Love, Money and Obligation: Transnational Marriage in a Northeastern Thai Village
ISBN: 9789813250932
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / NUS Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Intercountry marriage -- Thailand; Women -- Marriage -- Social aspects -- Thailand; Asians -- Foreign countries;

Globalization means transnational marriages and intimacies become increasingly viable options for women and men. Patcharin Lapanun explores the marriages of Thai women with farang men, and complicates conventional views about materiality and intimacy in these settings. The sentiments and life stories of women and men engaging in these transnational relationships highlight the complexities of the associations that are shaped and reshaped by love, money and gender obligations on the one hand and the dynamics of socio-cultural and historical contexts on the other.Transnational marriages challenge gender relations, perceptions of sexuality, marriage and family as well as existing class divisions in rural Thai communities. Working in depth in one particular community in Northeast Thailand, and so focusing on the "local end" of these transnational connections, Lapanun sees these families as comprising a new social class, as determined by their distinctive consumption patterns and life styles. They challenge village hierarchical structure, and put village elites in a vulnerable position. Her in-depth examination highlights the importance of women's agency and the strength and creativity of people seeking to forge meaningful lives in the processes of social transition and in the face of local and global encounters.


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