Being and Becoming Kachin

Author(s):  
Mandy Sadan

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.

Author(s):  
Evelyn Forget

Between 1968 and 1980, five negative income tax field experiments were conducted in North America. This essay examines the history of these five experiments, both in the political and social contexts of the period and as one chapter in the historical evolution of the social sciences. It considers the political and social contexts of the period and explores the ways in which these experiments were both generated by, and a challenge to, these deeper currents. The essay also presents some preliminary health and social results from a re-examination of the Canadian experiment


1959 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 51-79
Author(s):  
K. Edwards

During the last twenty or twenty-five years medieval historians have been much interested in the composition of the English episcopate. A number of studies of it have been published on periods ranging from the eleventh to the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. A further paper might well seem superfluous. My reason for offering one is that most previous writers have concentrated on analysing the professional circles from which the bishops were drawn, and suggesting the influences which their early careers as royal clerks, university masters and students, secular or regular clergy, may have had on their later work as bishops. They have shown comparatively little interest in their social background and provenance, except for those bishops who belonged to magnate families. Some years ago, when working on the political activities of Edward II's bishops, it seemed to me that social origins, family connexions and provenance might in a number of cases have had at least as much influence on a bishop's attitude to politics as his early career. I there fore collected information about the origins and provenance of these bishops. I now think that a rather more careful and complete study of this subject might throw further light not only on the political history of the reign, but on other problems connected with the character and work of the English episcopate. There is a general impression that in England in the later middle ages the bishops' ties with their dioceses were becoming less close, and that they were normally spending less time in diocesan work than their predecessors in the thirteenth century.


Urban History ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-588
Author(s):  
Frederik Buylaert ◽  
Jelten Baguet ◽  
Janna Everaert

AbstractThis article provides a comparative analysis of four large towns in the Southern Low Countries between c. 1350 and c. 1550. Combining the data on Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp – each of which is discussed in greater detail in the articles in this special section – with recent research on Bruges, the authors argue against the historiographical trend in which the political history of late medieval towns is supposedly dominated by a trend towards oligarchy. Rather than a closure of the ruling class, the four towns show a high turnover in the social composition of the political elite, and a consistent trend towards aristocracy, in which an increasingly large number of aldermen enjoyed noble status. The intensity of these trends differed from town to town, and was tied to different institutional configurations as well as different economic and political developments in each of the four towns.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 171-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wung Seok Cha

TheSŭngjŏngwŏn ilgi (Daily Records of the Royal Secretariat)is one of the major chronicles of the events of the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392–1910). Although the records prior to the year 1622 are no longer extant, the remaining records from the years 1623 to 1910 meticulously recount the daily activities of the reigning Chosŏn kings, including copious information on their physical and mental status. Because the king’s health was considered as important as other official affairs in many respects, detailed records were kept of royal ailments and how court doctors treated them. This article surveys the state of Korean-language scholarship on the medical content of theDaily Recordsand presents selected translations to demonstrate how this valuable historical source can shed light on both the social history of Chosŏn medicine and the political importance of kingly health at the Chosŏn court.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pranab Jyoti Sarma

This paper carries out a critical review of the trends of historical writings in Assam. The historiographical study reveals that the beginning of the historical phase was, in fact, late in the North East region. Moreover, in many of these historical writings, the importance of the local histories of the communities of the region was ignored. The author highlights the fact that a pan-Indian history for the region may not be authentic enough to understand the cultural dynamics of the complex society of the Northeast. The author also focuses on corroborating ‘proper’ historical source material for reconstructing the history of the region rather than deriving inferences from mythology and legends. However, the importance of recent trends in historiography such as selective utilisation of oral traditions, folklores and memory studies has been emphasised. An alternative and more precise periodisation of the historical phase has been provided which does not, however, project any clear marker between periods and eras but emphasises on slow and steady transformations. Importance of archaeological sources and material evidence has been kept in mind while deriving periodical divisions. Relooking at the history of the Koches, Kacharis has been emphasised.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-206
Author(s):  
Erman

The research aimed to reveal the history of the Raya Magazine and writing on political movements promoted by Islamic College students in Minangkabau. The research findings succeeded in revealing that Raya Magazine was present in the midst of strengthening colonial political pressure and the weakening of the national movement in the 1930s. The political movement was one of the themes of the national movement which was of special note and attention to the Islamic College Students Association. This theme was encountered in several articles during publication, mainly related to the weakening of non-cooperative parties in carrying out movements. The social situation that helped shape the theme of the political movement was the impact caused by the application of vergaderverbood in 1933 and arrested a number of non-cooperative parties leaders, especially Partindo, PNI Baru, and Permi.


2018 ◽  
pp. 005-083

Abstract.-The paper seeks to raise awareness of the sheer expansive force of capitalism, a social fact that has completely transformed Western societies in the last 600 years. Although the text draws on the simplest and most sound categories of Marx’s labour theory of value, its focus is to show the power and political relationships that take place within enterprises –a new servitude. Our analytical method, as well as its empirical validation, builds on Durkheim’s concept of ‘reaction of punishment’. The paper also explores the historical and structural relations between the advanced sociability of our middle classes and their government by representative assemblies elected by them. For this purpose, we draw on the history of English parliamentarianism, from its social origins in the Normand invasion (1066), to its historical eclosion in the North American democracy (1787). Our interpretation is sociological, seeking the meaning of those exceptional historical transformations, and finding it –paradoxically-in the contrast between the ideal types of Community and Association established by German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies. The text also analyses how individualism is originated in capitalist competition, and finishes by pointing out from where(within the social structure) such ideology is propagated as the only one that should shape our behaviour. Keywords:surplus value.-invisible hand.-English exceptionalism.-Ferdinand Tönnies.-empirical measurement.-Spencer-Brown Una aproximación sociológica a algunos temas clásicos de La Economía Política Inglesa Resumen.-El texto pretende hacernos conscientes de la tremenda fuerza expansiva del capitalismo, un hecho social que ha transformado por completo a las sociedades occidentales en los últimos 600 años. Utiliza las categorías más sencillas y consolidadas de la teoría del valor-trabajo de Marx, pero su objetivo es mostrar a las relaciones que tienen lugar en el interior de las empresas como relaciones de poder, como relaciones políticas, una nueva servidumbre. Para ello el método de análisis que aplicamos es muy próximo al concepto de ‘reacción penal’ de Durkheim - incluso en la propuesta que hacemos para su validación empírica. El estudio se pregunta además por las relaciones históricas y estructurales entre la sociabilidad avanzada de nuestras clases medias y su gobierno por asambleas representativas, que ellas mismas eligen. Para ello recurrimos a la historia del parlamentarismo inglés, desde sus lejanos orígenes sociales, que encontramos en la Invasión Normanda de la isla (1066), hasta su cabal eclosión histórica en la democracia norteamericana (1787). Pero nuestra interpretación es sociológica, busca el sentido de esas transformaciones históricas excepcionales, y lo halla (paradójicamente) en el contraste entre los tipos-ideales de Comunidad y Asociación establecidos en su día por el sociólogo alemán Ferdinand Tönnies.A lo largo del texto analizamos también cómose origina el individualismo en la competición capitalista, y finaliza señalando desde dónde (en el interior de la estructura social) se propaga dicha ideología, como la única considerada de recibo para orientar nuestro comportamiento. Palabras clave:plusvalía.-mano invisible.-excepcionalismo inglés.-F. Tönnies.-medición empírica.-Spencer-Brown


2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIANNA ENGLERT

As part of Benjamin Constant's academic “revival,” scholars have revisited the political and religious elements of his thought, but conclude that he remained uninterested in the nineteenth century's major social and economic questions. This article examines Constant's response to what would later become known as “the social question” in his Commentary on Filangieri's Work, and argues that his claims about poverty and its alleviation highlight central elements of his political liberalism, especially on the practice of citizenship in the modern age. By interpreting social issues through his original political lens of “usurpation,” Constant encouraged skepticism of social legislation and identified the political implications of a “disinherited” poor class. The lens of usurpation ultimately limited the scope of Constant's solutions to poverty. But his attention to social and economic issues prompts us to reexamine the category of “the social” and its uses in the history of liberal thought, particularly the place of class concerns in the French liberal tradition.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mordechai Cogan

Beginning with the death of David and the rise of Solomon, 1 Kings charts the history of Israel through the divided monarchy, when Ahab reigned in the north and Jehoshaphat reigned in the south. This new translation, with introduction and commentary by biblical scholar Mordechai Cogan, is part of the Anchor Bible Commentary series, viewed by many as the definitive commentaries for use in both Christian and Jewish scholarship and worship. Cogan's translation brings new immediacy to well-known passages, such as Solomon's famously wise judgment when asked by two prostitutes to decide their dispute regarding motherhood of a child: "Cut the live son in two! And give half to one and half to the other." With a bibliography that runs to almost a thousand articles and books, Cogan's commentary demonstrates his mastery of the political history described by 1 Kings, as well as the themes of moral and religious failure that eventually led to Israel's defeat and exile.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 252-279
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Tortti ◽  

This paper aims at outlining the main processes that, in Argentina’s recent past, may enable us to understand the emergence, development and eventual defeat of the social protest movement and the political radicalization of the period 1960-70s.Here, as in previous papers, we resort to the concept of new left toname the movement that, though heterogeneous and lacking a unified direction, became a major unit in deeds, for multiple actors coming the most diverse angles coincided in opposing the vicious political regime and the social order it supported. Consequently, we shall try to reinstate the presence of such wide range of actors: their projects, objectives and speeches. Some critical circumstances shall be detailed and processes through which protests gradually amalgamated will be shown. Such extended politicization provided the frame for quite radical moves ranging from contracultural initiatives and the classism in the workers’ movement to the actual action of guerrilla groups. Through the dynamics of the events themselves we shall locate the peak moments as well as those which paved the way for their closure and eventual defeat in 1976.


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