The Lua, according to their mythology, are the original inhabitants of Thailand. Today, however, hey are regarded as ethnic minorities who inhabit this region. A study of their myths and legends reveals the importance of spirit cults, matriclans, and women’s role in the discovery, production, and trade of salt. The matriclan system is also established in the longhouses and their ocial structure. However, with the entry of the Thai state, power has shifed from the Lua women to Thai men who represent the state. This has also resulted in the appropriation of women’s traditional knowledge about the technology and rituals surrounding forest conservation and sustainable use of resources. Further, there has been a shift in gender relations in favor of men among the Lua people.
Tag: ethnic groups
Tenure Security Perception Patterns among Amazonian Communities in Peru: Gender and Ethnicity
This study delves into perceptions of land and forest tenure (in)security among Indigenous and mestizo populations in the Peruvian Amazon. Despite all having collective lands, the selected communities vary in their formalisation processes. This research seeks to enhance comprehension of tenure security perceptions in the Peruvian Amazon by investigating sources of security and insecurity across key tenure components. A combination of descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses is employed, based on fieldwork conducted between July 2015 and December 2017 in 22 Native and Peasant Communities in Loreto and Madre de Dios, utilising 1006 intra-household surveys, 52 in-depth interviews, and 44 focus group discussions. The results reveal similarities and differences in (in)security sources between titled and untitled communities. The study also explores the influence of gender and ethnicity on these perceptions, finding ethnicity-based variation in security perception over the past 20 years (1995–2015). Recognising these differences in perception is critical for assessing the robustness of exercising acquired collective rights.