Wertschätzung und Ächtung: Moral und Politik in Südthailand

Abstract

The discourse on morality and moral boundaries is a conspicuous feature of increasing identity politics in southern Thailand. This article shows how local groups of Buddhist and Muslim intellectuals aim to define the criteria of morality in a binary scheme of good and bad and how images of the good life are embedded in the contest of cultural identity in southern Thailand at large. This article examines the strategies of Thai-Buddhist and Malay-Muslim intellectuals in southern Thailand, focusing on their personal role in constituting local culture. In particular, cultural images of nostalgia and authenticity relate the local to cultural globalisation. The proliferation of moral codes in discourses on cultural identity beyond the boundaries of ethnic affiliation shows that images of the good life are coming increasingly to the fore in local projects of power and domination in southern Thailand.