Kampoon Boontawee's 'A Child of the Northeast' as Literary Ethnobotany

Abstract

This paper examines Thai author Kampoon Boontawee's novel 'A Child of the Northeast', originally published in Thai as Luk Isan (1976) and translated to English by Susan Fulop Kepner in 1988. The semi-autobiographical novel details the uncertainties of village life in the Isan region of northeast Thailand in the 1930s. The immediacies of drought, food, trade, and intercultural tensions between Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai villagers are presented from the perspective of an eight-year-old boy, Koon, whose parents remain unnamed. Previous studies have focused on cultural self-sufficiency in relation to the harsh environment acutely represented in the work. The novel has been described as an account of Isan life and environmental practices that have since shifted. This paper suggests that 'A Child of the Northeast' can also be understood as 'literary ethnobotany'-a work of literature that documents traditional uses of plants. Through textual analysis of the novel and a survey of ethnobotanical references, a model of literary ethnobotany that traverses literature, social science, and botany is developed. In an era of habitat loss and destructive human impacts on environments-in Thailand and around the world-literary ethnobotany documents vanishing environmental practices, including those related to botanical life.