essay
Rethinking Kachin wealth ownership
social dynamics in the highlands of southeast asia: reconsidering political systems of highland burma by e.r. leach • 18 • Published In 2007 • Pages: 211-255
By: Ho Ts'ui-p'ing.
Abstract
This document examines Kachin wealth ownership in order to offer an alternative to Leach's 'oscillation' model of social change for Kachin communities living in north Burma. Based on field work among Kachin peoples in Yunnan, China, it argues that the Kachin social change between the 1850s and 1950s revolved around monetized markets whose histories predate the arrival of British colonists, and a major shift in those monetized markets in association with the imposition of British colonial rule. Nevertheless, the author argues, the Kachin were not simply passive witnesses to their own history. Rather, they brought, and are still bringing, cultural understandings of wealth objects to engagements with their new circumstances. Thus, in contrast to Leach's oscillation model and similar to his critics, the author argues that external events triggered fundamental changes in Kachin society that undermined the traditional hierarchical social order.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2012
- Region
- Asia
- Sub Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2011
- Field Date
- no date
- Coverage Date
- 1850-2007
- Coverage Place
- Kachin State, Burma; Yunnan, China
- Notes
- Ho Ts'ui-p'ing
- For bibliographical references see document 34:Robinne and Sadan
- LCCN
- 2007298875
- LCSH
- Kachin (Asian people)