Abstract:
Cooking, which is important to human beings, is a sophisticated process. Northern Thai or Lanna culinary art is known for its unique characteristics. A review of studies on food and culture of Northern Thai shows that most of the works are ethnographic and descriptive, which do not provide insight into the cultural scenario of Northern ways of cooking. Thus, an in-depth study that provides true understanding of this part of culture needs to be done so as to unfold Lanna cooking system and practice. This study thus aims to analyze the system and categorization of cooking terms in Northern Thai by applying the componential analysis so as to reveal Northern Thai worldviews reflected through the denotations of Northern Thai cooking terms. Data used in this study was collected from informants in Amphoe Muang of Chiang Mai, Chaing Rai, Lamphun and Lampang. Five informants were purposively selected in each province. The result of the analysis shows that there are 48 cooking terms. Based on a componential analysis of the meanings of all the cooking terms, nine dimensions of contrast were found. The four primary dimensions are purpose, how to make food edible,water,and oil. The secondary dimensions are time, adding chili paste, kind of chili paste, equipment and ingredient. A folk taxonomy of all the cooking terms shows that the unique beginner term is เญียะ-กิ๋น /ῆiaʔ⁴⁵/-(/kin²⁴/) to cook. This term is the superodinate level above all the other cooking terms. The level under the unique beginner is that of generic cooking terms composed of twelve terms: ต้ม/tom⁴⁴/, to boil,หง/hoŋ²⁴/ to boil rice until water used up,หนึ้ง/nɨŋ⁴⁴/ to steam glutinous rice,จี่/ci:²¹/ to grill,ขั้ว/khua⁴⁴/ to stir in a pan,ต้อด/tɔ:t⁴²/to deep-fry, ต๋ำ/tam²⁴/to pound cooked ingredients, ส้า₁/ญำ₂/sa:⁴⁴/₁ หรือ /nam³³/₂ to mix cooked vegetables as a salad , ส้า₂/sa:⁴⁴/₂ to mix raw meat as a salad,ลาบ/la:p⁴²/to grind raw meat with cattles organs,หลู้/lu:⁴⁴/ to mix fresh blood with spices, and หมั๋ก/mak²⁴/to ferment meat or vegetables. The rest are twenty-nine specific cooking terms, which are distinguished from one another by four dimensions of contrast; for example, แก๋ง/kε:ŋ²⁴/to boil with red chili paste,หม๋ก/mok²⁴/ to wrap and burn in hot ash, กั๊น/kan⁴⁵/, to steam rice with blood folded in banana leaf,ฮ้วม/huam⁴⁵/ to deep-fry pork skin as preparing ,and จ่อม/cɔm²¹/to ferment small fish for a long time. This study reveals certain Northern Thai (Lanna) cultural values. The inference from the semantic features shows that meat is special for Northern Thai people. Consuming meat reflects wealth and status. In addition, it is inferred that Northern Thai people have negative attitude towards greasy and oily food in western cookings practice. Most cooking terms lack [+oil] feature. Also, most ingredients and seasonings are based on natural vegetation surrounding their neighborhoods. Besides, varieties of chili pastes play major roles as food seasoning in daily life. Finally, conceptualization of cooked food in Lanna is divided into two kinds: food cooked with heat and food cooked without heat. The latter is reserved for men, who believe that eating such kind of (raw) food helps promote masculinity.