The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam is pleased to announce the publication of IAS Working Paper No 68: Landscape of Grief: Place-Making in Thailand’s Deep South by Muhammad Arafat. Please see below for details.
Abstract: Places are social constructs. They become individuated and significant when imbued with meaning through people’s lived experience, usage, and imagery.
This paper discusses the construction of Patanian places in Thailand’s Deep South, a region consisting of the provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala, where the Malays constitute the ethnic majority.
Using the Krisek Mosque, the Tomb of Sultan Ismail Shah, and the former home of Haji Sulong as examples, the paper shows how Patanian Malay narratives about these places illustrate their sorrow about the demise of the historical Malay kingdom of Patani and their community’s strained political relationship with the Thai state and nation.
Viewed collectively, these places constitute a landscape of grief for the Patanian Malays.
Muhammad Arafat is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. He holds a Doctorate in Social Anthropology from Harvard University and his research interests include the relationship between transculturality, place, and belonging, Arabia-Southeast Asia connections, the study of Malay-Muslim societies, and the anthropology of modern and contemporary art of Southeast Asia.
To see more IAS Working Papers, please visit the IAS Working Papers web page.
