Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes: Local Practices, Boundary-Making and Figured Worlds

Published by ISEAS Publishing 2016

Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes

Local Practices, Boundary-Making and Figured Worlds

Edited by: Su-Ann Oh

https://doi.org/10.1355/9789814695770

Overview
Contents

About this book

This edited volume adds to the literature on Myanmar and its borders by drawing attention to the significance of geography, history, politics and society in the construction of the border regions and the country. First, it alerts us to the fact that the border regions are situated in the mountainous and maritime domains of the country, highlighting the commonalities that arise from shared geography. Second, the book foregrounds socio-spatio practices — economic, intimate, spiritual, virtual — of border and boundary-making in their local context. This demonstrates how state-defined notions of territory, borders and identity are enacted or challenged. Third, despite sharing common features, Myanmar’s borderscapes also possess unique configurations of ethnic, political and economic attributes, producing social formations and figured worlds that are more cohesive or militant in some border areas than in others. Understanding and comparing these social practices and their corresponding life-worlds allows us to re-examine the connections from the borderlands back to the hinterland and to consider the value of border and boundary studies in problematizing and conceptualizing recent changes in Myanmar. “This ambitious project combines sophisticated theorization of boundary-making as a form of social practice and empirical studies of Myanmar’s heterogeneous borderlands, both land and sea. Seeing the country from its edges opens up a provocative and altogether novel vision of the contestations joining diverse peripheries and centre. This volume brings together the leading scholars of the country in a collection that is a must-have for anyone interested in contemporary Myanmar, border studies, and Southeast Asia.” -- Itty Abraham, Head, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (NUS) “This is the first book to attempt to bring together such a diverse range of Myanmar’s land and maritime border regions for comparison. In doing so, it highlights the diversity of the country’s demographic, social, economic and political make-up when viewed from the margins rather than the centre. It reveals how these border regions help to constitute the nation and how they shape what modern Myanmar is today — they also give strong indicators of what it might become. This is an essential read for anyone in the social sciences interested in borderlands, as well as those requiring a broader understanding of the challenges facing the contemporary Myanmar government as it attempts to usher in social and political cohesion following decades of conflict.” -- Mandy Sadan, Reader in the History of South East Asia, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS)

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Tables Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
List of Figures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	viii
Acknowledgements Su-Ann Oh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Notes on Language, Terminology and Geographical Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xiii
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xix
1. Introduction Su-Ann Oh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Section I. Overview of Myanmar’s Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes
2. Electoral Sovereignty in Myanmar’s Borderlands Nicholas Farrelly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
3. The Maritime Frontier of Myanmar: Challenges in the Early 21st Century Maung Aung Myoe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Section II. Territorial Claims and Imagined Boundaries
4. Burman Territories and Borders in the Making of a Myanmar Nation State Maxime Boutry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
5. Ritual and the Other in Rakhine Spirit Cults Alexandra de Mersan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
6. Rohingya Territoriality in Myanmar and Bangladesh: Humanitarian Crisis and National Disordering Anders Bjornberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Section III. Social Organization and Border Economies
7. The Culture and Landscape of the Humanitarian Economy among the Karen (Kayin) in the Borderland of Southeast Myanmar and Northwest Thailand Alexander Horstmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
8. Navigating Learning, Employment and Economies in the Mae Sot-Myawaddy Borderland Su-Ann Oh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Section IV. Mobile Practices and Moving Borders
9. The Spatiality and Borderless-ness of Contentious Politics: Kachin Mobilities as Capability Karin Dean Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
10. The Mule Caravans as Cross-Border Networks: Local Bands and their Stretch on the Frontier between Yunnan and Burma Jianxiong Ma and Cunzhao Ma Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
11. “I Want to Stay Forever in You” Decha Tangseefa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
12. Life along the Naf Border: Identity Politics of the Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Kazi Fahmida Farzana Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
13. Home of the Housekeeper: Will Shan Migrants Return after a Decade of Migration? Amporn Jirattikorn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	306
14. Moving On: Spaces of Uncertain Freedom and Engagement in the Kayah–Mae Hong Son Borderland Carl Grundy-Warr and Chin Wei Jun Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323
Section VI. Institutionalized Identity and Border Practices
15. The Chin State-Mizoram Border: Institutionalized Xenophobia for State Control Bianca Son and N. William Singh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
16. Tăi Buddhist Practices on the China-Myanmar Border Takahiro Kojima Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	389

Language: English
Publisher: ISEAS Publishing
Pages
- Main content: 420

eBook

Published: August 12, 2016
ISBN: 9789814695770