Sistemi politici birmani. La struttura sociale dei Kachin

by Edmund Leach

Sistemi politici birmani, affermatosi come uno dei grandi classici dell'etnografia, analizza la struttura sociale dei Kachin, popolazione residente al confine tra la Birmania settentrionale e la Cina. Leach compara i Kachin agli Shan, che hanno un sistema politico semifeudale. I Kachin sembrano oscillare fra una struttura apparentemente anarchica e una ordinata secondo gruppi di parentela o clan. Nessuno di tali sistemi riesce a prevalere a lungo, ma si ha un continuo avvicendamento tra i due. Si pone in tal modo il problema dell'equilibrio sociale, difficile da osservare e analizzare. Leach propone un modello euristico che pone l'accento sui bisogni individuali come incentivi di affermazione sociale: i singoli individui, per raggiungere i propri fini, manipolano e trasformano le norme sociali. La scelta del singolo comporta il prevalere di un determinato aspetto della cultura cui appartiene. L'analisi mostra chiaramente quanto il comportamento reale degli individui si diversifichi dalle norme ideali.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology, Cultural, Linguistics, Ethnography

347 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Sir Edmund Ronald Leach was a British social anthropologist.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an anthropological classic of the first water - and one of the books that opened my eyes to what anthropology could be. It's hard to explain how reading about hill tribes in Southeast Asia where powerful people periodically try to create little kingdoms (gumsa) in imitation of the Shan states in the valleys, but where the complexities of their forms of agriculture and marriage systems inevitably lead them to collapse and form democratic republics (gumlao) again - and then the whole cycle starts all over again - but when you read it, you are entranced. Well, okay, I was. It's books like this that made me want to dedicate my life to anthropology.

[André · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ouch, I had to read something anthropological/ethnographical again. Those things are always more like a badly sorted collection of stories that either the ethnologist or his informants experienced, mixed with uncertain and imprecise ideas about what everything means or what it might be important for. It's like reading a book of folklore stories and legends. Entertaining (sometimes), but not always very helpful in understanding the actual social relationship or the history of the people. Historical facts were present in the book, though only in one chapter presented as a really really short overview, almost as if it's not important. I realize that this book is a classic and more than 60 years old, but the standards of writing scientific material can't have been that low back then. I did learn many important things from this book, about the Kachin (Jinghpaw) and the Shan, but it was very bothersome to extract important and useful information and seperate them from all the side-notes. I really cannot recommend this book, unless you want to research mid-20th century ethnological British writing style. Sadly, this style is still so common among ethnologists.

[Hitalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

sobre cosmovisões e rupturas na antropologia social.

[Lily Bronski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic for a reason

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old classics like these are still so important to anthropology. Leach shows that many of the refined techniques used today were also in practice during the early days. Read this as a companion to Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande by Evans-Pritchard and enjoyed the different ethnographic techniques used.

[Cjsavage · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE anthropological work on Upper Burma/Myanmar, particularly the Kachin and Shan States. It remains 'The Burmese Bible' more than fifty years since its first publication in 1954. A must read.

[André · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally I had read another version of this book, but I got this one for free, so I put it into my virtual bookshelf. Read my original review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...