Fruit Production and Distribution: Risks of Beautification and ... - RCSD

Chingchai Methaphat 34told me that the new top model truck was sweat of him and his wife. Many friendsand people admired him and his wife for being good at producing durian. I observedthat his truck was fully loaded with fertilizers, pesticides and growth hormones. Hetold me that without the chemicals he could not have this newly branded car.The success in fruit production has been viewed as not only the result of sweatand guts of farmers who have devoted their resources and knowledge – both scienceand ethnoscience – but also the contribution from superstitious beings. Such acontribution could not easily be noticed unless one observes a family party afterselling fruits. In August 2006, Uncle Thip invited me to join an evening party at hishouse where families and friends enjoyed having pork and whisky. The food that weate was what Uncle Thip’s daughter offered to the land-spirit (choa thi) as a gift inreturn for helping her to produce durian at her required level. Uncle Thip explainedthat his daughter requested if she could produce durian as much as 200,000 baht, shepromised to give a pig head to the land spirit. In 2006, she could sell her durian formore than the requested level, so she gave two pig heads to the spirit. After offeringthe food to the spirit, she cooked the food and treated friends and families.There are two kinds of spirit house: one with four or six pillars and the otherwith one pillar. The spirit house with one post is called san phra phum, land-priesthouse, and the house with four or six posts is called san choa thi, land-spirit house.Mo Lom, a folk doctor, told me that land priest is superior to the land spirit. While praphum or land priests are good spirits, the land spirits are just ordinary spirits, whichare souls of those who died in the lands. And each land must have a land spirit. Butthe land spirits possibly harm or threaten people who disdain them. Orchardistsusually offer the spirit food for protecting the land and their crops. I asked manyorchardists about the land spirits; many of them believed the existence of the spirits,but some said that, although they were skeptical of such invisible things, they wouldrather follow what other people did. Many farmers told me that while working in theorchards, they asked in their minds to spirits that if the spirits could help them havecertain level of money, they would give particular food – usually a pig head (hua mu)or a whole pig (mu mop) – to the spirits in return. On 12 th April 2008, I observed Sangand Pa paid respect to the land spirit by offering a slaughtered pig (mu mop). At theritual, Sang and his wife and landlord representative put lit incenses on the pig and