Karen (Kayin)
Websites/Multiple Documents
Description:
Various documents in German and/or English on the Karen and other groups in Thailand and Burma, including "Change and identity in Pwo Karen communities in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary,
a 'Global Heritage' in Western Thailand".
Reiner Buergin
Source/publisher:
Institute for Ethnology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Websites/Multiple Documents
Category:
Karen (cultural, historical, political), Online sale of crafts, clothes, art, books, CDs, magazines etc., Karen (Kayin)
Language:
Deutsch, German, English
more
Individual Documents
Description:
The history of Karen nationalism has been interpreted in terms of inter-ethnic conflict and conceptualizations of ethnicity have influenced understanding of Karen political identity. While 'Karen' incorporated various linguistic, sociocultural, religious and political sub-groups, the Karen National Union (KNU) elite promoted a singular pan-Karen identity in order to minimize such diversity. As a result, factionalism emerged between different Karen groups, obstructing the KNU's political vision and leaving many Karens dissatisfied with KNU attempts to represent their various interests. The fall of Manerplaw in 1995 was thus the result of intra-ethnic conflict as much as conflict between Karens and non-Karens.
Jessica Harriden
Source/publisher:
Journal of Burma Studies Vol. 7 (2002)
Date of publication:
2002-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2010-07-08
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
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Description:
Abstract:
"There are an estimated 242,000 Karen in Thailand making them the largest
ethnic minority in the country second only to the Chinese. In Burma, they
number approximately 2.2 million. The Karen, of whom the Sgaw and Pwo
represent the two largest groups based on dialectal differences, speak a number
of related languages which are now recognised as belonging to the Sino-Tibetan
group of languages. Since the early part of the last century, the Karen have been
the subject of a number of studies by missionaries and British colonial
administrators in Burma and, more recently, by anthropologists in Thailand.
Two major areas of interest in the long history of Karen studies have been
the nature of Karen religious systems which appear to draw on various traditions,
and the nature of Karen identity which appears remarkably resistant to change.
While Karen religious traditions and customs were a dominant concern in earlier
studies, the question of Karen ethnic identity (or identities) has been the focus
of interest in contemporary studies, matched perhaps only by an interest in
Karen subsistence or economic systems. Though the more recent anthropological
studies of the Karen have retained an interest in Karen religious systems, related
in most part to the study of Karen ethnicity, it is remarkable that there has not
been a detailed contemporary account of the indigenous, non-Buddhist,
non-Christian religion of the Karen.
This study is concerned with both issues — the nature of indigenous Karen
religion and the maintenance of identity in a small Karen community which is
firmly located, as much by necessity as by choice, in a predominantly Northern
Thai socio-economic milieu in the highlands of Northern Thailand. It is also
concerned with sociological explanation as well as anthropological description,
in the case of the Karen, namely the part played by an indigenous religion (which
draws little from Buddhism or Christianity, both of which have had considerable
influence on Karen elsewhere) in the maintenance of identity. At one level,
therefore, this study may be regarded as an attempt to fill a gap in the
contemporary ethnography of the Karen, that is, to provide an account of an
indigenous Karen religious system as a system in its own right but taken broadly
to show how it encompasses different facets of life in one Karen community. At
another level, this study addresses a larger sociological issue in the study of the
Karen: how a cultural identity may be constituted (and reconstituted as an
on-going process) and the implications that this may have for an understanding
of Karen ethnicity the principles of which, though perhaps sufficiently
established as a matter of conventional sociological wisdom, have not been
adequately demonstrated in relation to hard ethnographic fact.
The major argument in this thesis, stated in its most general terms, is that
religion and ritual sustain and reproduce what is best regarded as a cultural
ix
ideology which provides a cultural identity, and from which an ethnic identity
may be constructed according to the particular circumstances and details of the
contexts of intergroup relations. In the case of the Sgaw Karen of Palokhi, in
Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, who are the subject of this study, it is argued
that this cultural ideology consists of the structured relations between what is
best described as a ?procreative model” of society and social processes, an integral
part of which is a system of social classification based on the difference between
male and female, cultural definitions of the relations between the two and the
relationship between men and land, and a ?model” of agricultural processes.
The cultural ideology of the Palokhi Karen is ?reproduced” in and through their
religious system and ritual life, which is dominated by men who play a crucial
role, and it is this which provides them with their distinctive cultural identity."
Ananda Rajah
Source/publisher:
ANU (Monographs in Anthropology Series)
Date of publication:
2008-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2009-02-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Karen (Kayin)
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
4.02 MB
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Description:
"This paper examines the foundation of the deference paid the Elders in a
Karen forest society in Thailand. It is argued that deference and social
control are two sides of the same coin, both resting on the fact that the
socially most valuable knowledge in Karen society is an attribute of old age.
To analyze the foundation of this knowledge, which endows the Elders with
social authority and control, it is useful to distinguish between various types
of knowledge, such as knowledge of production-technique and ecology,
knowledge of social history, and knowledge of ritual and magic. It is further
emphasized that the foundation of the Elders' authority, in contrast to many
other societies, is neither control of the means of production nor control of
such prestige goods, which in unilineal societies may enter the affinal exchange
circulation as bridewealth. Their control derives from their knowledge
of social history, from their religious knowledge of cosmology, ritual,
and ethics, and from their possession of magical know-how..."
Kirsten Ewers Andersen
Source/publisher:
Særtryk FOLK Reprint Vol. 21-22 1979/80 - KØBENHAVN
Date of publication:
1980-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
336.37 KB
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Description:
"...the frequent dichotomization of Burman and Thai "hill-tribes" as animists opposed to the valley population as Buddhists, the Buddhism of the "hill-tribes" being only a thin veneer on animistic beliefs, does not hold. It is rather a question of an inclusive hierarchization of religious activities and value orientations, where the basis for an exclusive dichotomization becomes unclear and elusive, when one investigates the concerned activities more closely. The levels of activities are interlocked and a future value orientation may be directed towards an increased emphasis on "pure" monk- and more Buddhist elements, as the Karens become subsumed under the Thai cash-crop economy and the concommittant cultural contacts. The role of the boungkhos as maintainers of nature's order will disappear when it becomes evident that economic survival under a new economy immediately seems to depend more on insights into the market-mechanisms than on maintenance of the up till now balanced eco-system."
Kirsten Ewers Andersen
Source/publisher:
The Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies
Date of publication:
1978-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
htm
Size:
35.24 KB
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Description:
keywords: Karen, ideology, field research, history, scientific theory (? in German: Wissenschaftstheorie), theory forming, cultural debates, ethnology-cultural/social anthropology, literature.
"In dieser Arbeit wird die englisch-, deutsch- und
französischsprachige Literatur über die Karen des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts
ausgewertet und im Hinblick auf Theoriebildung und vorherrschende
Ideologien
analysiert. Untersucht werden dabei verschiedene Karen-Gesellschaften
Burmas
und Thailands. Die Auswertung der Literatur unter ethnologischen und
soziologischen Gesichtspunkten liefert einen wichtigen Beitrag zur
Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Theoriebildung über die Karen..."
Reiner Buergin
Date of publication:
1992-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
Deutsch, German
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Description:
"This paper is a short presentation of two Pwo Karen sects as they may be
found in contemporary Western Central Thailand. It will discuss the organization,
origin, and cultural content of the two denominations in order to
show how their politico-religious concepts and ritual architecture are related
to their historical position in a larger system comprising the Buddhist
monarchial civilizations of Burma and Thailand. It is my supposition that
the religious paraphernalia of present day sects materialized in a certain
historical context as symbols of royalty and autonomy, and in the larger
social context functioned to identify these Pwo Karen collectively as a
sovereign part of a larger civilized world. These symbols of self-defined
participation in the world, and at times even claims to superiority, had been
moulded according to a model set by the monarchism of the 18th century
Mon Buddhist kingdom in Lower Burma. It included a messianic Buddhist
framework, which precipitated millenarian expectations of the rise of a
world conqueror and subsequent future Buddha, the Buddha Ariya Mettaya,
who would install a new and ideal society for the elect. Viewing the
history of the Buddhist valley civilizations, be they Burmese, Mon or Thai,
we may see that this messianic aspect of Theravada Buddhism has been the
catalyst for both social discontent and personal political ambitions within
the Buddhist societies of Southeast Asia.2
The term 'Karen' covers a category of people in Burma and Thailand who
speak related languages. Karen-speaking people are spread over a large
area, and their habitations are found in the hills and forests as well as the
lowland. Everywhere Karen groups live interspersed among various other
ethnic groups, hill as well as valley peoples..."
Kirsten Ewers Andersen
Source/publisher:
Soertryk FOLK Reprint Vol. 23 1981 K0BENHAVN
Date of publication:
1981-00-00
Date of entry/update:
2003-06-03
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Language:
English
Format :
pdf
Size:
246.61 KB
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