Talk:So people
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Sources
The page rests on two studies by Tawatchai Failai of the So of the Sakon Nakhon basin (2016, 2019), a study of the So of Phathai in Tha Uthen District (Kidkhamsuan and others 2024), two 2023 studies of three So villages (Surifai and others), a study of Kusuman (Kaithong and Yongvanit 2016) and the ethnography of Raymond and Siriphan Kania (1979), which draws on Siriphan Kania's own upbringing in Kusuman. Passages from Thai-language sources are paraphrased from the Thai text. Statements about one village are kept to that village.
Several statements reach the page through Failai: Prince Damrong's report of 1906–1907, the 1982 Royal Institute dictionary gloss, Chollada Jungprasert's 1986 account of the Dong Luang So and Surat Warangrat's classification. The Thai text layer of Surifai and others in Dhammathas Academic Journal is corrupted, so only its English abstract is used.
The title follows the provincial statistical office, Failai and Kidkhamsuan, all of whom use So (โส้, ไทโส้). The name Bru is reported on the page as one writer's equivalent, not adopted as the title.
Where the sources disagree
- So, Bru and Kuy. Glottolog makes Sô and Eastern Bru sister sub-branches under Brou–So and puts Kuy on another West Katuic branch. Pacquement (2018) writes "Bru, also referred to as 'So'". Failai (2016) and Kidkhamsuan and others (2024), following Surat Warangrat, put the So "in the Bru or Kha group"; Failai (2016) calls Yoe, Bru and So very close and reports that some linguists put Yoe and Bru under Kuy. Failai (2019) says the Suai or Kui of Surin and Si Sa Ket are So from Salavan and Attapeu speaking the same language. Appamaraka and others (2023) list So, Bru and Kui separately. The article reports each position and adopts none.
- Population. Kania and Kania (1979) estimated 5,000 to 7,000 first-language speakers in Sakon Nakhon and Nakhon Phanom, with no census and no year. Kaithong and Yongvanit (2016) give about 70,000 speakers in Thailand and 80,000 in Laos, with no year or counting body. An encyclopedia entry online gives about 130,000 for 1981, citing a 1964 handbook; it is a tertiary source and is not used. The figures are not reconciled in any source read.
- Dates of the crossing. Failai (2019) gives 1816 for the Dong Luang group, 1828 for the first removal, 1833–1845 for the removals from 15 towns and 1842–1844 for the So of Taphon and Chiang Hom. Failai (2016) adds a persuasion of 1840. Kaithong and Yongvanit (2016) give 1816 and 1827. The article reports Failai's sequence.
- Kusuman's first ruler. Failai (2016) records two accounts of the death of the first ruler, Luang Aranasa: in 1844, with his son Thao King appointed by Rama III, or in 1876, with Thao King appointed by Rama V. From primary documents he concludes that Thao King was the second ruler; the article says only that the son succeeded.
- Phathai. Kidkhamsuan and others (2024) date the move of the Phathai So from Kusuman to 1838 in one place and to 1910 in another, and do not reconcile the two. The article gives both.
- Districts. Failai (2016) lists So districts in Sakon Nakhon, Mukdahan, Nakhon Phanom and Kalasin, and also So Phisai, which his English abstract places in Bueng Kan and his Thai text in Nong Khai; it is left out. Failai (2019) gives a different list for Nakhon Phanom (Tha Uthen, Mueang, Si Songkhram, Ban Phaeng, Phon Sawan and part of Na Kae).
- Homeland. Failai (2019) names Khammouane, Savannakhet, Salavan and Attapeu, and, as a possibility, Mueang Ou, Mueang Wang and Mueang Maha Chai Kong Kaeo; he also raises Mueang Ou in Phongsali on the condition that the kha recorded there were the same people. Kaithong and Yongvanit (2016) name Tapon and Sepon.
Characterisations not reproduced
Prince Damrong's report, as Failai summarises it, describes the So as darker-skinned than other people; the article does not repeat this. The 1943 Siam Society translation calls the So of Kuchinarai "Kha (So)"; the article uses it only for the crops it lists. Kania and Kania report one So informant's unflattering view of neighbouring peoples; it is not used.
Cannabis
None of the sources read connects the So with cannabis. The texts gathered for the page were searched for "cannabis", "ganja", "marijuana", "hemp", กัญชา and opium. The crops recorded for the So are rice, cotton, vegetables, gourds, melons, maize, beans, sesame, peppers, tomatoes, tobacco, potatoes, chillies and rubber. The 1943 translation states that the So of Kuchinarai "do not smoke opium". The page therefore has no cannabis section.
Not used, and why
- Benjapa Kaithong's 2021 study of So women in Kusuman gives village populations "according to official records" with no year; not used.
- The Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre database abstract of Saengphet Suphon's 1990 thesis on the So of Nong Yang, Dong Luang District, gives the self-name Thro and a summary of So worldview. The thesis itself was not seen, and the abstract's generalisations (that the So reject commercial farming and new technology) are not used.
- Yongyut Burasith, Encyclopedia of ethnic groups in Thailand: So (Mahidol University), cited by Surifai and others, was not obtained.
- Linguistic studies named in the sources (Chollada Jungprasert 1986; Jerry Gainey 1984; Ekawit Chinowat 1983; Miller and Miller 1997; Malai Lerthirunwong 1980) were not read.
Open content questions
- No count of the So with a stated year and method has been found for Thailand or Laos.
- Whether the So of Dong Luang in Mukdahan and the So of Kusuman speak the same dialect is not settled by the sources read.