ABSTRACT
This article aims to explore the parallels between the taming of nature and the way in which men attempt to control women’s reproductive powers. Among the Isan of Northeast Thailand, nature is anthropomorphized and gendered in the form of female and male nature spirits which represent idealized and simplified models of maleness and femaleness found in Buddhist texts and in the ideology of male authority. 1 At the same time, nature acts as a rich source for metaphors for human procreation and gender concepts. Both the process of anthro-pomorphization and the creation of metaphors from nature involve two asymmetric and interdependent relationships: nature vs. culture and female vs. male.
