Constructing ‘disability’ in Myanmar: teachers,community stakeholders,and the complexity of disability models

This article explores Myanmar teachers’ and community stakeholders’ constructions of disability. We examine how various religious perspectives – particularly Buddhism – inform and shape understandings of impairment and how these beliefs intersect with a strongly medicalised construction of disability. However, in our discussion and exploration of the responses, we also found that the notion of two primary disability ‘models’ – namely the medical model and the social model – lack nuance, complexity, and socio-cultural consideration. Through examining teachers’ and community members’ perspectives of disability in Myanmar, we highlight the importance of socio-cultural variance in understanding local constructions of disability.     

The Current Rohingya Crisis in Myanmar in Historical Perspective

This paper critically examines the longstanding Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. It argues that the crisis is rooted in the British colonial era that subsequently gained momentum through their (i) gradual marginalization as an ethnic minority, (ii) exclusion from the governmental institutions, and (iii) deprivation of citizenship, effectively rendering them stateless. Starting with a demographic profile of the Rohingya it explores the major elements of the crisis from the colonial period to the present day through a historiographical methodology. Based on these historical factors shaping and aggravating the crisis, the paper concludes with a mitigating recommendatory pursuit towards a durable resolution.     

历史上腾冲与缅甸的翡翠开发和贸易关系

中缅两国之间经腾冲进行的经济交往随着蜀-身毒道(南方丝绸之路)的开通即已开始,并几乎从未间断,其兴旺程度随着中缅两国关系和外部环境的变化而变化。在中缅贸易史上,翡翠是一种特殊的商品。在缅甸翡翠的开采、运输、加工和贸易等环节,腾冲都发挥了独特而重要的作用。     

从“碎片”到“镜片”——一份来自缅北佤邦的田野报告

佤邦位于缅甸北部,是一个与中国毗邻、以佤人为主体民族、处于高度自治的政治实体和多族群杂居所构成的社会.佤邦“高度自治”现象的出现,是上世纪世界冷战格局的产物.佤人的发展是一个当代国际社会“现代民族主义”的典型案例,它的主观愿望,是想以邦的级别和形式存在于缅甸联邦的体制范围内,它的内部运行方式,更多的却是参照缅共时代,贴近中国模式的政权机制,而这个政权的最深厚和最广泛的基础和依托则是部落社会所确立的权威理念和意识形态.对之进行考察与分析,可以使人思考和检视诸多的文化镜像.     

滇藏缅印交角区泰-傣诸族群的迁徙流动及族际关系研究述论

关于泰-傣诸族群的问题,国内外学者已有了百余年的研究,主要侧重于环东南沿海直至与云南、东南亚相连接区域,且国别区隔明显。对于滇藏缅印交角地区泰-傣诸族群的研究,尚未得见系统、整体性的成果面世。本文拟围绕涉及该交角区泰-傣诸族群的族源、迁徙流动及族际关系等三个方面的零散研究进行梳理并加以评述,以期从整体联动性的视野对泰-傣诸族群在滇藏缅印交角区的研究空间做进一步深入拓展,同时,针对后续研究提出建议：族源问题有待进一步廓清;以地缘政治及文明交汇区域为整体历史背景的长时段探究有待开启;相关文献资料的搜集、翻译和整理有待深化;小尺度地域空间的微观研究有待推进;开展多学科交叉的综合研究。     

洪水、葫芦神话的衍变与印缅那加族的迁移

流传于云南的洪水葫芦神话包含三个内核：洪水、兄妹成婚、葫芦生人,是各民族文化交汇的产物。最初是由杜字族人带来的蜀国反映人与自然斗争的洪水神话;其次为朱提的洪水一兄妹成婚神话,反映了败亡南逃的杜宇族人对“直眼人”时代的反思和开辟新时代的愿望;在古代哀牢地区产生并传至云南各民族的洪水一兄妹成婚一葫芦神话,主题为各民族皆兄弟。印缅那加族的洪水葫芦神话表明,他们的先民大约在7世纪时从云南迁出,迁移途中经过了佤族居住地区。     

缅北动荡局势下我国边境安全应对刍议

缅北动荡局势下,我国中缅边境地区面临传统安全与非传统安全双重威胁。从前期系列缅北冲突导致的问题处理经验看,我国中缅边境地区安全应对体系建设在预防意识的主动性、应急制度的协调性、应急体系的系统性方面仍有待进一步提升。立足中缅边境地区安全问题的特殊性,其应对可从立足跨境民族众多的实情主动应对、立足边境安全事件的复杂性系统应对、立足边疆经济的落后性持续应对等方面予以加强。     

We Did Not Realize about the Gender Issues. So,We Thought It Was a Good Idea

This article explores the link between nationalism, as expressed by the Burman state and ethnic and student opposition movements, and the emergence of a multiethnic women's movement engaged in resistance activities. In focusing on women's involvement in oppositional nation-making projects, this article aims to broaden our understanding of gender and conflict by highlighting women's agency in war. Drawing on interviews carried out with founding members of the women's movement, non-state armed groups and others active in civil society, the article investigates how a gendered political consciousness arose out of dissatisfaction with women's secondary position in armed opposition groups, leading to women forming a movement, not in opposition to conflict per se but in opposition to the rejection of their militarism, in the process redefining notions of political involvement and agency. By invoking solidarity based on a gendered positioning, rather than on an ethnic identity, the women's movement resisted the dominant nation-making projects, and created a nationalism inclusive of multiethnic differences. Burmese women's multiple wartime roles thus serve to upset supposed dichotomies between militancy and peace and victim and combatant, in the process redefining the relationship between gender, nationalism and militancy.     

Burmese Indians in contemporary Burma: heritage,influence, and perceptions since 1988

This article seeks to explore the current role, significance and influence of Burmese Indian minorities in post-1988 Burma as well as the perceptions the Burmese indigenous society and elite have developed on them since the colonial era. British Burma (1826–1948) witnessed a massive immigration of Indian communities that disproportionately dominated Burma's colonial enterprise. A strong resentment thus arose among the Burman Buddhist majority, illustrated by the rise of a popular ‘indophobia’ phenomenon. Paroxysmal expressions of the colonial original trauma were observed through recurrent pre-independence anti-Indian riots as well as a specific and enduring linguistic patronizing classification of the ‘Kalas’ by the Burmese language. Nationalistic administrative laws, enacted by the Burmese post-independence parliamentarian and military governments, furthered the downgrading and discrimination of Burmese Indians who remain however a visible minority today, with a manifest economic weight and a strong socio-cultural presence throughout Burma. In this paper, it will, however, be argued that after years of ‘Burmanization’ processes, Burmese old-age ‘indophobic’ sentiments have turned towards more ‘islamophobic’ tendencies, now explicitly targeting the Muslim communities of Indian origin, but that it remains difficult to evaluate their impact on Burma's current policymaking.