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‘They have not progressed enough’: Development's negated identities among two indigenous peoples (orang asli) in Indonesia and Thailand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2010

Nathan Porath
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Abstract

This paper is ethnographically concerned with two different orang asli communities: the Meniq living in Southern Thailand and the Orang Sakai in Riau, Indonesia. The focus is on the different discursive rhetorics of development in the two nation-states. These rhetorics have been absorbed by the two indigenous groups to form part of their own modern cultural discourses within their respective countries. These rhetorics of development define the indigenous groups as somewhat lacking in culture and provide them with new understandings of themselves that devalue their customary way of life. The post-development indigenous identity work (such as the development of an ethno-cultural identity) will therefore usually be constructed through these negated developmental foundations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 267 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2010

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