Social Dynamics in the Highlands of Southeast Asia—Reconsidering Political Systems of Highland Burma

Originating from a panel commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Leach's classic at the EUROSEAS conference held at the Sorbonne in September 2004, these 12 papers examine the fieldwork, which was conducted at the onset and midst of the Second World War, the work's theoretical underpinnings, and the particulars of the findings. Topics include an introduction to Leach's analysis of Kachin society and its further applications by other researchers, the biographical origins of the work and its continuing relevance, the labor involved in translating the work and Leach himself, the limitations of the notion of "social systems," ethnography and Leach's model of semantics, the influence of sub-groups, analysis of economies and values, political hierarchies, and rethinking on Leach's opinions about wealth ownership, the language of sharing, common ritual language, and what Foucault has to say about "spaces of dispersion." Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Francois Robinne, Ph.D. (1985) in Social Anthropology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS Paris), is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Research on Southeast Asia (IRSEA-CNRS). He has published Fils et maitres du Lac. Relations interethniques dans l'Etat Shan de Birmanie (CNRS, 2000) and Pretres et chamanes. Metamorphoses kachin (L'Harmattan, 2007). Mandy Sadan, Ph.D. (2005) in History, School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, is British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (Pitt Rivers Museum), University of Oxford and Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Oxford. She has published a number of articles and is currently working on a monograph on the emergence of ethnic categories in Burma.