The Logic Of Collective Action:An Anthropological Study Of Relocation Of Mantan

The thesis is based on the event of relocation of Dai people in a small village named Mantan in Zhengdong,Jiangcheng,Puer,Yunnan,where most of the field work is done.The relocation project was started in 2017 due to one of local government’s plan to build a town of tourist destination,attracting tourism with it ethnic Daiism.Since then,the concerned groups and individuals within the village has been trying to do everything they can or good at,to make sure their interests maximized.The elderly of the village,who are usually in charge of religion and rituals,formed a ad hoc group,doing what they can to stop the relocation plan from materializing.Doing what they were good at,they tried to convince the young at different ceremonies or ritual.Later,they even tried petition to the county officials,but to no avail.The young and middle-age,on the other hand,weren’t as organized as the older people,and they are in general supporters of the plan.This in turn shows that the young and the middle-age male are at the core of village governance or management – they have to look no further than the village council to express their grievance.The plan to move village people from their traditional houses and open them for tourism was cancelled after a town minister in charge was held in detention for corruption charges;in the national Target Poverty Alleviation scheme,50 families in Mantan were offered options of either moving to new houses in a new village or rebuilding or repairing their old houses in Mantan,and no family was moving out.Because of the way the event ended,the thesis goes further to analyze the important role that nation has played during the whole relocation story - how it solved some of the issues facing people in Mantan,and how a strong government don’t lack its shortcomings in local governance.With the presence of a strong government,the collective actions taken by Mantan people contribute little to the outcome of the event.