HANDWOVEN TEXTILES, MEMORY, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF RURAL WOMEN’S ROLES IN LANNA: AN ORAL HISTORY OF MAE THA COMMUNITY, CHIANG MAI

Abstract

This article aims to 1) examine the changes in and meanings of handwoven textiles in the lives of rural women in Lanna through the oral histories of women in Mae Tha Community, Mae On District, Chiang Mai Province, and 2) explain the transformation of women’s roles amid changes in the economic system, modes of production, and rural society, as reflected in their memories of weaving. This qualitative study draws on data collected in 2014 from three women with experience related to weaving in Mae Tha Community, Chiang Mai Province. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and field notes and analyzed using content analysis, with gender as the interpretive framework.

The findings show that weaving in the past was both a productive activity and a process through which women’s roles as family caregivers and transmitters of local knowledge were constructed. The expansion of the market economy, education, and commercial production gradually reduced the role of weaving as women increasingly devoted their labor to income-generating activities. The declining role of weaving occurred alongside a transformation in women’s labor, from subsistence production within the household to labor increasingly connected to the market, while their responsibilities for family care remained. Oral history reveals the meanings of these changes through women’s memories and provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of rural women in Lanna.