Beliefs and Worldviews in the Mae Sai Community through Oral Literature

Abstract

This research aimed to study beliefs and worldviews reflected in 16 oral traditions (9 proverbs and 7 beliefs and superstitions) narrated in the Mae Sai community. The data collected from 19 village scholars  who have lived in the Mae Sai community, Phayao.                                                                                                                       The results indicated that the oral traditions mirrored two distinctive beliefs, namely 1) beliefs concerning the giving of moral support and 2) beliefs about everyday life and occupations. The former was found in oral traditions narrated in the village life expectancy extension ceremony, in securing the location of the village or in the feast of the ancestral ghosts or village gods, the passing over of bad luck of a sick village member or someone who has just got over sickness, and the calling of an individual’s spiritual core. The latter was found in the beliefs concerning rice growing, fish catching, and knife making. As for the worldviews reflected through word of mouth literature, these can be divided into 1) beliefs concerning working and 2) people who were not worth associating with.