins be
distinguished in customary law, religious law, traditional Siamese law, civil law,
administrative law and national plans?
Catalogue of relevant norms
In my Master’s Thesis on “Legal Pluralism in Generational Relationships in Thailand”
I found out, determined and described a catalogue of relevant norms:
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Customary law (uncodified norms)
Seniority: The principle of seniority is a common social structure in many societies in Asia.
Obviously it is reflected in Thai language. In a specific family setting elder siblings and
relatives get different terms and higher status than the younger ones. The social status of a
person is much more defined by seniority than by gender (FORMOSO 1990). The principle of
seniority implicates the principle of bunkhun, which obliges the elderly to protect the younger.
On the other hand, the younger ones have to respect the elderly.
Matrilocality: The residence rule of (so called) matrilocality obliges a child, usually the
youngest daughter, to live in co-residence with her parents and to care for them, when they
need it in their old age. Doing so, she will gain reputation, influence and merit and receive a
bigger part of the heritage. Following to BOWIE (2008) and other scholars, this residence rule
is still prevailing in Thailand.
Religious norms
Buddhist perceptions are very important. They provide a multiple system of norms to back
intergenerational solidarity. Some examples:
Buddhist norms are embedded in ideas of a cosmology coming from Hindu traditions. There
is a strong concept of hierarchy and seniority (TAMBIAH 1970). You can see it in the
architecture of temples like Wat Arun, or described in the Trai Phum, the idea of the Three
Worlds. Stories of the Lord Buddha’s former lifes, the Jataka in the Sutta of the Pali Canon
and Buddhist proverbs explain the morality of gratitude and the obligation of respect to the
elderly. These parables are integrated in a belief system in cycles of rebirth, Samsara and
Karma, the law of action and responsibility.
In everyday life thambun system gives examples for good behaviour to ameliorate your
Karma. Highest thambun for boys and men is to be ordained as a monk, for female giving
help to father and mother. The entire complex is underlined by Buddhist festivals and rituals –
ordination ceremonies, or Songkran, the traditional New Year and Elderly’s Day, an
opportunity to pay respect to the elderly. There are Old-Age-Ceremonies (TERWIEL 2001),
and there is the institution of wan phra, when all generations can demonstrate appropriate
behaviour in the temples.
In the sermons of famous monks and in Buddhist Sunday Schools and seminars children and
adults are reminded of their obligations to their parents and relatives, the good deeds they owe
to them.
Law of the Three Seals
Kotmai tra sam duan, the traditional Siamese Law Codex of 1805, was valid until the
“revolution” of 1932, when Siam was transformed in a Constitutional Monarchy. It is also
called the Thammasat. The core is the sakdina-system, which provides a strong frame for
concepts of hierarchy and seniority. Everybody was labelled by the amount of rai, of land
one was entitled to possess. As many scholars point out, the idea of the sakdina system is still
important in everyday life, in business and politics in Thailand (SCHRAMM 2002).
Part of the KTSD is intergenerational solidarity, the obligation to care for the elderly. This
was regulated in heritage rules which stated clearly: Those who do not care will not be heir
(ISHII 1986).
Laws and institutes of the modern Nation State
The sections of the Civil and Commercial Code regulate financial relations among parents and
children – but there are only very few cases which go to the court. The Constitution adjusts
the rights of old aged people. Pensions, tax reductions, Social Security Fund and allowance
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schemes provide a financial basis, but only for a minority of the population. The Second
National Plan (2002-2021) and the Bureau of Empowerment for Older Persons implement a
catalogue of schemes. But the informal care in the family remains the most important resource
(SUTTHICHAI 2008). This is backed by the government by the education system in public
schools, which teaches the children gratitude and respect to the elderly (MULDER 1997), and
the promotion of National Holidays like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day. In this realm the
deeply rooted national ideology of reverence to the Royal Family plays a crucial role and is
linked to everybody’s moral concepts of social solidarity.
Layered structure and intertwinement of social norms - legal pluralism and dynamics of
change in social security
The impression emerges that there are not only pillars of norms but a dense construction of
customary, religious, historical and modern laws which are intertwined. They seem to back
each other in numerous details to build a strong ground of intergenerational harmony.
This is the central issue of the research method of legal pluralism and the complex dynamics
of change and continuity in plural legal constellations (Franz and Keebet von BENDABECKMANN, 2006). Legal pluralism is known as the simultaneous existence of norms
which may arise from various sources. It is particularly in the field of social security where
religious, traditional and customary laws build the skeleton of norms of social solidarity. Up
to the 1970ies the idea of international organizations was to create a totally new system of
social security after the European example. Nowadays the thinking shifts to the life world of
the population. The variety of legal norms and their intertwinement provide the legal basis for
systems of reciprocity. „Understanding the layered structure of the relevant legal systems is of
vital importance for understanding social security”. “It requires an understanding of
paradoxes and ambivalences of the plural legal constellations“(Keebet von BENDABECKMANN, 2008: 129,136).
Ambiguities and contradictions
It is clear that the existence of rules does not automatically mean that those rules are obeyed
and observed in reality. There are problems of migration, globalization, economic
development, which cause ambiguities and contradictions between parents and children.
Ambivalence is the prevalent concept in intergenerational relationships rather than
unambiguous harmony (PILLEMER/LUESCHER, 2004). In this regard there is a strong need
of social research to get an impression of the people’s attitude to norms and rules, including
paradoxes and ambivalences.
Benefits of research
Considering the fact that in Thailand, as in far most countries of the world, the number of
people in old age is rising and the number of people who are able to work is declining, and
considering the problems of this worldwide demographic development, there is a need for
„careful analysis of the local mechanisms of social security, the available resources and the
conditions under which these might be fruitfully employed. It requires an understanding of the
social security mixes that people are familiar with. It also requires taking ideological
statements ... for what they are ...“ (Benda-Beckmann 2008: 136).
It is particularly promising to carry out the research with anthropological methods, based on a
solid knowledge of law. The results of the research will make it possible to evaluate the
importance of norms in a clear and practicable way. It will facilitate administrative
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regulations and the implementation of the bureaucratic efforts. It will most likely be able to
support the decisions and plans to achieve the empowerment of intergenerational solidarity by
pensions, allowances, tax reduction, education, mediation, financial and political support of
NGOs and Senior- and Health Centres.
The approach of legal pluralism in generational relationships is worth to become a more
central analytic issue in the social anthropology of the complex society.
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