Alan Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199277629
- eISBN:
- 9780191603303
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199277621.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Burma presents a paradigm case in which the state is faced with the demands for democratisation and demands for ethnocultural recognition and self-government. To date, the state has failed to ...
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Burma presents a paradigm case in which the state is faced with the demands for democratisation and demands for ethnocultural recognition and self-government. To date, the state has failed to successfully address either challenge. This chapter explores some of the historical and political factors that explain this failure, and considers the prospects for democratic multination federalism.Less
Burma presents a paradigm case in which the state is faced with the demands for democratisation and demands for ethnocultural recognition and self-government. To date, the state has failed to successfully address either challenge. This chapter explores some of the historical and political factors that explain this failure, and considers the prospects for democratic multination federalism.
Peter Lehr
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199249589
- eISBN:
- 9780191600029
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019924958X.003.0028
- Subject:
- Political Science, Reference
Includes all relevant information on national elections and referendums held in Myanmar since its independence in 1948. Part I gives a comprehensive overview of Myanmar's political history and ...
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Includes all relevant information on national elections and referendums held in Myanmar since its independence in 1948. Part I gives a comprehensive overview of Myanmar's political history and outlines the evolution of electoral provisions in a standardized manner (suffrage, elected institutions, nomination of candidates, electoral system, organizational context of elections). Part II includes exhaustive electoral statistics in systematic tables (numbers of registered voters, votes cast, the votes for candidates and/or parties in parliamentary elections and referendums at both the national and regional level, the electoral participation of political parties, the distribution of parliamentary seats, etc.).Less
Includes all relevant information on national elections and referendums held in Myanmar since its independence in 1948. Part I gives a comprehensive overview of Myanmar's political history and outlines the evolution of electoral provisions in a standardized manner (suffrage, elected institutions, nomination of candidates, electoral system, organizational context of elections). Part II includes exhaustive electoral statistics in systematic tables (numbers of registered voters, votes cast, the votes for candidates and/or parties in parliamentary elections and referendums at both the national and regional level, the electoral participation of political parties, the distribution of parliamentary seats, etc.).
Mandy Sadan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265550
- eISBN:
- 9780191760341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265550.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India ...
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Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India to the west and China to the east. This book explores the origins of the armed movement that started in 1961 and considers why it has continued for so long. The book places the problems that have led to hostilities between the political heartland of Burma and one of its most important peripheries in a longer perspective than usual. It explains how the experience of globalisation and international geopolitics from the late eighteenth century onwards produced the local politics of exclusion and resistance. It also uses detailed ethnographic research to explore the social and cultural dynamics of Kachin ethno-nationalism, providing a rich analysis that goes beyond the purely political. This analysis also provides new insights on the work of Edmund Leach and recent representations of Zomia proposed by James C. Scott. The research draws upon an extensive range of sources, including archival materials in Jinghpaw and an extensive study of ritual and ritual language. Making a wide variety of cross-disciplinary observations, it explains in depth and breadth how a region such as the Kachin State came into being. When combined with detailed local insights into how these experiences contributed to the historical development of modern Kachin ethno-nationalism, the book encourages new ways of thinking about the Kachin region and its history of armed resistance.Less
Since independence in 1948, Burma has suffered from many internal conflicts. One of the longest of these has been in the Kachin State, in the north of the country where Burma has borders with India to the west and China to the east. This book explores the origins of the armed movement that started in 1961 and considers why it has continued for so long. The book places the problems that have led to hostilities between the political heartland of Burma and one of its most important peripheries in a longer perspective than usual. It explains how the experience of globalisation and international geopolitics from the late eighteenth century onwards produced the local politics of exclusion and resistance. It also uses detailed ethnographic research to explore the social and cultural dynamics of Kachin ethno-nationalism, providing a rich analysis that goes beyond the purely political. This analysis also provides new insights on the work of Edmund Leach and recent representations of Zomia proposed by James C. Scott. The research draws upon an extensive range of sources, including archival materials in Jinghpaw and an extensive study of ritual and ritual language. Making a wide variety of cross-disciplinary observations, it explains in depth and breadth how a region such as the Kachin State came into being. When combined with detailed local insights into how these experiences contributed to the historical development of modern Kachin ethno-nationalism, the book encourages new ways of thinking about the Kachin region and its history of armed resistance.
Alexandra Green
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888390885
- eISBN:
- 9789882204850
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888390885.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This volume draws upon art historical, anthropological, and religious studies methodologies to delineate the structures and details of late Burmese wall paintings and elucidate the religious, ...
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This volume draws upon art historical, anthropological, and religious studies methodologies to delineate the structures and details of late Burmese wall paintings and elucidate the religious, political, and social concepts driving the creation of this art form. The combination of architecture, paintings, sculpture, and literary traditions created a complete space in which devotees could interact with the Buddha through his biography. Through the standardization of a repertoire of specific forms, codes, and themes, the murals were themselves activating agents, spurring devotees to merit-making, worship, and other ritual practices, partially by establishing normative religious behavior and partly through visual incentives. Much of this was accomplished through the manipulation of space, and the volume contributes to the analysis of visual narratives by examining how the relationships between word and image, layouts, story and scene selection, and narrative themes both demonstrate and confirm social structures and changes, economic activities, and religious practices of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century Burma. The visual material of the wall painting sites worked together with the sculpture and the architecture to create unified spaces in which devotees could interact with the Buddha. This analysis takes the narrative field beyond the concept that pictures are to be “read” and shows the multifarious and holistic ways in which they can be viewed. To enter temples of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries was to enter a coherent space created by a visually articulated Burmese Buddhist world to which the devotee belonged by performing ritual activities within it.Less
This volume draws upon art historical, anthropological, and religious studies methodologies to delineate the structures and details of late Burmese wall paintings and elucidate the religious, political, and social concepts driving the creation of this art form. The combination of architecture, paintings, sculpture, and literary traditions created a complete space in which devotees could interact with the Buddha through his biography. Through the standardization of a repertoire of specific forms, codes, and themes, the murals were themselves activating agents, spurring devotees to merit-making, worship, and other ritual practices, partially by establishing normative religious behavior and partly through visual incentives. Much of this was accomplished through the manipulation of space, and the volume contributes to the analysis of visual narratives by examining how the relationships between word and image, layouts, story and scene selection, and narrative themes both demonstrate and confirm social structures and changes, economic activities, and religious practices of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century Burma. The visual material of the wall painting sites worked together with the sculpture and the architecture to create unified spaces in which devotees could interact with the Buddha. This analysis takes the narrative field beyond the concept that pictures are to be “read” and shows the multifarious and holistic ways in which they can be viewed. To enter temples of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries was to enter a coherent space created by a visually articulated Burmese Buddhist world to which the devotee belonged by performing ritual activities within it.
Soya Mori
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199732548
- eISBN:
- 9780199866359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732548.003.0020
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy
The author of this chapter has been advising the Myanmar government on policy regarding deaf people. Because Myanmar does not have a national deaf community, a national sign language cannot emerge ...
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The author of this chapter has been advising the Myanmar government on policy regarding deaf people. Because Myanmar does not have a national deaf community, a national sign language cannot emerge naturally. The government wants to develop and promote a standard sign language. However, the government did not agree to form a national deaf organization as a first step, fearing a power to contend with. The new recommendation is that a Myanmar Sign Language textbook be published. The author hopes the text will enlighten hearing and deaf readers, and foster a sense of entitlement to rights, from which a national organization will emerge to advocate for deaf communities. The chapters ends with remarks on the changing situation in Japan with respect to JSL.Less
The author of this chapter has been advising the Myanmar government on policy regarding deaf people. Because Myanmar does not have a national deaf community, a national sign language cannot emerge naturally. The government wants to develop and promote a standard sign language. However, the government did not agree to form a national deaf organization as a first step, fearing a power to contend with. The new recommendation is that a Myanmar Sign Language textbook be published. The author hopes the text will enlighten hearing and deaf readers, and foster a sense of entitlement to rights, from which a national organization will emerge to advocate for deaf communities. The chapters ends with remarks on the changing situation in Japan with respect to JSL.
Robert DeCaroli
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195168389
- eISBN:
- 9780199835133
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195168380.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Ultimately, I identify Buddhism's co‐opting and absorption of local spirit‐religions as a crucial component of Buddhist expansion both within and outside of India. The case of Buddhist expansion into ...
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Ultimately, I identify Buddhism's co‐opting and absorption of local spirit‐religions as a crucial component of Buddhist expansion both within and outside of India. The case of Buddhist expansion into Burma (Myanmar) is particularly revealing. Despite significant differences between the forms of spirit‐religion practiced in Burma and India the Buddhists utilized a similar process of interacting with popular beliefs in both locations. The relationship between the Buddhist community and the local gods (nats) played a crucial role in Buddhism's widespread acceptance during the Pagan era.Less
Ultimately, I identify Buddhism's co‐opting and absorption of local spirit‐religions as a crucial component of Buddhist expansion both within and outside of India. The case of Buddhist expansion into Burma (Myanmar) is particularly revealing. Despite significant differences between the forms of spirit‐religion practiced in Burma and India the Buddhists utilized a similar process of interacting with popular beliefs in both locations. The relationship between the Buddhist community and the local gods (nats) played a crucial role in Buddhism's widespread acceptance during the Pagan era.
Sujit Sivasundaram
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265413
- eISBN:
- 9780191760464
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265413.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter studies a particular moment in the emergence of the idea of the ‘native’ in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By considering the role played by Pacific islanders, ...
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This chapter studies a particular moment in the emergence of the idea of the ‘native’ in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By considering the role played by Pacific islanders, Asians, and Africans in defining territorial identities, bonds of attachment to rulers, and patterns of settlement prior to contact with colonists, it argues that the ‘native’ emerged partly out of extant traditions. The British empire recontextualized mutating extant senses of culture in global maps of heritage and thus minted a new sense of the ‘native’. Throughout this process, what appears is not an unproblematic concept of the ‘native’ or ‘indigenous’, but a notion of how claims of a separate heritage arose in contexts of hybridity and creolization.Less
This chapter studies a particular moment in the emergence of the idea of the ‘native’ in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By considering the role played by Pacific islanders, Asians, and Africans in defining territorial identities, bonds of attachment to rulers, and patterns of settlement prior to contact with colonists, it argues that the ‘native’ emerged partly out of extant traditions. The British empire recontextualized mutating extant senses of culture in global maps of heritage and thus minted a new sense of the ‘native’. Throughout this process, what appears is not an unproblematic concept of the ‘native’ or ‘indigenous’, but a notion of how claims of a separate heritage arose in contexts of hybridity and creolization.
Letizia Paoli, Victoria A. Greenfield, and Peter Reuter
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195322996
- eISBN:
- 9780199944194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195322996.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about opiate production and heroin trafficking around the word. This book provides a comparative analysis of national ...
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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about opiate production and heroin trafficking around the word. This book provides a comparative analysis of national experiences in trying to control international trafficking and analyzes systematically the effects of differences in the stringency of the enforcement of global production and trafficking prohibitions on the organization of the market, the behavior of its participants and society at large. The first part of this book reviews the historical development of the world opiate market, the second part explores market conditions in Afghanistan, Burma, India, Colombia, and Tajikistan and the final part proposes a theoretical model of effective illegality that may helps to explains a country's participation in the heroin trafficking.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about opiate production and heroin trafficking around the word. This book provides a comparative analysis of national experiences in trying to control international trafficking and analyzes systematically the effects of differences in the stringency of the enforcement of global production and trafficking prohibitions on the organization of the market, the behavior of its participants and society at large. The first part of this book reviews the historical development of the world opiate market, the second part explores market conditions in Afghanistan, Burma, India, Colombia, and Tajikistan and the final part proposes a theoretical model of effective illegality that may helps to explains a country's participation in the heroin trafficking.
Letizia Paoli, Victoria A. Greenfield, and Peter Reuter
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195322996
- eISBN:
- 9780199944194
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195322996.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance, Comparative and Historical Sociology
This chapter examines heroin production in Afghanistan and Burma. It explains that these two countries jointly have been responsible for 70% to 95% of the world's opium supply. It investigates why ...
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This chapter examines heroin production in Afghanistan and Burma. It explains that these two countries jointly have been responsible for 70% to 95% of the world's opium supply. It investigates why and how Afghanistan and Burma have become the two dominant producers, singling out the lack of government control and the parallel rise of quasi-state authorities as key promoting factors of the opiate industry in both countries. It discusses the definition of a narco-state and suggests that both Afghanistan and Burma can be considered as narco-states.Less
This chapter examines heroin production in Afghanistan and Burma. It explains that these two countries jointly have been responsible for 70% to 95% of the world's opium supply. It investigates why and how Afghanistan and Burma have become the two dominant producers, singling out the lack of government control and the parallel rise of quasi-state authorities as key promoting factors of the opiate industry in both countries. It discusses the definition of a narco-state and suggests that both Afghanistan and Burma can be considered as narco-states.
Lamin Sanneh and Joel A. Carpenter (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195177282
- eISBN:
- 9780199835812
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195177282.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. ...
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Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. These essays highlight the spiritual universe, communal relationships, cultural and religious creativity, and perspectives on wealth, power, and public affairs that animate contemporary world Christianity. The first six chapters investigate (1) gospel musicians and revival movements in the eastern Caribbean, (2) views of witchcraft among Christians in Nigeria, (3) the problem of sustaining missionary-founded institutions in postcolonial Zimbabwe, (4) the emergence of a Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Ghana, (5) the role of churches in the peace process in Mozambique, and (6) an emerging public theology in democratizing Ghana. Three case studies follow on the impact of Asian Christianity on Western Christian thought. They examine (7) the challenge to Western mission theory caused by the fact that Christianity in Burma grew faster in a tribal context than within the dominant civilization; (8) the ongoing debate in the theology of religion and world religions generated by the Dutch theologian and former missionary to Indonesia, Hendrik Kraemer; and (9) the creation of a postcolonial contextual theology movement by the Chinese scholar, Skoki Coe. An introduction by editor Sanneh frames these studies within the dramatic rise of Christian movements in the global south and east, their tempering through years of hardship and persecution, and their increasing clashes with liberal and worldly northern counterparts. In the book’s conclusion Sanneh argues that the centuries-old Enlightenment assumptions about how states, religions, and societies relate to each other are crumbling, and that world Christianity seems better equipped than northern Christianity to serve the age to come.Less
Featuring cases from contemporary Africa and the Caribbean and from the history of Christianity in Asia, this book examines the new forms of Christianity emerging from the global south and east. These essays highlight the spiritual universe, communal relationships, cultural and religious creativity, and perspectives on wealth, power, and public affairs that animate contemporary world Christianity. The first six chapters investigate (1) gospel musicians and revival movements in the eastern Caribbean, (2) views of witchcraft among Christians in Nigeria, (3) the problem of sustaining missionary-founded institutions in postcolonial Zimbabwe, (4) the emergence of a Pentecostal prosperity gospel in Ghana, (5) the role of churches in the peace process in Mozambique, and (6) an emerging public theology in democratizing Ghana. Three case studies follow on the impact of Asian Christianity on Western Christian thought. They examine (7) the challenge to Western mission theory caused by the fact that Christianity in Burma grew faster in a tribal context than within the dominant civilization; (8) the ongoing debate in the theology of religion and world religions generated by the Dutch theologian and former missionary to Indonesia, Hendrik Kraemer; and (9) the creation of a postcolonial contextual theology movement by the Chinese scholar, Skoki Coe. An introduction by editor Sanneh frames these studies within the dramatic rise of Christian movements in the global south and east, their tempering through years of hardship and persecution, and their increasing clashes with liberal and worldly northern counterparts. In the book’s conclusion Sanneh argues that the centuries-old Enlightenment assumptions about how states, religions, and societies relate to each other are crumbling, and that world Christianity seems better equipped than northern Christianity to serve the age to come.
Kenton Clymer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801454486
- eISBN:
- 9781501701023
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801454486.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United ...
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In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Burma/Myanmar, which this book examines. From the challenges of decolonization and heightened nationalist activities that emerged in the wake of World War II to the Cold War concern with domino states to the rise of human rights policy in the 1980s and beyond, the book demonstrates how Burma/Myanmar has fit into the broad patterns of U.S. foreign policy and yet has never been fully integrated into diplomatic efforts in the region of Southeast Asia. When Burma achieved independence in 1948, the United States feared that the country might be the first Southeast Asian nation to fall to the communists, and it embarked on a series of efforts to prevent this. The book explores attitudes toward Burma (later Myanmar) from anticommunism during the Cold War to interventions to stop drug trafficking to debates in Congress, the White House, and the Department of State over how to respond to the emergence of the opposition movement in the late 1980s. The book concludes with President Obama's visits in 2012 and 2014, and visits to the United States by Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, which marked the establishment of a new, warmer relationship with a relatively open Myanmar.Less
In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked a new period in the diplomatic relationship between the United States and Burma/Myanmar, which this book examines. From the challenges of decolonization and heightened nationalist activities that emerged in the wake of World War II to the Cold War concern with domino states to the rise of human rights policy in the 1980s and beyond, the book demonstrates how Burma/Myanmar has fit into the broad patterns of U.S. foreign policy and yet has never been fully integrated into diplomatic efforts in the region of Southeast Asia. When Burma achieved independence in 1948, the United States feared that the country might be the first Southeast Asian nation to fall to the communists, and it embarked on a series of efforts to prevent this. The book explores attitudes toward Burma (later Myanmar) from anticommunism during the Cold War to interventions to stop drug trafficking to debates in Congress, the White House, and the Department of State over how to respond to the emergence of the opposition movement in the late 1980s. The book concludes with President Obama's visits in 2012 and 2014, and visits to the United States by Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, which marked the establishment of a new, warmer relationship with a relatively open Myanmar.
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691166094
- eISBN:
- 9781400873814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691166094.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through ...
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This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through religious rights singles out individuals and groups for legal protection as religious individuals and collectivities. Second, governing through religious rights shapes how states and other political authorities distinguish groups from each other, often in law. Third, contemporary international religious freedom advocacy emphasizes belief as the core of religion. The chapter unfolds in three parts, each elaborating on various aspects of these claims through a combination of empirical illustrations and theoretical discussion. The first section on the global political production of religious difference draws on an extended discussion of the Rohingya in Myanmar. The second section on the creation of a landscape populated by faith communities and the effects on those excluded from such designations incorporates examples from the Central African Republic, Guatemala, India, and South Sudan. A final section on the mutually supportive relations between religious freedom advocacy, the creation of a believing religious subject, and the ideology of the free religious marketplace builds on the work of anthropologists and religious studies scholars who complicate the notion of belief as the core of religion.Less
This chapter develops three interrelated claims about the politics of governing social difference through religious rights and freedoms. First, conceiving and governing social difference through religious rights singles out individuals and groups for legal protection as religious individuals and collectivities. Second, governing through religious rights shapes how states and other political authorities distinguish groups from each other, often in law. Third, contemporary international religious freedom advocacy emphasizes belief as the core of religion. The chapter unfolds in three parts, each elaborating on various aspects of these claims through a combination of empirical illustrations and theoretical discussion. The first section on the global political production of religious difference draws on an extended discussion of the Rohingya in Myanmar. The second section on the creation of a landscape populated by faith communities and the effects on those excluded from such designations incorporates examples from the Central African Republic, Guatemala, India, and South Sudan. A final section on the mutually supportive relations between religious freedom advocacy, the creation of a believing religious subject, and the ideology of the free religious marketplace builds on the work of anthropologists and religious studies scholars who complicate the notion of belief as the core of religion.
Jay Riley Case
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195177282
- eISBN:
- 9780199835812
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195177282.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter recounts American Baptist missionaries’ and church leaders’ responses in the mid-nineteenth century to the Christian conversion of the Karen people, a tribal group in Burma. Christianity ...
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This chapter recounts American Baptist missionaries’ and church leaders’ responses in the mid-nineteenth century to the Christian conversion of the Karen people, a tribal group in Burma. Christianity preceded civilization among the Karen people, and their culture appeared to be more hospitable to Christianity than the “higher” civilization of the dominant Burmese. The Karen people apparently did not have to become westerners to be good Christians. This news made little sense back in the United States, where western hierarchical notions of society had no place for Christianity flourishing in so-called primitive cultures. Moral philosopher Francis Wayland reconciled these facts to American Baptists’ populist and democratic ideas about the ability of ordinary people to understand God’s truth and organize churches. Yet the idea that Asian Christianity need not adopt western civilization made little headway in mission theory for decades thereafter.Less
This chapter recounts American Baptist missionaries’ and church leaders’ responses in the mid-nineteenth century to the Christian conversion of the Karen people, a tribal group in Burma. Christianity preceded civilization among the Karen people, and their culture appeared to be more hospitable to Christianity than the “higher” civilization of the dominant Burmese. The Karen people apparently did not have to become westerners to be good Christians. This news made little sense back in the United States, where western hierarchical notions of society had no place for Christianity flourishing in so-called primitive cultures. Moral philosopher Francis Wayland reconciled these facts to American Baptists’ populist and democratic ideas about the ability of ordinary people to understand God’s truth and organize churches. Yet the idea that Asian Christianity need not adopt western civilization made little headway in mission theory for decades thereafter.
Michael A. Aung-Thwin
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780824867836
- eISBN:
- 9780824875688
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824867836.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
When the kingdom of Pagan—representing the “classical state” and “golden age” of Myanmar—declined politically by the early fourteenth century, Upper Myanmar reconstituted itself into three smaller ...
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When the kingdom of Pagan—representing the “classical state” and “golden age” of Myanmar—declined politically by the early fourteenth century, Upper Myanmar reconstituted itself into three smaller centers of power, each controlled by a minister of the old court, while Lower Myanmar, finally freed from Upper Myanmar’s hegemony, began the process of state formation for the first time. This transitional situation continued for the next half century until two new kingdoms emerged. In Upper Myanmar, it was the First Ava Dynasty and Kingdom in 1364 and in Lower Myanmar, the First Pegu Dynasty and Kingdom in 1349. BoThattained their pinnacles by the fifteenth century, and both had declined before the first half of the sixteenth century was over. That period of nearly 200 years is the only gap left in the mainstream historiography of Myanmar, which this book seeks to fill, by reconstructing the origins, development, and decline of each kingdom separately, and then examining the impact of that history on their relationship. The study shows that whereas in-land agrarian Ava continued the classical tradition of Pagan, maritime commercial Pegu was an entirely new kingdom, the first in Lower Myanmar. The situation generated a symbiotic and dualistic geo-political “upstream-downstream” relationship between the two kingdoms that became, thereafter, a recurring historical pattern until today, currently represented by in-land Naypyidaw and “coastal” Yangon.Less
When the kingdom of Pagan—representing the “classical state” and “golden age” of Myanmar—declined politically by the early fourteenth century, Upper Myanmar reconstituted itself into three smaller centers of power, each controlled by a minister of the old court, while Lower Myanmar, finally freed from Upper Myanmar’s hegemony, began the process of state formation for the first time. This transitional situation continued for the next half century until two new kingdoms emerged. In Upper Myanmar, it was the First Ava Dynasty and Kingdom in 1364 and in Lower Myanmar, the First Pegu Dynasty and Kingdom in 1349. BoThattained their pinnacles by the fifteenth century, and both had declined before the first half of the sixteenth century was over. That period of nearly 200 years is the only gap left in the mainstream historiography of Myanmar, which this book seeks to fill, by reconstructing the origins, development, and decline of each kingdom separately, and then examining the impact of that history on their relationship. The study shows that whereas in-land agrarian Ava continued the classical tradition of Pagan, maritime commercial Pegu was an entirely new kingdom, the first in Lower Myanmar. The situation generated a symbiotic and dualistic geo-political “upstream-downstream” relationship between the two kingdoms that became, thereafter, a recurring historical pattern until today, currently represented by in-land Naypyidaw and “coastal” Yangon.
Wen-Chin Chang
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801453311
- eISBN:
- 9780801454516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801453311.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political ...
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The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political refugees and economic opportunities for trade explorers. Since the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 and subsequent political upheavals in China, an unprecedented number of Yunnanese refugees have fled to Burma. This book is the first ethnography to focus on the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who reside in Burma and those who have moved from Burma and resettled in Thailand, Taiwan, and China. Since the 1960s, Yunnanese migrants of Burma have dominated the transnational trade in opium, jade, and daily consumption goods. The book details the trade's organization from the 1960s of mule-driven caravans to the use of modern transportation, and reconstructs trading routes while examining embedded sociocultural meanings. These Yunnanese migrants' mobility attests to the prevalence of travel not only by the privileged but also by different kinds of people. Their narratives disclose individual life processes as well as networks of connections, modes of transportation, and differences between the experiences of men and women. Through traveling they have carried on the mobile livelihoods of their predecessors, expanding overland trade beyond its historical borderlands between Yunnan and upland Southeast Asia to journeys further afield by land, sea, and air.Less
The Yunnanese from southwestern China have for millennia traded throughout upland Southeast Asia. Burma in particular has served as a “back door” to Yunnan, providing a sanctuary for political refugees and economic opportunities for trade explorers. Since the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 and subsequent political upheavals in China, an unprecedented number of Yunnanese refugees have fled to Burma. This book is the first ethnography to focus on the migration history and transnational trading experiences of contemporary Yunnanese Chinese migrants (composed of both Yunnanese Han and Muslims) who reside in Burma and those who have moved from Burma and resettled in Thailand, Taiwan, and China. Since the 1960s, Yunnanese migrants of Burma have dominated the transnational trade in opium, jade, and daily consumption goods. The book details the trade's organization from the 1960s of mule-driven caravans to the use of modern transportation, and reconstructs trading routes while examining embedded sociocultural meanings. These Yunnanese migrants' mobility attests to the prevalence of travel not only by the privileged but also by different kinds of people. Their narratives disclose individual life processes as well as networks of connections, modes of transportation, and differences between the experiences of men and women. Through traveling they have carried on the mobile livelihoods of their predecessors, expanding overland trade beyond its historical borderlands between Yunnan and upland Southeast Asia to journeys further afield by land, sea, and air.
Tomas Larsson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450815
- eISBN:
- 9780801464089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450815.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
Domestic and international development strategies often focus on private ownership as a crucial anchor for long-term investment; the security of property rights provides a foundation for capitalist ...
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Domestic and international development strategies often focus on private ownership as a crucial anchor for long-term investment; the security of property rights provides a foundation for capitalist expansion. In recent years, Thailand's policies have been hailed as a prime example of how granting formal land rights to poor farmers in low-income countries can result in economic benefits. But the country provides a puzzle: Thailand faced major security threats from colonial powers in the nineteenth century and from communism in the twentieth century, yet only in the latter case did the government respond with pro-development tactics. This book argues that institutional underdevelopment may prove, under certain circumstances, a strategic advantage rather than a weakness, and that external threats play an important role in shaping the development of property regimes. Security concerns often guide economic policy. The domestic legacies, legal and socioeconomic, resulting from state responses to the outside world shape and limit the strategies available to politicians. The book situates the experiences of Thailand in comparative perspective by contrasting them with the trajectory of property rights in Japan, Burma, and the Philippines.Less
Domestic and international development strategies often focus on private ownership as a crucial anchor for long-term investment; the security of property rights provides a foundation for capitalist expansion. In recent years, Thailand's policies have been hailed as a prime example of how granting formal land rights to poor farmers in low-income countries can result in economic benefits. But the country provides a puzzle: Thailand faced major security threats from colonial powers in the nineteenth century and from communism in the twentieth century, yet only in the latter case did the government respond with pro-development tactics. This book argues that institutional underdevelopment may prove, under certain circumstances, a strategic advantage rather than a weakness, and that external threats play an important role in shaping the development of property regimes. Security concerns often guide economic policy. The domestic legacies, legal and socioeconomic, resulting from state responses to the outside world shape and limit the strategies available to politicians. The book situates the experiences of Thailand in comparative perspective by contrasting them with the trajectory of property rights in Japan, Burma, and the Philippines.
Richard Cockett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300204513
- eISBN:
- 9780300215984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300204513.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter discusses the international context surrounding Burma's reforms. Two countries in particular have played an outsize role in Burma's evolution over the last couple of decades: China and ...
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This chapter discusses the international context surrounding Burma's reforms. Two countries in particular have played an outsize role in Burma's evolution over the last couple of decades: China and America. Burma held historic connections with neighboring China, though it also developed more recent relations with the United States. During the 1990s, however, China held a more active interest in its relationship with Burma, though the latter would soon grow disillusioned at China's monopoly over the nation's political economy. When China's own influence over Burma began to decrease, the Burmese government appeared to have turned to the West to compensate for the loss of Chinese goodwill. The situation, however, is more complicated than it appears, as the chapter will explain.Less
This chapter discusses the international context surrounding Burma's reforms. Two countries in particular have played an outsize role in Burma's evolution over the last couple of decades: China and America. Burma held historic connections with neighboring China, though it also developed more recent relations with the United States. During the 1990s, however, China held a more active interest in its relationship with Burma, though the latter would soon grow disillusioned at China's monopoly over the nation's political economy. When China's own influence over Burma began to decrease, the Burmese government appeared to have turned to the West to compensate for the loss of Chinese goodwill. The situation, however, is more complicated than it appears, as the chapter will explain.
Daniel C. O'Neill
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9789888455966
- eISBN:
- 9789888455461
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888455966.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The “ASEAN Way” is based on the principle of consensus; any individual member state effectively has a veto over any proposal it does not support. This book analyzes how China uses its financial power ...
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The “ASEAN Way” is based on the principle of consensus; any individual member state effectively has a veto over any proposal it does not support. This book analyzes how China uses its financial power and influence to divide the member countries of ASEAN in order to prevent them from acting collectively to resolve their territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. Comparative case studies of China’s relations with Cambodia, the Philippines, and Myanmar illustrate that the regime type in the country with which China is interacting plays an important role in enhancing or constraining China’s ability to influence the governments of developing states within ASEAN and globally. Authoritarian institutions facilitate Chinese influence while democratic institutions inhibit that influence. The book argues that as long as ASEAN includes developing, authoritarian regimes, and given that the United States and other global powers are unlikely to risk any serious conflict over each push of China’s maritime boundaries, little by little, China will assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea. Nevertheless, the book contends that if China chooses to engage in more sophisticated bilateral politics with democratic states, such as providing incentives to a broader range of interest groups, then China will have more success in projecting its power globally.Less
The “ASEAN Way” is based on the principle of consensus; any individual member state effectively has a veto over any proposal it does not support. This book analyzes how China uses its financial power and influence to divide the member countries of ASEAN in order to prevent them from acting collectively to resolve their territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. Comparative case studies of China’s relations with Cambodia, the Philippines, and Myanmar illustrate that the regime type in the country with which China is interacting plays an important role in enhancing or constraining China’s ability to influence the governments of developing states within ASEAN and globally. Authoritarian institutions facilitate Chinese influence while democratic institutions inhibit that influence. The book argues that as long as ASEAN includes developing, authoritarian regimes, and given that the United States and other global powers are unlikely to risk any serious conflict over each push of China’s maritime boundaries, little by little, China will assert its sovereignty over the South China Sea. Nevertheless, the book contends that if China chooses to engage in more sophisticated bilateral politics with democratic states, such as providing incentives to a broader range of interest groups, then China will have more success in projecting its power globally.
Ellen Wiles
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173285
- eISBN:
- 9780231539296
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173285.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Asian Politics
This introductory chapter gives an overview of this book; explains my methodology and ethnographic approach; describes my impressions of Yangon, my reasons for going to Myanmar, and my initial ...
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This introductory chapter gives an overview of this book; explains my methodology and ethnographic approach; describes my impressions of Yangon, my reasons for going to Myanmar, and my initial experiences and encounters with Burmese literary writers; and situates these writers and their literary work by providing a contextual overview of the political, social, legal, cultural and literary history during the repressive censorship era.Less
This introductory chapter gives an overview of this book; explains my methodology and ethnographic approach; describes my impressions of Yangon, my reasons for going to Myanmar, and my initial experiences and encounters with Burmese literary writers; and situates these writers and their literary work by providing a contextual overview of the political, social, legal, cultural and literary history during the repressive censorship era.
Richard Cockett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300204513
- eISBN:
- 9780300215984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300204513.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This concluding chapter offers a cautious outlook into Burma's progress. It argues that, although Burma has certainly progressed since 2011, when President Thein Sein took over, in important respects ...
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This concluding chapter offers a cautious outlook into Burma's progress. It argues that, although Burma has certainly progressed since 2011, when President Thein Sein took over, in important respects little has changed. The chapter presents the plight of the Rohingya and the Burmese government's dismissal of them as a case example, highlighting the potential for old prejudices to resurface against Burma's indigenous populations. The country's economic and political progress might even railroad the interests of these indigenous groups. Thus, the chapter offers alternatives for reconciliation, and perhaps even integration, from both sides, emphasising that should Burma's rulers learn from their past and make some very courageous political changes, the nation would soon see real progress.Less
This concluding chapter offers a cautious outlook into Burma's progress. It argues that, although Burma has certainly progressed since 2011, when President Thein Sein took over, in important respects little has changed. The chapter presents the plight of the Rohingya and the Burmese government's dismissal of them as a case example, highlighting the potential for old prejudices to resurface against Burma's indigenous populations. The country's economic and political progress might even railroad the interests of these indigenous groups. Thus, the chapter offers alternatives for reconciliation, and perhaps even integration, from both sides, emphasising that should Burma's rulers learn from their past and make some very courageous political changes, the nation would soon see real progress.
