External Political Reasons for Tibeto-Burmese Speakers’ Migrations to Burma: A Case Study of the Nanzhao kingdom (737-902 AC)

Abstract

Key words: Yunnan, Tibetan Empire, Tang Dynasty, political culture, social institutions

For my main research of common cultural patterns in Eurasia-Pacific unconscious cultural heritage among other readings I address works on history of different regions in this vast area. The reading brought me to the history of the cultural region which crosses the borders of contemporary Burma and Yunnan province of China. In the book of Maung Htin Aung[1] “A History of Burma” published in 1967 I found an interesting paragraph:

The third migration of Mongolians[2] affected Burma rather than the other parts of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; these were the Tibeto-Burmese, from the southeastern slopes of the Tibetan mountains. Whereas the reason for the migrations of the Malays and the Mon-khmers could be only conjectured, there is evidence that the Tibeto-Burmese migrations were for political reasons. The two kingdoms of Tibet and China were locked in bitter rivalry, and the Tibeto-Burmese were hemmed in between them. They had reached the same level of culture as the Tibetans and the Chinese of the time, but they considered their independence and social institutions to be more valuable than their material culture, and accordingly they fled from their homeland. After trekking across icy mountains and through dense forests, some of them entered Burma from the northwest and others the northern mountains to enter from the northeast.

Maung Htin Aung (1967: 2)

This historical episode could take place in the period between the beginnings of the 7th and the 10th centuries AD when there were long time conflicts between Tibetan Empire (618-842) and Tang Dynasty (618-907). The long period of military conflicts between Tang Dynasty China and Tibetan Empire started in 665 and ended with the collapse of Tibetan Empire in 842. The population in the region of nowadays Yunnan province was involved in those conflicts; the fact that resulted in emergence of strong local powers: Damengguo (大蒙國; 649-737) and Nanzhao (南詔; 737-902). These two local kingdoms were founded in the area of Erhai Lake (洱海). The area had a unique strategic location within the upper watershed areas of the most important rivers for the mainland South-East Asia; with Yangtze (長江) connecting the region with Southern China, Mekong with Indo-China Peninsula and Salween with Burma; in the west from those three rivers the confluence of the rising there N’Mai and Mali rivers forms downstream Irrawaddy, the main river of Burma; in the south from Erhai Lake the Red river takes its beginning and connects the region with the Northern Vietnam; and finally, starting in the east from Erhai Lake the Nanpan river is a connection with Guangdong area of Southern China. Such unique geographic location made the region a bottleneck of numerous waves of migrations from the Central Asia regions into the South-East Asia which took place both in historical and prehistoric times. A prominent linguist Robert Blust[3] suggests that the area of the southeastern slopes of the Tibetan mountains was a starting point for development and dispersal of the main South-East Asian linguistic groups: the Austroneasian (along Yangtze and, probably, Nanpan rivers to the Southern China); the Austro-Asiatic and Tai-Kadai languages (along Mekong and the Red rivers to Indochina Peninsula); and the Tibeto-Burmese (along Salween and Irrawaddy rivers to Burma).

The above mentioned paragraph from Htin Aung’s book suggests that at least one historical case of massive migrations from the southeastern slopes of the Tibetan mountains had political reasons, and so could be analyzed in the conceptual framework of political culture. The purpose of current term-paper is using the theoretical framework of political culture to verify whether the reasons for the Tibeto-Burmese speakers’ migrations to Burma were in fact political. For the testing of the above mentioned assumption the following question could be a useful instrument: what the particular political and social institutions supported the development of the Nanzhao kingdom and what was their special value compare to the political institutes of Tibetan Empire and Tang Dynasty China or whether such particular value really existed? This study could help also to understand the processes which influenced the migration activity and the phenomenon of language families’ dispersal in the South-East Asian mainland in the times which have no historical evidences.

Igor Sitnikov

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[1] Dr. Htin Aung (1909 – 1978) was an important scholar of Burmese history and culture. Educated in Oxford and Cambridge, Htin Aung wrote several books on those subjects.

[2] The term Mongolians (or Mongolic) is used here to describe people of East Asian and Southeast Asian origin. Now the term is regarded as potentially offensive.

[3] Robert A. Blust (born 1940) is a prominent linguist in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology.

Muslim Filipinos’ Image Transformations: From Moro Pirates’ to ‘Abu Sayyaf Terrorists’

Abstract

After September 11, 2001, Islam and terrorism issues became the subjects of the main importance in arena of international affairs. Moreover, these two issues are usually combined in mass media, constructing extremely negative image of Muslims, as actual and potential terrorists. In this context the case of the Muslim Filipinos’ image transformations in USA mass media seems to be very interesting, because the Muslim Filipinos were the first Muslims with whom Americans get into close interactions and who starting from the Spanish-American War of 1898 became Americans’ significant others. In the contemporary independent Philippines Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism became one of the most important issues. This paper argues that the phenomena of Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines are products of the long process of social reality construction with different stages of its development involved several various actors: pre-Hispanic Islamized Filipino datus, Spanish colonialism, American control, the independent Philippines state, Ferdinand Marcos with his martial law, and Muslim Filipinos’ ideologists.

The research question discussing in the paper is whether Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines are products of social construction of subjective reality? The social construction of reality is defined as the dialectical process, which includes interactions among individuals, society, and culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the process of Muslim Filipinos’ social image transformations during the long period of history from pre-Hispanic times to the present, when a row of stereotypical labels were used to portray them: “pagans,” “non-Christian tribe,” “Moros,” “cultural community,” “Muslim minority,” “Muslim Filipinos,” “Filipino Muslims,” and “Moro nationalists”. This paper argues that the long process of social reality construction, which in different stages of its development involved several various actors, resulted in the phenomena of Moro nationalism and Muslim terrorism in the contemporary Philippines.

Current paper is a textual analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) of news coverage of the Muslim Filipinos’ images in the New York Times (the NYT). The reason to choose the NYT as a main source for the study is the newspaper on-line archive availability and high time limitation, which is a main obstacle to address other sources of information. The analysis shows that publications devoted to the Muslim Filipinos in the NYT increased in the periods, when the Muslim Filipinos were for the USA the significant others: in the bloody period of ‘Moro Rebellion’ (1903-1913); during the time of American colonial rule in the Philippines (1913-1941); and during two years before and a year after the declaration of the War on Terrorism (from September 11, 2001 to the present). This paper argues that, the American ethnicizing, the early independent Philippines program of national integration and Marcos’ martial law hostility resulted in the phenomena of Muslim Filipinos subjective self identity and separatism movements of the next stage of their social image construction.

Igor Sitnikov

Borneo: Variations of Cultural Homogenization

Abstract

Keywords: globalization, the Bumiputera, Islamization, transmigration programs, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei.

During the period after the World War II, when globalization entered its modern faze, a row of theoretical works appeared where scholars analyze the phenomenon of globalization, review its history and represent their visions of its future trends. In the same time studying globalization researchers usually use only a global approach. No doubt it is a logical way, but it has such weak points as hyper-generalization and neglect of important details. Moreover, in the situation of the Post-Cold War reality, when globalization became a main stream of world development, the weak points of this approach even bring us to the threats of intercultural misunderstandings. It happened because after the Cold War the globalization entered the new, postmodern faze, when the phenomenon turned into the changeable mosaic of particular regional and local responds to the global challenges. It seems, the main characteristics of postmodern globalization mosaic are paradoxical numerousity and mutual vulnerability of its actors, as well as high speed changeability of those actors’ individual and group responds to particular global challenges. In such situation it seems reasonable to study the particular regional and local responds cases, which could help to see more objectively both the picture of whole mosaic and the nearest future trends of its change.

Taking into consideration all above mentioned, the target of current study is narrowed to the individual cases of the three Asia-Pacific regional actors of globalization, namely three new national states of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. In the period after World War II Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei didn’t play a significant role in the Asia-Pacific region. In the Post-Cold War period the situation changed: with collapse of Eastern bloc mutual vulnerability of all regional actors in Asia-Pacific highly increased. Such situation accordingly changed the regional and even global role of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. The case of those three nation-states is particularly interesting for comparison research in terms of their common historical and cultural background in combination with different experience of colonial dependence. Such development background caused nowadays problems of those regional actors of globalization. Their main inner problem as national states is multi-ethnicity, combined with diversity of religious beliefs. Such problem is a factor of high level inner political instability. At the same time ethnical, religious and regional conflicts within one of those states can affect others. Moreover, in nowadays situation of increased mutual vulnerability of regional and global actors, the triangular of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei interstates relations becomes a factor of high risk for regional and even global security. The situation is even more critical due obsolete political methods to keep up national stability in these countries. All three states till now hold on to ineffective policy of cultural homogenization.

In this research as a target of these states policies comparison the case of Borneo island was chosen, as soon as it gives a unique opportunity: the island territory is shared by those three nation states, and is populated by several indigenous and immigrant ethnic groups. This situation sometimes becomes a source of interethnic conflicts. For example, the Indonesian transmigration program that financed the relocation of poor landless families from Java, Madura, and Bali to Borneo resulted in violent conflict between some indigenous and immigrant groups in 1990s. Another important issue is in the fact that several of indigenous groups (Penan, Iban, Sama Bajau) live in territories separated by the states’ borders. Due to the states different political regulations the living standards of those groups also differ from each other. This paper compares efficiency of the three new nation-states policies concerning issue of interethnic relations.

Igor Sitnikov

‘Matriarchy’ versus ‘Patriarchy’: Motifs of Inter-gender Relationships in Oral Traditions & Early Literature

Abstract

Keywords: feminism, development, culture, narratives, Eurasia-Pacific

This term paper tries to contribute to the development of feminist theories suggesting two main points. The first point concerns such called ‘development theories’ itself, which lack understanding of cultural differences among peoples in the world. It is argued here that exactly such defect of development theories is the main reason why developing programs are not successful. The second point concerns feminist theories development: it is suggested here to refocus from the pure feminist issue to the issue of inter-gender relations. In the paper it is assumed that such refocusing will contribute to both genders development in contemporary societies in purpose to construct gender-egalitarian society in the future. To achieve the goal of gender-egalitarian society construction it is reasonable to study inter-gender relationships in different societies in the world.

The anthropological approach is a reasonable method to conduct such a study. Among other important gender related data the anthropology provides examples of the phenomenon of gender-egalitarianism. As soon as the main target of feminist criticism is ‘patriarchy,’ the study of gender-egalitarian ethnic groups seems to be an important approach. However, even focusing on gender-egalitarian societies examples it is impossible do not address such logical opposition of ‘patriarchy,’ as idea of ‘matriarchy’ and the issues of inter-gender confrontation and cooperation as well. To understand these cultural phenomena the conceptualization is a necessary stage. As soon as some ethnic groups in the world enjoy gender-egalitarianism at present, this paper illustrates it on examples of several matrilocal and gender-egalitarian societies in Eurasia-Pacific area. Time limitation is a reason to describe only several of them: Minangkabau people of Indonesia (Sumatra); two ethnic groups in Taiwan – Puyuma and Amis; the Batak of the Philippines; and the Batek of Malaysia.

In the second part it is made a historical overview of several issues of inter-gender relationships which left traces in mythologies and early literature. The high importance of the issue is reflected in the fact that mythologies of many different peoples in the world preserve several stable motifs of inter-gender relations topic. Among such motifs most popular and most widely spread are following:  (1) inter-gender dispute; (2) from inter-gender combat to wedding; (3) transvestism in shamanist cults; (4) prostitution; (5) incest; (6) weak-willed father & wicked stepmother. The traces of these long live motifs could be found in the early Greek literature, mostly in plays. Thus Euripides is known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of Athenian tragedy by portraying strong female characters. Sophocles tragedies are famous until present because of their focusing on incest issue, those concerning Oedipus and Antigone which are often known as the Theban plays. Sophocles’ plays influenced the famous psychologist Sigmund Freud who used the name the Oedipus complex to explain the origin of certain neuroses in childhood. However, due to the time limitations only three stable mythological motifs (inter-gender dispute; from inter-gender duel to wedding; and incest) are illustrated here on examples of early Greek plays; heroic narrative poems of Kievan Rus; and one of Taiwan indigenous peoples’ (the Puyuma) myth of origin.

Igor Sitnikov

The Sulu and Celebes Seas Region: the Present in the Past

Abstract

Key words: Asia-Pacific; maritime cross-cultural exchange; barter; piracy; sea nomads.

This paper is devoted to the problem of change and stability in cross-cultural exchange patterns in the region of the Sulu and Celebes Seas. The main interest to the region is connected with the more wide study of Austronesian speakers’ common cultural patterns. The specific forms of cross-cultural exchange are among them. Discussing exchange activity in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region the current interdisciplinary study focuses on such its pristine forms as barter, and piracy. The purpose of the paper is to give a hypothetical answer on the question why in present reality the region is characterized by stability of such pristine way of cross-cultural exchange. Literature which was used for the study includes world and local news; academic and popular articles; area studies monographs, researches in international politics and cultural anthropology.

It is supposed that the main reason for those pristine forms of cross-cultural exchange stability in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region is a long term absence of any strong political power there. From the period of the first sea nomads’ migration, probably around 10,000 years ago, and until now the Sulu and Celebes Seas region remains a grey area, occupied by small competing groups of inhabitants. One type of those groups very likely is represented by the descendants of those sea nomads, who in the period of their migration in the region were in the Mesolithic stage of development. Till now several ethnic groups live there in nomadic and semi-nomadic way. At the same time from the prehistoric times those nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups were involved in barter form of cross-cultural exchange with the ethnic groups of another type. That second type of ethnic groups, which engaged the dominant position with reference to the sea nomads, combines mainly agricultural way of life with sporadic seafaring expeditions, which resulted in development of such forms of cross-cultural exchange as barter, raids and piracy. Historically the targets of their raids varied from the nomadic groups to the agriculture-seafaring groups of the same type and to the subjects of colonial powers in colonial period. Very likely, that type of ethnic groups preserves the early Melanesians’ Neolithic- and Malays’ Bronze-level cultural patterns. It is supposed, that the early Melanesians and Malays brought into Malay Archipelago such cultural patterns as the domestic pig, agricultural techniques, betel-chewing, sea-going outrigger and composite canoes, ceremonial cannibalism and headhunting, human sacrifice, highly ritualized warfare, secret societies with graded membership, men’s club-houses, and more complex social organization. Later Islamization of those two types of ethnic groups didn’t bring much change in their everyday life. Muslim tiny Sultanates, which started to appear in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region from 14th century were not powerful enough to control intergroup relationships and their cross-cultural exchange traditions. European colonial powers of Spanish, Dutch and British also were not successful to change that behavior. New formed nation-states of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei also didn’t do much: in nowadays environment, the aggressive behavior of the agriculture-seafaring groups transformed into political inter-clan feuds, religious extremism, kidnapping for ransom with continuing piracy.

Igor Sitnikov

Facts of Objective Reality with Mythological Significance in Eurasia-Pacific Unconscious Cultural Heritage

Initial Approach to a Draft of PhD Dissertation Proposal
Abstract

Today a demand to find the native logic by which different peoples in the world make sense out of life increases. Study in comparative folkloristic and mythology helps bring into light the hidden sense of understanding the world in terms of symbolic systems of various peoples both in present and in past. Comparative mythology and folkloristics together with comparative linguistic and archaeology might bring new knowledge of the early period of human history extending back before the time of written documents and in this way satisfy interests of humanity to its prehistory and bring into light unconscious cultural patterns of present societies, which they inherited from their ancestry and share among themselves nowadays. My future dissertation contribution supposed to be holistic study where I hope realize my research interests in the fields of cultural anthropology, history, archaeology, comparative mythology, folkloristics, linguistic, ethnography, and geography.

In the current initial approach to a draft of my PhD dissertation proposal I suppose to demonstrate that study in comparative mythology and folkloristics is able to discover new data concerning the phenomenon of cultural change and stability. As a source of collecting the initial data I use here the data of the well-known American folklorist Stith Thompson. In 1928 he translated the motif-based classification system of folktales, which was created by Finnish folklorist Aarne. In 1961 Thompson enlarged the catalogue scope and created the AT-number system which became six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1932–37) and until now is considered the international key to folkloristics data. As a sampling frame for my classification I chose the part of Thompson’s work, which is devoted to motifs connected with the idea of gods. An important source of new data collecting is a survey research, which I base on my preliminary analysis of Thompson data. In survey research I collected data which are relevant both for the mythological symbols, and the facts of objective phenomena.

A current exploratory research for my initial approach to a draft of PhD dissertation intends to clarify whether particular animals’ images in folklore, mythology, superstitions, and decorative arts reflect corresponding animals’ long time high level significance for such important aspects of human life as needs in food, safety, and transportation. In this work I argue that the facts of objective phenomena with certain level of significance for human biological and social life (such level of significance I call ‘mythological significance’) manifest themselves in special forms of artifacts, such as proverbs, songs, and fairy tales, which not only describe the significant for human life facts of objective phenomena, but also preserve empirical knowledge about their significance and transfer it to the next generations. I suppose also that such particular form of those artifacts as stable mythological symbols and motifs longer and most precisely preserve the empirical knowledge about especially significant facts of objective phenomena. In current paper I apply three hypotheses where I test positive correlation between two variables: facts of objective reality (a class of objective phenomena) and mythological symbols and motifs. To test this correlation I chose three groups of items - edible game (ecofacts with positive significance); dangerous animals (ecofacts with negative significance); and domestic animals (ecoartifacts). It was constructed also two dimensions (inevitability and significance for human life), and an indicator (degree of references for particular mythological symbols and motifs) which help to measure these variables and test positive correlation between them.

Igor Sitnikov

From Deception to Gift: Application of Interpersonal Communication Theories to Anthropological Analysis

Abstract

In my current exploratory and explanatory research I intend to clarify whether theories, which were developed in the field of interpersonal communication, could be applied for the analysis in anthropology? So far as through communication people meet their basic needs I suppose that interpersonal and intergroup communication itself could be the subject of anthropological research, especially in such its field as cultural anthropology. In this paper I argue that recent development of the both disciplines - interpersonal communication and anthropology - gives scholars opportunity to analyze complicated cases of human communication both cross-culturally and inside individual ethnic groups. In this paper I show it in terms of interpersonal communication theories application for analysis of four cases in domain of cultural anthropology. Two cases are examples of cross-cultural communication and another two illustrate the communication inside two individual ethnic groups. In the exploratory part of this study I observe the phenomenon of cultural change on example of modes of exchange transformations. I focus on the switching between such opposite types of modes of exchange as balanced and unbalanced exchange on example of gifting phenomenon. The concept of ‘gift’ is common both for anthropology, where it is a subject of many studies, and for interpersonal communication, where it is distinguished as a form of nonverbal communication. Such interdisciplinary quality of the ‘gift’ concept gives opportunity to verify possibility to apply interpersonal communication theories in the domain of anthropology. For my anthropological analysis I use several theories from the field of interpersonal communication: Expectancy Violations Theory, Interaction Adaptation Theory, Face Theory, Uncertainty Reduction Theory, and Constructivism Theory. To show the phases of ‘gift’ phenomenon development as communication instrument I designed my paper in order from non-gifting phase in Taiwan-Lamay case to the phase of mature practice of gift exchanging in Kula tradition, than to the phase of gift culture degradation into bribe phenomenon in modern Mongolia, and finally to the phase of gifting practice in present indigenous Kamchatka as a mean to purify and revive local culture.

The set of analyzed four cases from anthropological domain demonstrates the gift phenomenon as a nonverbal communication instrument. I discuss the usage of this instrument in terms of both its effectiveness and ethical concerns. In the exploratory part using interpersonal communication theories I observed the process of exchange modes transformations which have started in the post-Soviet period in Mongolian society and in Koriak indigenous culture in the northern Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East. These two cases demonstrate examples of transformations of such common nonverbal form of communication as ‘gift’, which take place in ethnographic present. The analyses of this present cultural phenomenon could be applied for the reconstruction of similar processes, which took place in early history and even prehistory. In this paper I tried to make such reconstruction by comparison of two cases, both of which were observed in historical times, but which traces go back into far away prehistory. One case is the Kula exchange tradition in Trobriand Islands, archipelago off the eastern coast of New Guinea; and the second one is a conflict which took place in 1636 on the island Lamay near Taiwan.

Igor Sitnikov