Abstract
On the basis of an anthropological study combined with historical investigation, this paper analyzes Thai people's responses toward leprosy prior to the discovery of a cure for the disease. The findings indicate that the ambivalent perception of leprosy sufferers as anomalous figures led to their ambivalent segregation within the framework of the community. The analysis of this dual ambivalence is revealed as capable of reconciling two approaches to the study of deviance, grounded in conflicting assumptions concerning individual and cultural tolerance of ambivalence: the first focusing on ambivalent perceptions of social deviants, and the second dealing with ambivalent behavioral reactions toward them.
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