“Mae Ying Lanna” in Ritual Media Space to Worship Ancestral Spirits (Phi Pu Ya): Relationship of Power that Flows between Special Communication Space of a Ritual World and a Profane World

Abstract

        This study aims to the relationship of Lanna women power that flowed between special communication space of a ritual world and a profane world, from the past to present. The study adopts the concept of folk ritual media analysis and power of ritual media, theory of critical feminism, communication for empowerment concept, Pierre Bourdieu’s structure vs. agency/practice concept, habitus concept, field concept, and capital concept. It employs qualitative research by collecting data from recorded documents, field observations, and in-depth interviews. The data is analyzed using a historical approach.

        The results show that the relationship of Lanna women’s power that flowed between special communication space of a ritual world and a profane world (in a household, a community, and outside a community), women in the Matriarchal era (before 1984 B.E.) used a subrogation of Phi Pu Ya’s coverage ascribed sacred power to develop righteousness for a leadership role in a kin economy and a leadership role in performing a given ritual of their family. In the Changing status and creation of identity era (1984-2539 B.E.), the presence of Buddhism, central government policy, and currency capitalism caused the power of ritual media to worship ancestral spirits (Phi Pu Ya) to be inconsistent with responsibilities faced from outside a community. This affected women to dismantle Phi Pu Ya’s power form and transform it with an economy power. In the Contesting space era (2540-2564 B.E.), women used an infiltration from social status in the various communication space through Lanna women’s knowledge that was influenced by the factors of shrinking ritual media to worship ancestral spirits (Phi Pu Ya), the entrance of LGBT in the ritual spaces, globalization, and the society of risk. Women’s power relation in each era shows a vital role of social practice that connected to social structure, under the rules of traditional and new habitus, the creation and accumulation of old and new capital (from cultural capital, social capital, and economic capital to symbolic capital) for forming soft power. Without power, women could not act on their missions that had been given continuously.