Abstract:
The research on a model for development of a happy family on ethic identity : a case study of the Bru ethic group in Thailand and Lao peoples Democratic republic had the following objectives 1. to study the identity of Bru ethic group and happiness of the Bru family ethic group in Thailand and Lao peoples democratic republic 2. to build a model for development of a happy family on ethic identity of the Bru ethic group in Thailand and Lao peoples democratic republic. Concerning content limitation, the author studied the families in the context of the Bru ethic group and their significant identities which were the linguistic identity, the belief, the worship of spirits, the customs, traditions, and rituals. These led to development of a happy family of the Bru ethic group . through data collection was done using mainly the anthropological research method, the tree-pronged analysis, historical comparison, and participative process. The study findings are them presented in descriptive analysis form.
The following are the study finding :
1. Concerning the study of the identity of the Bru ethic families and a happy family of the Bru ethic group on both sides of the Mekong river, it was found that.
Firstly, from the study of the contexts of the Bru ethic group in wernbug village on the Thai side and Lasua villages still maintained their identity in spite of their difference in the government of the countries, The Bru were closely family-related . they always crossed the river to visit one another. It was found from a study of the communities that in the past the Bru ethnic group lived on phu (mountain) kanghuan and earned their living by farming on mobile plantation and hunting. The Bru were praceful and loved their homeland. Anyway, they had to move from pku kanghuan because of natural disasters to Ladsua village. Later in B.E. 2457, they had to move again to the right side of Mekong river to the present wernbug village, for this reason some of their identities faded out.
Secondly, the Bru believed in Heet, the ancestral spirit of their village. Heet was like the law and order that one had to follow. Jarn Po, a symbol respected on both sides of the Mekong river, would punish anyone who violated heet. Besides, each clan had their own spirit to make offerings. Making offerings to spirits encouraged everyone to uphold the customs and traditions and made them feel they are someone important. This brought happiness to each family and to the whole community. Furthermore, worshipping the ancestral spirts brought about the identity of the Bru ethnic group in leading their lives-the identity of their food, home clothing, and health-making everyone in families happy.
Thirdly, the linguistic identity of the people on both sides of the Mekong river enabled the wernbug villagers to communicate in three languages. They speak Bru among them to show that they were from the same community ; they were related or friends. The Bru language was also used when they held rituals, for example, Khop Phi Jamnak. The other two languages were Thai and Lao. They would speak these languages with those who came to their village for trade or other businesses. They would speak Thai when they communicate with civil servants. The Bru people would not speak Bru with strangers because they thought that Bru was the language of a poor ethnic group, inferior, and they might be looked down upon. This linguistic identity, therefore, was also fading out.
Fourthly, concerning the factors of indicators of family happiness of the Bru ethnic group :
Theories and research literature showed that the factors of indicators of family happiness of the Bru ethnic group were composed of many. One factor involved basic physical needs concerning having sufficient food and living a quite happy life, having home, education, jobs and social and economic status. Another factor concerned psychological health-family relation, feeling easy, love and care, unity, understanding, tolerance, being free or not from family conflicts. The other factor had something to do with family structure. This meant every family member living in the family, single or extended family, broken, divorced, or separated family, poor family, dysfunctional family. The author took all these factors to be included in the frame of indicators from the views of villagers.
The indicators of a happy family were composed of the idea of happiness, criteria and indicators of happiness as well as concepts, theories and research literature. It was found that the family happiness concerned habit status which meant indicators that concerned basic need adaptation, well-being living conditions, family development, perfect family structure and factors, self-sufficiency, encouragement children to be educated. The family happiness also concerned moral status which was composed of being happy morally, relationship, have a life full of peace and morality, and upholding customs, traditions and social values.
2. Concerning building a model for a happy family, the villagers of wernbug and Ladsua of the Bru ethnic group attributed the meaning of happiness, as reflected from their lifestyle, to 6 factors .they were good environment, sufficient consumption and being free from having to use chemicals, security in possession and property, having a generous mind and mentally and physically happy, mutual help in taking care of their offspring in the community, and good education-good learning processes to help children develop their quality of life at the same time as uphold morality, cultures, traditions and religion. When the indicators were integrated, it was found that the Bru gave importance on the happiness from good and secured life, sufficiency economy, sufficient existence, and generosity of mind respectively. The analyzed and processed indicators were used to develop a model of a happy family which was later disseminated among the Bru on both sides of the Mekong river.