Remaining Karen: a study of cultural reproduction and the maintenance of identity

Rajah, Ananda

Book

Remaining Karen: a study of cultural reproduction and the maintenance of identity

ANU E Press • Acton, A.C.T. • Published In 2008 • Pages:

By: Rajah, Ananda.

Abstract
This study is concerned with the nature of indigenous Karen religion and ethnic identity among the Sgaw Karen in a small northern Thailand community called Palokhi. It argues that religion and ritual sustain and reproduce a cultural ideology which provides a cultural identity, and from which an ethnic identity may be constructed according to the particular circumstances and details of the contexts of intergroup relations. In the case of the Sgaw Karen of Palokhi, the author argues, the cultural ideology consists of a system of social classification based on the difference between male and female, cultural definitions of the relations between the two and the relationship between men and land, and a 'model' of agricultural processes. This cultural ideology is reproduced in and through religion and ritual life, which is dominated by men who play a crucial role, and it is this which provides the Karen with their distinctive cultural ideology.

Cultural identity and pride

Functional and adaptational interpretations

Community structure

Ethnic stratification

Inter-ethnic relations

Linguistic identification

Territorial hierarchy

General character of religion

Organized ceremonial

Prayers and sacrifices

Mythology

Recreational and non-therapeutic drugs