2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Anthropological Study of Dynamics of Ethnicity of the Shan in Myanmar
| Project/Area Number |
14510338
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
文化人類学(含民族学・民俗学)
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| Research Institution | HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY |
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Principal Investigator |
TAKATANI Michio Hiroshima University, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Professor, 総合科学部, 教授 (70154789)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2004
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| Keywords | Myanmar / Shan / Ethnicity / Ethnic Minority / Cultural Anthropology |
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| Research Abstract |
This research project is an attempt to present an anthropological analysis of the Shan people living in Burma (Myanmar). The process whereby the Bamar have politically and culturally influenced the Shan will be referred to as the Burmanization (Myanmarization) of the Shan. Today we can see several different stages of Burmanization. In parallel with this phenomenon, the Shan must have experienced a kind of "Shanization" of their own people that may have raised their own self-consciousness and constructed their own knowledge. So "Shanization" does not signify the assimilation of their hill neighbors in the pre-modern period but various phenomena of cultural dynamics such as the preservation and revitalization of their own culture and the formation of a collective identity under the political and cultural pressure of Burmanization The discourse of "Shanization" relates with two-way construction of Shan ethnicity : internally by some common modes of acquiring, maintaining, and extending knowledge of ethnicity ; externally by political negotiation in an effort to coexist with the Bamar. The author's field research concerning this research project was conducted intermittently from 1997 to 2003 in Shan State and Kachin State. Today most of the Shan people residing in Kachin State have forgotten the Shan language, and they use the Bamar language as their native tongue.
Burmanization and Shanization seem to be closely related to each other like the two sides of a coin. In a sense the Shan have been forced to preserve their "authentic" culture mainly through preservation of their literary tradition, otherwise it will be seen only in written records. This may be called a crystallization of culture, for such a process tends to be done retrospectively and invent traditions. The Shan in Shan State, especially Northern Shan State where have shouldered most of the responsibility.
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Research Products
(2 results)
