MINING CULTURE: A HERITAGE FROM THE SUBTERRANEAN DEPTHS TO THE BORDERLANDS OF THAILAND’S ANDAMAN SOUTH
Keywords:
Mining Culture, Hokkien Chinese Diaspora, Ethnic IdentityAbstract
This article examines the cultural legacy of Hokkien Chinese tin-mining communities in Ranong, Phang Nga, and Phuket coastal provinces along Thailand’s Andaman seaboard that emerged as major centers of the tin-mining industry from the late nineteenth century onward. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates transnationalism, diaspora studies, and the anthropology of migration, the study explores the dynamic processes through which ethnic identity has been constructed and negotiated, as well as the ways in which mining culture has adapted within the peripheral context of the Thai nation-state. The findings suggest that Hokkien mining culture should not be understood as a static or material remnant of a declining industry. Rather, it constitutes a form of cultural hybridity shaped through the interplay of migratory memory, cross-border economic networks, and post-mining local adaptation. These processes are manifested in everyday practices and symbolic forms, including language use, culinary traditions, ritual life, and architectural landscapes. As such, mining culture persists as a living network of meanings that is continuously reinterpreted and renegotiated in response to changing social and historical conditions in contemporary society.
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