Political systems of highland Burma: a study of Kachin social structure

Leach, Edmund Ronald

Book

Political systems of highland Burma: a study of Kachin social structure

Harvard University Press • Cambridge • Published In 1954 • Pages:

By: Leach, Edmund Ronald.

Abstract
This book is concerned with the Kachin and Shan population of North-East Burma. By the author's admission, the ethnographic information is neither detailed nor new, but rather serves as a vehicle for demonstrating what Leach describes as an oscillation between one Kachin 'republican' political system (gumlao) and the Shan 'aristocratic' system. In this description, the native concepts of territorial division, kinship, ownership, the supernatural and authority are discussed. The Appendices are documents offered in support of Leach's 'oscillation' theory. In view of this treatment of the ethnographic data, it is essential that the reader familiarize himself with category 121, before use of other categories is attempted. Chapter IV, i.e., pp. 63ff, is marked with the unnumbered subheading 'Hpalang', in order to delineate the continuity of the categories used. The author did field work among the peoples about whom he writes. He also served in the Burma Army from 1940-45, much of which time was spent in Northern Burma. Dr. Leach did his academic work in the University of London.

Community structure

Form and rules of government

Cultural participation

Water supply

Tillage

Topography and geology

Ethnic stratification

Behavior toward non-relatives

Land use

Territorial hierarchy

Cereal agriculture

Ethnosociology