Rules and Rhetoric: Negotiating the Social Order in a Thai Village

The nature and function of normative rules are discussed. Using excerpts from a Northern Thai village meeting for illustration, it is argued that, rather than governing behavior in some straightforward manner, normative rules tend to be invoked in opposed pairs for purposes of advocacy and negotiation. The social order is shaped in the course of this negotiation. The importance of such normative rules, it is suggested, lies in the way they are used in communicating; the final behavioral outcome is a product of this communication process rather than a direct consequence of the automatic application of some rule or set of rules.