泰国学者阿南达《泰国瑶人》述评与反思

Review and Reflection on Ananda's Thailand Yao: Past,Present,and Future

阿南达深入泰国北部地区对当地瑶族进行长期的田野调查,收集到丰富的资料,基于这些资料,最终写成《泰国瑶人——过去、现在和未来》这本关于泰国瑶族的力作,全面、系统地论述了泰国瑶人起源迁徙史、村寨选址、修建房屋、经济生活、政治生活、社会组织、文化教育、婚丧嫁娶、宗教信仰等方面的内容,给读者系统地展现了一个泰国瑶族的完整形象。阿南达坚持人类学的文化相对论和整体观,对泰国瑶族进行了较为客观的论述,但倘若作者能把浅描和深描这两种叙述手法巧妙结合,就泰国瑶人的身份建构、归属感以及未来前途等展开相应研究的话,本书将更加完美。

Ananda,a Thai scholar,finally completed his main work Thailand Yao： Past,Present,and Future based on his long-term field research conducted in the Yao villages in northern Thailand,which not only dissertates systematically the overall aspects of Thailand Yao,such as Yao＇s origin and immigration history,selection of village site,house construction,economic and political life,social organization,culture and education,marriage and death,religion and belief,and so forth,but also displays a complete image of Thailand Yao for readers.The author conducted a relatively objective dissertation adhering to the cultural relativism and holism.However,if the author had skillfully employed not only the thin description but also the thick description,and conducted the relevant analysis on the identity construction,the sense of belonging,and the future of Thailand Yao,the book would have been much more perfect.