Transformations of Lisu social structure under opium control and watershed conservation in northern Thailand

This dissertation studies transformations in social organization with the introduction of opium as a cash crop and, later, the end of opium cultivation. The research is based on fieldwork and previous ethnographies, which enabled the study of transformations of Lisu social structure over time and space. It situates the Lisu in regional processes and relationships throughout northern mainland Southeast Asia as well as the global economy. The introduction of opium set into place a cascade of historically situated processes that resulted in Lisu migration to Thailand where they were essentialized as producers of narcotics and made the object of development programs to end swiddening and opium cultivation.;An actor-based theoretical approach accounts for both altered and persistent social forms. The household remained central in Lisu social organization; it was relations among households that were the locus of transformation in social relationships. The changes that occurred were inherent in the social structure. Household and kinship forms in both the opium and post-opium economies revolved around a core script in which household survival was the central goal. Yet, the Lisu cultural repertoire had retained patrilineality through ritual and intra-household social relationships even when not practiced in inter-household social relations. The mechanism by which changes in social structure were brought about was household level strategizing, specifically marriage and post-marital residence practices. The position of households in the household developmental cycle is key to understanding the strategies households took to conserve resources for their children's imagined future households. The characteristics of the opium economy resulted in practices of household autonomy that dispersed people across the landscape connected by diffuse contractual-based allegiance groups. State penetration in late 20th century Thailand brought about economic constraints and a specific set of transformations resulting in increased agnatic density and patrilineality as the means to conserve households resources. That is, the political economy enabled the dominance of certain elements of the social structure over others, but the subordinate elements did not disappear and reemerged as conditions changed. This dissertation demonstrates the continuity of social structure in condition of economic transformation and the mechanisms by which such change takes place.