Sheep (بيريڠ): Documentary of the Nonhuman

In the exquisite carved and gilded frames that hung on the wall above the horizon lineis the matted and stained sheep’s wool. Dirty as it seems, the wool was taken from stray sheep wandering around the village of Ru-Sa-Me-Lae, a small village in Pattani. Pattani is one of the three provinces (Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat) in the Deep South or the Patani region, the southernmost part of Thailand. It is a predominantly Islamic region where the protracted conflict between the Thai state and the militants aiming to liberate Patani and establish a Malay Islamic State, Patani Darussalam, has been consuming thousands of lives for decades. The Deep South has long been a subject of study of violence and state oppression.          

Samak Kosem is an anthropologist who tries to understand the culture of the Deep South by studying the “nonhuman”.Being a Muslim himself but not the local, Kosem chooses four types of the nonhuman: sheep, jinn (supernatural creature in Islamic belief), wave and checkpoint as cases for alternatively exploring the dynamic of the Muslim culture. Sheep(بيريڠ)(2017) is part of his ongoing research presented as documentary film. It demonstrates the socio-cultural and historical contexts of the human-nonhuman coexistence through a story of the wandering stray sheep in Ru-Sa-Me-Lae. The documentary was shown in a group exhibition The Enmeshed at Art Centre Silpakorn University Wang Thapra in Bangkok. Sheep(بيريڠ)was screened on a TV monitor on the floor at the corner of the gallery room while two frames of sheep’s wool were hung on the opposite wall. Kosem took stray sheep from the southern border to the capital Bangkok and put them at the center of his artistic-academic attention. Sheep were a protagonist in his documentary while their matted and stained wool were placed in the beautiful frames.   

According to the Quran, when Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son for the fulfillment of God’s command, God sent him a ram to sacrifice instead. This event is celebrated and commemorated on the days of Eid al-Adha when Muslims sacrifice animals and divided into three parts: one for the poor and needy; one for relatives, friends and neighbors; and one for the family. In Ru-Sa-Me-Lae, the hierarchy of sacrificial animals begins with cow, goat and sheep. Despite its place in the Abraham narrative, sheep are in the lowest position because of their vulnerability. If sheep are cursed by human or raped by dogs, they can no longer be used in a sacrificial feast. Domestic sheep then turn into stray sheep since they are impure and unwanted. Matted and stained wool is a sign of renunciation.

Even though stigmatized sheep is a result of applying human morality with animals, this state of impurity cannot be redeemed by anyone. The villagers solve the problems of having no eligible sheep for sacrifice by buying sheep from farms or the nearby Datoh village. Kosem chose sheep for his study of the Deep South culture because raising sheep as sacrificial animals could be found only in the Muslim communities here. For him, the relationship between the villagers and sheep in Ru-Sa-Me-Lae does not only represents the local Islamic culture but also echoes the stigmatization of people the Deep South by the Thai state; they are impure and alien in this heavily Buddhist country. Studying the nonhuman – stray sheep- also allows him to understand the Deep South socio-cultural environment by not taking human as center of anthropological research. Kosem used GPS to follow sheep’s trail in the village. The three-kilometer trail started from the roundabout in front of Prince of Singkhla University, Pattani Campus to the post office, Ban Ru-Sa-Me-Lae School, the hospital, Ru-Sa-Me-Lae flea market, the graveyard, the religious school, the community education centerand the two mosques. He found that sheep strolled along Ru-Sa-Me-Lae beach as well.

Sheep(بيريڠ) began with an image of a shed on Ru-Sa-Me-Lae beach. A flock of stray sheep slowly came in sight. In the 15-minute documentary, the audience observed sheep’s daily activities by following them as if watching an ordinary animal documentary. What makes Sheep(بيريڠ) different from animal documentary lies not in its physical appearance but the process and idea behind the making. Kosem employed anthropological observation with sheep, making his research documentary an anthropology of the nonhuman. He followed them and recorded their routine. Although he had interviewed many villagers, there was no human being visible in the documentary. The only sign of human was a sound of prayingin a distant that suggested a Muslim environment. 

Stray sheep walked around. Their fleece was dirty. They ate mainly garbage. The different position between sheep and another sacrificial animal, goat, was emphasized in the rain scene; the goat stayed under a school roof but the sheep stood outside in the pouring rain. 

Kosem’s work on the nonhuman is a study of human interaction with the nonhuman from human perspective. The human-animal interaction shown inSheep(بيريڠ) implies hierarchy and religious violence in Muslim society. Stray sheep may be equivalent to the alienated southern Muslim but, more importantly, they also represented another face of the Deep South culture.For Kosem, stray sheep is a metaphor of both the people of the Deep South within the Thai state and violence within the Muslim community. Sheep are victim. If they are clean, they will be sacrifice. If they are impure, they are abandoned. Violence is not explicit here. No guns and bombs that we often see from stories of this region, but behind the peaceful scenes of Ru-Sa-Me-Lae village, cruelty still exists.

Sheep (بيريڠ) by Samak Kosem

Produced by Cattleya Paosrijaroen 

Cinematography and Edited by Narasit Kaesaprasit 

Music by Pichai Promyong

Year: 2017

Duration: 15 mins

Sheep (بيريڠ) (2017) is aresearch & documentary film project by Samak Kosem. It is shown in a group exhibition The Enmeshed, curated by Penwadee Nophaket Manont, Soifa Saenkhamkon and Supphakarn Wongkaew at Art Centre Silpakorn University Wang Thapra in Bangkok, Thailand between 22 November-24 December 2017. 

The Enmeshedis the first exhibition of [R]Ejecting Mantra, a research and archive based exhibition project initiated by Rai.D Collective, a group of curators and cultural workers who aims to carry out exhibition and other projects related to contemporary art with a focus on social, political and cultural issues. 

The South Thailand Insurgency is an ongoing conflict centered in the Deep South or the Patani Region in Thailand. It is an ethnic and religious separatist insurgency rooted in the inclusion of the former Sultanate of Pattani to the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand) in the late eighteenth century. The situation has expanded and intensified since 2004. Local Muslims as well as various separatist insurgent groups have persistently demanded for a level of autonomy from the Thai state. Violence comes from both sides. For more information, please visit https://www.deepsouthwatch.org. Deep South Watch is a platform organization based at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus in Pattani. Established in 2006, Deep South Watch creates a network and platform for a discussion on the Deep South issues.