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.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
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.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- History
- External relations
- Police
- Revolution
- Military organization
- Accumulation of wealth
- Inter-ethnic relations
- Household
- Standard of living
- Income and demand
- Research and development
- Mode of marriage
- Burial practices and funerals
- Gift giving
- Exchange transactions
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kachin
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2012
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southeast Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem; 2011
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1850-2007
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Kachin State, Burma; Yunnan, China
- NotesAdditional notes
- Ho Ts'ui-p'ing
- For bibliographical references see document 34:Robinne and Sadan
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 2007298875
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Kachin (Asian people)