WHAT IS THAI CUISINE? THAI CULINARY IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION FROM THE RISE OF THE BANGKOK DYNASTY TO ITS REVIVAL

Abstract

This thesis explores the making of a modern Thai culinary culture; a process that spanned over two centuries. Starting from examining the various anthropological and historical approaches to the analysis of food culture, the first chapter sketches out the way in which Thai food should be looked at. The conflation of these two approaches enables this thesis to addresses and analyse the historical contexts responsible for the making of Thai food culture. The second chapter examines the ethnic culinary influences on the Bangkok¿s court culinary repertoire. By dissecting the royal court¿s diet, the ethnically diverse culinary landscape of Bangkok is revealed. The third chapter turns to the examination of Thai identity formation in relating to food consumption and cooking. This chapter reveals how the specter of Imperialism, exemplified by the Bowring Treaty of 1855, shifted the Bangkok court¿s elite worldview of themselves and the world around them. In responding to this shift, the Siamese elite re-fashioned themselves and their knowledge in order to be considered civilized in the modern standard of the European world order. One of the result from this process was the birth of the Thai cookbook, a modern text that civilized the court¿s diet and culinary techniques. The forth chapter traces the enculturation of Thai food that occurs in different cultural layers throughout the twentieth-century. The two layers, the mainstream and the vernacular culinary code can be differentiated based on the way different groups of people constructed and consumed Thai culinary knowledge. The fifth chapter concludes the thesis by reviewing the process of formulation and dissemination of the Thai culinary knowledge.