Baan Wiang Chiang Mai: Home and Production of Locality in Chiang Mai City

Abstract

This article aims to create an understanding of “Khon Mueang” in their process of ‘home-making’ and ways of life. The group of people in question has relocated themselves to live in Baan Jad San (housing development) in the vicinity of Chiang Mai. The study focuses particularly on how they created and recreated the home/place building, using innovation, decoration, transformation, etc. to make houses into their homes. The process also entails the social aspect, e.g., house-warming ceremony and other rituals. All these are done to make their homes as defined by themselves. The study shows that there is no uniformity in the overall picture; rather the whole process reflects a variety of different families whose ways of life are embedded in their respective specific activities, outlook and background. Furthermore, the transition of the ‘physical house’ into ‘social home’ is at the same time the definition of social space. It is the space which expresses power relations, the ideology of patriarchy and seniority. The study also examines the collective lives in the recently-constructed village. There have been various attempts to form ‘the sentiment of shared community’ within Baan Jad San. The formation requires different kinds of social bonding.