Being and Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Borderworlds of Burma.

• Author: South, Ashley
• Position: Book review

Being and Becoming Kachin: Histories Beyond the State in the Borderworlds of Burma. By Mandy Sadan. Oxford: Oxford University Press (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Monograph), 2013. Hardcover: 49pp (including Bibliography, plus front and end material).

This is one of the most important books on the history, anthropology and politics of Burma/Myanmar to be published in recent years. (1) Mandy Sadan traces the emergence and transformation of the Kachin ethno-national identity over two centuries, from the precolonial period through to the present, in northeast India, southwest China, and northern Myanmar.

Sadan's account is based on archival material, particularly from the British ex-colonies, combined with profound cultural and linguistic insights derived from fieldwork among the Kachin. She mobilizes "outsider" and "insider" sources--including texts, photographs and material culture, and many first-hand primary interviews--to sustain a critical interrogation of what it has meant and means to be (and be perceived as) Kachin, in different historical and geopolitical contexts (including at the broadest level, which is covered in Chapter 5 "Southeast Asia in the Cold War"). A wide range of theoretical approaches are mobilized, without losing sight of the Kachin peoples' particular lived experiences. The critical interrogation of implied and explicit positions in relation to identities and interests is balanced by a deep sympathy for her subject. Some scholars of ethnic politics in Myanmar (e.g. Robert Taylor passim) have suggested that, because categories of ethnic identity (e.g. "Kachin") can be shown historically to be arbitrary constructions but are often treated in discourse as "natural" and essentialized, such self-identifications are somehow inauthentic or at best anachronistic. While carefully exploring the positions and interests involved in the emergence of Kachin identity, Sadan never belittles her subject, but seeks to unpack these dynamics in a manner which is fundamentally sympathetic to this complex and multifaceted society. This is evident in her treatment of how the "Kachin" ethnonym is claimed by (or for) non-dominant subgroups. As with other ethnic nationalities in Myanmar, defining elements of Kachin identity tend to be derived from the characteristics of a particular subgroup--in this case the Jingphaw. While elites from other subgroups (e.g. Lisu and Rawang) have sometimes preferred to use more locally specific...