Research & Article

The Mani people are hunter-gatherers living in the western part of peninsular Thailand, north of the Malaysian border. During field campaigns in 1995 and 1996 the occupation of ten rock shelters and nine forest camps were recorded. All these belong to the present-day system of up to one hundred different living sites, inhabited by Mani groups during one year in the forested region of Trang, Satun and Phatthalung Provinces. Most of the camps studied could be assigned to a specific Mani group, and it was even possible to tell individual housing habits apart. Beside documentation of the camps, the authors were able to construct kinship structures for 179 persons, belonging to six generations for the Mani. In addition, four prehistoric sites, related to the Hoabinhian and/ or the Neolithic, were discovered.