*Commoner status vs. "slaves" in early 1200s Burma (King Thaibaw)

(227-8) Family hierarchy: a man would refer to his wife and children as kyun (subordinates, servants, slaves, used in all "clientistic situations"), so that a man could pay off a debt or pay a fine with "a wife and two daughters." In his analysis of servitude and obligation, bodies were used as collateral. Although he does not state it directly, it appears that the bodies of women and children were, by nature, available (gender/age defined servitude). Grown men who became slaves or kyun did so because of a debt or other obligation.

(229) Role of Buddhism: the sangha accepted "bonded" individuals in exchange for merit.

Koenig, W. J. 1990. The Burmese Polity, 1752-1819. (Politics, Administration, and Social Organization of the Early Kon-baung Period). Ann Arbor: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of MIchigan, Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia #34.

Burma in the 18th Century:

(39) Marriage: secular (influence of Theravada); divorce: easy and common.

*polygamy: fully recognized by customary law. In 1756 it is written: "A man commits no crime if he takes 10 wives." Law recognized only the head wife, however, (in royal court, where polygamy was mainly practiced).

*concubines had no formal contractual relationship...many arranged marriages.

*inheritance, a complex issue: all legitimate children get a share (not clear what share)--eldest son and daughter get more.

(40) a breakdown of an inheritance is presented

(41) women could hold public office below a certain level, and frequently did

*legal position distinctly inferior to that of men: more than mere chattel, but less noble.

*records of women as local proprietesses of lucrative local concessions like toll stations and ferries.

(50) marriage to high born women used to increase status

(145) fixed rules for passing on titles and inheritance, for example, if the head wife's eldest son was blind or deaf, the best son from all wives is chosen.

(166) In the court/palace: princesses, queens, and concubines lived near one another in apartments; head queen and family lived in a separate wing.

(167) During a particular reign (Bo-daw-hpaya), queens organized themselves into 3 different levels, each with particular ranks and powers, and all of whom were codified in rank through clothing and ornaments

(169) like Angkor and other areas, importance of marriage connections to outer areas.

Lehman, F. K. 1984. "Freedom and Bondage in Traditional Burma and Thailand." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), 233-244.

*Not much about Thailand, but the author fills in the gaps left by Aung-Thwin. Problematic shifts between various eras.

(236) Buddhist nuns in the past, in Burma, were liminal in that they left civil society but were not ordained: their gowns were light pink, rather than white.

(237) Unions of people from different sumptuary estates were discouraged. The "issue" from such unions were given the status of the mother, which meant "no standing whatever." In the "national" rhetoric regarding citizenship, the mother was said to give the child its flesh, while the father gives the bone (see similarities in Cambodia: May Ebihara).

(238) Perhaps the 17th century in Burma (?): married man must get wife's release to be ordained, the merit goes to her.

*Author's supposition: legally, a woman as the head of a household should have been able to have as many husbands as she could support, but because this could not be done, she married nats ...he notes that today, many women who have vowed service to nats are economically, socially, and psychologically dominant.

(241) More suppositions on nats: that society uses the nats to solve problems when women are expected to be subordinate, (but are not), can be subordinated ultimately to their nat husbands, so that their position vis a vis real husbands is not troubling.

"Reading the Landscape"

Gesick, Lorraine 1995. In the Land of Lady White Blood: Southern Thailand and the Meaning of History. Southeast Asia Program: Cornell.

*Project: to create localized history of 17th century Thailand in opposition (?) to state history. Story of Lady White Blood: part of a twin pair with her brother/ husband and wife/ grandma and grandpa (similar paradigm in Javanese pandji stories)--who built wats in Southern Thailand.

*Southern Thai regions: land ownership passes down the female line, marriages tend to be uxorilocal--seems to have been the same in the 17th century, according to texts. Women were placed as guardians of the texts which had become family heirlooms over the centuries.

(10) manuscripts mention "work leaders" (a monastery, village position?) all of whom were women.

(39) Women in the manuscripts: they held land and passed it down to children, but at the same time, were "slaves" to the wats--gave much land over to the wats.

(40) manuscripts dedicated to the creation and repeating of wat lineages

(61) today: revering the site of "Lady White Blood's" burial, under the full moon, they make merit without monks present.

Griswold, A. B. and Prasert na Nagara 1977. "Epigraphic and Historical Studies, No. 17: The Judgements of King Man Ray. "Journal of the Siam Society , Vol 65, 1 (January 1977), 137-160.

*Collection of Laws and precepts purported to have been established by King Man Ray (Mangrai) who founded the city of Cheing Mai in 1296.

(15) examples of giving wives as prizes to soldiers for excelling in battle

**(also found in the Ayutthaya Chronicle, in Malaysia, and elsewhere. I am not sure whether the foreign readers assign the term "wives" to all of these women who are used as objects of exchange or given away, or whether they are called wives in the texts. In Malay texts, they are definately called "wives."

(156) wife killing husband=capital punishment, but not the other way around

(157) judgements passed down (from women judges or local leaders?) should be vacated

(158) Labelled as "contention": "grasping the hand or touching the breast of another man's wife because of love."

Kirsch, A. Thomas 1984. "Cosmology and Ecology as Factors in Interpreting Early Thai Social Organization." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), 253-265.

*Details of Mangrai's Kingdom: (1259-1317) found in the Mangraisat (Judgements of King MangRai).

(258) Distinctions made between slaves of the king (all slaves are "of the king") and "free women." A slave may marry a free woman; the children are free, but she is in charge of feeding the slave.

*Author notes that "kinship and the family are so fundamental to Mangrai's kingdom that they are taken almost for granted."

*Family structure: "wife and children" (+husband). Other extended units are understood as lineages. In the Mangraisat, what is most important is to protect the patrilineal lineage (like "name" in Malay kingdoms?) through family values.

(259) Man may kill wife if she is caught with another man; woman may not kill husband--wife's behavior (killing husband or adultery) is considered a "violation of family ties."

*Outside of family structure: women could be rewarded for military prowess

*In the courts, wives can be given as rewards.

Swearer, Donald K. 1974 "Myth, Legend, and History in the Northern Thai Chronicle." Journal of the Siam Society, 62, 1 (January, 1974), 67-88.

*Focusing upon 15th century nothern Thai chronicles:

(79) mention of a queen named Camadevi (in a mythical tale which perhaps has some historical bearing) who set up kingdoms and taught Buddhism to the people. She is known today as the founder of the town of Haripunjaya--all of this activity was to have taken place without her husband.

(82) mention of a menstrual taboo in the Lava Camadevi episode--Camadevi fashions a hat out of her sarong so as to fight of a suitor which causes this suitor to lose all of his power, physical and otherwise.

(87) Question: could Camadevi have initiated the documented Mon period of Haripunjaya? Despite the evidence of the mythical text, author thinks not. She is identified as Mon in the text, and understood as having arrived with "500 monks," but authorthinks this may have been added after-the-fact.

Wyatt, David 1984. "Laws and Social Order in Early Thailand." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol XV No. 2 (September), pp?.

*Sees Mangrai as an "evolutionary text."