Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes : : Local Practices, Boundary-Making and Figured Worlds / / ed. by Su-Ann Oh.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Contemporary Collection eBook Package
• MitwirkendeR: Bjornberg, Anders,; Boutry, Maxime,; Dean, Karin,; Farrelly, Nicholas,; Farzana, Kazi Fahmida,; Grundy-Warr, Carl,; Horstmann, Alexander,; Jirattikorn, Amporn,; Jun, Chin Wei,; Kojima, Takahiro,; Ma, Cunzhao,; Ma, Jianxiong,; Mersan, Alexandra de,; Myoe, Maung Aung,; Oh, Su-Ann,; Singh, N. William,; Son, Bianca,; Tangseefa, Decha,
• HerausgeberIn: Oh, Su-Ann,
• Place / Publishing House: Singapore : : ISEAS Publishing, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (420 p.)

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)

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on Language, Terminology and Geographical Names -- Contributors -- Abbreviations -- 1. Introduction -- Section I. Overview of Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes -- 2. Electoral Sovereignty in Myanmar's Borderlands -- 3. The Maritime Frontier of Myanmar: Challenges in the Early 21st Century -- Section II. Territorial Claims and Imagined Boundaries -- 4. Burman Territories and Borders in the Making of a Myanmar Nation State -- 5. Ritual and the Other in Rakhine Spirit Cults -- 6. Rohingya Territoriality in Myanmar and Bangladesh: Humanitarian Crisis and National Disordering -- 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 -- 8. Navigating Learning, Employment and Economies in the Mae Sot-Myawaddy Borderland -- Section IV. Mobile Practices and Moving Borders -- 9. The Spatiality and Borderless-ness of Contentious Politics: Kachin Mobilities as Capability -- 10. The Mule Caravans as Cross-Border Networks: Local Bands and their Stretch on the Frontier between Yunnan and Burma -- 11. "I Want to Stay Forever in You" -- 12. Life along the Naf Border: Identity Politics of the Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh -- 13. Home of the Housekeeper: Will Shan Migrants Return after a Decade of Migration? -- 14. Moving On: Spaces of Uncertain Freedom and Engagement in the Kayah-Mae Hong Son Borderland -- Section VI. Institutionalized Identity and Border Practices -- 15. The Chin State-Mizoram Border: Institutionalized Xenophobia for State Control -- 16. Tăi Buddhist Practices on the China-Myanmar Border -- Index