讀到一篇很有趣的對自由的思考。
Self-Enslavement as Resistance to the State? Siamese Early Modern Laws on Slavery
Eugénie Mérie au （University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne）
I examine slavery laws, as reproduced in the 1805 Three Seals Code, as well as accounts of Europeans, to compare the legal conditions of enslaved people and serfs in early modern Siam. I argue that the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya (1350–1767) was a slave society where contractual self-enslavement was a widespread means for serfs to escape required corvée and military service to the state. I also suggest that differentiating indigenous contractual slaves (temporary, collateral, and permanent), who were protected to various degrees by the law, from enslaved foreign war captives, who were potentially outside of any legal framework, invites us to rethink freedom and slavery as a continuum rather than a dichotomy.
一個人自願成爲奴隸的行爲也可以是追求自由和法律保護的行爲。這篇文章的例子是在兵役（可能成爲敵國戰俘，而失去所有作爲人的權力）和成爲奴隸的權衡下，選擇成爲（受法律保護的）奴隸可以讓自己逃避兵役，避免失去生命或者人權。
這個基於理性計算的自由選擇可以和在威權下人的行爲來對比。無論是政治威權，性別威權，或者學術威權。比如有人權衡之下服從威權，並獲利遠大於付出的時候。服從威權獲得利益而得到的自由對於這個個體同樣也可以視爲自由。當穆斯林女性重新穿上傳統服飾時，如果能給她帶來更多在當下社會的價值認同和生活方便，那麼她就可能會認爲被束縛的行動是追逐自由的、行動和價值觀是合一的。