The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

SOCIAL PROCESSES AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN CHONBUIU, THAILAND 213
property ownership. Some Chinese responded by joining ethnicallybased
associations for mutual protection and economic benefit and the
opportunity for Thai assimilation was thus decreased. The large number
of Chinese in the early part of the 20th Century also made assimilation
of the entire group more difficult and maintenance of Chinese identity
easier.
Skinner describes the mid-1950 Chinese and Thai urban social
structure using occupations as the main criteria for class division (1957b:
322). The social structures of Chinese and Thai ethnic groups in urban
Thailand based on Skinner's model is summarized in diagram II. This
diagram only shows the social position of the people, there is no attempt
in this diagram to show how people move into a certain position.
HIGH
New
descendants of Chinese
middlemen
business entrepreneurs
elite
Traditional elite
royal aristocrats
old-time bureaucrats
descendants of modern
bureaucrats
government officials
MID-HIGH
(nonmanual)
Chinese businessmen
small entrepreneurs
newspapermen
r----------------- -r
1 government employees 1
1
teachers, clerks, :
: office and bank employees :
MID-LOWr---- ----- ----------'
(manual) :artisans, mechanics,
chauffeurs, drivers,
l craftsmen
technicians, hair-dressers·
I
dress"ma kers, tailors
I
I
LOW I
I
I
'unskilled workers
unskilled workers
.__----- .... -- - ----------- ----- ....... ---- J
Chinese Sector
Thai Sector
Diagram H: Static Model of Thai Social Structure Showing Positional Relationship Between
Chinese and Thai Sectors in Urban Thailand in the Mid-1950's