The Family in Flux in Southeast Asia: Institution, Ideology, Practice YOKO HAYAMI, JUNKO KOIZUMI, CHALIDAPORN SONGSAMPHAN, and RATANA TOSAKUL, eds. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press and Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2012, ix+546p.

Abstract

The in Flux in Southeast Asia: Institution, Ideology, YOKO HAYAMI, JUNKO KOIZUMI, CHALIDAPORN SONGSAMPHAN, and RATANA TOSAKUL, eds. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press and Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2012, ix+546p.The in Flux in Southeast Asia: Institution, Ideology, is a long-awaited addition to studies in Southeast Asia. It is edited by a multidisciplinary team of leading scholars on Thailand and Myanmar, Yoko Hayami and Ratana Tosakul (anthropology), Junko Koizumi (history), and Chalidaporn Songsamphan (political science). Presently, both Hayami and Koizumi are profes- sors at Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University, and Songsamphan and Tosakul are associate professor and senior lecturer, respectively, at Thammasat University. The volume consists of an introduction (by Hayami) and 23 chapters, and examines wide-ranging aspects of change and continuity in modern Southeast Asia that loosely spans from nineteenth century to present. While book primarily focuses on Thailand, it also features comparable cases from Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Taiwan. The present volume is a product of a three-year research program entitled Changing 'Families' in which Thammasat University and CSEAS at Kyoto University served as home institutes between 2006 and 2009. The contributors are former participants in this research initiative and come from diverse disciplines, including history, political science, economics, sociology, literary studies, and anthropology.The book starts with an overview of change or macro demographic in South- east Asia over past three decades with a specific reference to Thailand (pp. 1-2). These trends are marked by declining fertility rates, prolonged life expectancy, rising divorce rates, and an increase in female-headed households, and have been observed in a time of greater labor migration. While these phenomena find a plethora of global parallels, much of theorizing in history has focused on experiences in West, particularly in Western Europe, and our understanding of change in modern Southeast Asia remains inadequate. Thus, one chief objective of present volume is to fill in this gap in studies (p. 2).Such an exploration into course of change in Southeast Asia inevitably involves comparison, especially with Western Europe, where industrialization was a decisive phase in formation. During industrializing period, families were institutionalized and came to constitute the domestic as separate from public productive sphere (p. 2). What ensued was a cluster of ideals about modern that emphasized universal nuclear and its reproductive function, romantic conjugal relationships, and blood ties among members. In Southeast Asia, as Hayami aptly points out, [T]he historical trajectory in which institutionali- zation of took place . . . has been different (p.2). Therefore, we cannot take for granted notion of family stemming from Western industrialized societies. The book argues that to understand family in Southeast Asia, we must take into consideration such historical processes as colonialism, nationalism, encounters with West, state building, and middle-class forma- tion (p.18). Through these processes, very concept of family was debated, contested, and negotiated in everyday practice and ideology (p.2). Under these common concerns, 23 chap- ters fall into three areas of inquiry, Family Law and Related Debates (chapters 1-6), State Policies, Ideology, and Practice (chapters 7-13), and Families and Network of Relatedness in Flux and Flow (chapters 14-23). Some of featured issues include (but not limited to): evolving notion of as a closed and monogamous unit in language and law; patriarchy buttressed through polygyny, transnational businesses (among overseas Chinese families), and national policies; various forms of kin and communal networks at work in cycles such as child rearing of migrant female workers (many of whom were in transnational marriages). …