PREFACE xv insights and what they might mean for my own argument.Victor Lieber- man,the premier historian of Southeast Asia state-making in a comparative frame,and Jean Michaud,who raised the banner of Zomia (or what he would call the Southeast Asian massif)well before the rest of us,have been key interlocutors.All four of these scholars have shown me an intellectual large- spiritedness of a very high order,even,and especially,when they disagreed with me.They may dissent from much of what I say here,but they should know that they have made me smarter,though not quite as smart as they may have hoped.I am,in addition,indebted to Jean Michaud for generously allowing me to use passages from his Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif for my glossary. There is a large number of colleagues who,having better things to do with their time,nevertheless read part or all of the manuscript and gave me their frank advice.I hope they see,here and there,evidence of their impact as I bobbed and weaved my way to a more nuanced and defensible argument. They include,in no particular order,Michael Adas,Ajay Skaria,Ramachan- dra Guha,Tania Li,Ben Anderson,Michael Aung-Thwin,Masao Imamura the historians U Tha Htun Maung and U Soe Kyaw Thu,the archaeologist U Tun Thein,the geologist Arthur Pe,Geoffrey Benjamin,Shan-shan Du, Mandy Sadan,Michael Hathaway,Walt Coward,Ben Kerkvliet,Ron Her- ring,Indrani Chatterjee,Khin Maung Win,Michael Dove,James Hagen. Jan-Bart Gewald,Thomas Barfield,Thongchai Winichakul,Katherine Bowie,Ben Kiernan,Pamela McElwee,Nance Cunningham,Aung Aung David Ludden,Leo Lucassen,Janice Stargardt,Tony Day,Bill Klausner, Mya Than,Susan O'Donovan,Anthony Reid,Martin Klein,Jo Guldi,Ar- deth Maung Thawnghmung,Bo Bo Nge,Magnus Fiskesjo,Mary Callahan, Enrique Mayer,Angelique Haugerud,Michael McGovern,Thant Myint U Marc Edelman,Kevin Heppner,Christian Lentz,Annping Chin,Prasen- jit Duara,Geoff Wade,Charles Keyes,Andrew Turton,Noburu Ishikawa, Kennon Breazeale,and Karen Barkey.Wait!I have secreted in this list four colleagues who failed to send their comments.You know who you are.For shame!If,on the other hand,you collapsed trying to carry the manuscript from the printer to your desk,my apologies. I want to acknowledge a small number of collegial debts that are not easy to categorize.Hjorleifur Jonsson's uniquely perceptive book Mien Re lations was very influential in my thinking,especially with respect to the pli- ability of hill identities and social structure.Mikael Gravers has taught me a great deal about the Karen and the cosmological basis of their millenarian
Preface xv insights and what they might mean for my own argument. Victor Lieberman, the premier historian of Southeast Asia state-making in a comparative frame, and Jean Michaud, who raised the banner of Zomia (or what he would call the Southeast Asian massif ) well before the rest of us, have been key interlocutors. All four of these scholars have shown me an intellectual largespiritedness of a very high order, even, and especially, when they disagreed with me. They may dissent from much of what I say here, but they should know that they have made me smarter, though not quite as smart as they may have hoped. I am, in addition, indebted to Jean Michaud for generously allowing me to use passages from his Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif for my glossary. There is a large number of colleagues who, having better things to do with their time, nevertheless read part or all of the manuscript and gave me their frank advice. I hope they see, here and there, evidence of their impact as I bobbed and weaved my way to a more nuanced and defensible argument. They include, in no particular order, Michael Adas, Ajay Skaria, Ramachandra Guha, Tania Li, Ben Anderson, Michael Aung-Thwin, Masao Imamura, the historians U Tha Htun Maung and U Soe Kyaw Thu, the archaeologist U Tun Thein, the geologist Arthur Pe, Geoffrey Benjamin, Shan-shan Du, Mandy Sadan, Michael Hathaway, Walt Coward, Ben Kerkvliet, Ron Herring, Indrani Chatterjee, Khin Maung Win, Michael Dove, James Hagen, Jan-Bart Gewald, Thomas Barfield, Thongchai Winichakul, Katherine Bowie, Ben Kiernan, Pamela McElwee, Nance Cunningham, Aung Aung, David Ludden, Leo Lucassen, Janice Stargardt, Tony Day, Bill Klausner, Mya Than, Susan O’Donovan, Anthony Reid, Martin Klein, Jo Guldi, Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung, Bo Bo Nge, Magnus Fiskesjö, Mary Callahan, Enrique Mayer, Angelique Haugerud, Michael McGovern, Thant Myint U, Marc Edelman, Kevin Heppner, Christian Lentz, Annping Chin, Prasenjit Duara, Geoff Wade, Charles Keyes, Andrew Turton, Noburu Ishikawa, Kennon Breazeale, and Karen Barkey. Wait! I have secreted in this list four colleagues who failed to send their comments. You know who you are. For shame! If, on the other hand, you collapsed trying to carry the manuscript from the printer to your desk, my apologies. I want to acknowledge a small number of collegial debts that are not easy to categorize. Hjorleifur Jonsson’s uniquely perceptive book Mien Relations was very influential in my thinking, especially with respect to the pliability of hill identities and social structure. Mikael Gravers has taught me a great deal about the Karen and the cosmological basis of their millenarian
xvi PREFACE proclivities.Eric Tagliacozzo read the manuscript with unprecedented care and assigned me a reading program that I am still trying to complete.Finally I have learned a great deal from five colleagues with whom I set out to study "vernacular and official identities"many years back:Peter Sahlins,Pingkaew Luanggaramsri,Kwanchewan Buadaeng,Chusak Wittayapak,and Janet Sturgeon,who is,avant la lettre,a practicing Zomianist Some time back,in 1996,my colleague Helen Siu persuaded me to attend,as discussant,a conference on China's borders and border peoples Organized by Helen,Pamela Crossley,and David Faure,this conference was so provocative and lively that it served to germinate a good many of the ideas found here.The book arising from that meeting and edited by Pamela Cross- ley,Helen Siu,and Donald Sutton,Empire at the Margins:Culture,Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China(Berkeley:University of California Press 2006),is packed with original history,theory,and ethnography. There are a good many institutions that harbored and supported me over the past decade while I ever so slowly found my bearings.I started back- ground reading on upland Southeast Asia and on the relationship between states and itinerant peoples generally at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto,where Alex Keyssar,Nancy Cott,Tony Bebbington,and Dan Segal were boon intellectual companions.That read- ing continued in the spring of oo at Oslo's Centre for Development and the Environment,where I was the beneficiary of the intellect and charm of Desmond McNeill,Signe Howell,Nina Witoczek,and Bernt Hagvet and began Burmese lessons in earnest at the Democratic Voice of Burma radio station under the tolerant eye of Khin Maung Win.I finished the first draft of this manuscript while visiting the Department of Society and Globalization of the Graduate School of International Development Studies at Roskilde University.I want to record my warm thanks to Christian Lund,Preben Kaarsholm,Bodil Folke Frederiksen,Inge Jensen,and Ole Brun for an intel- lectually bracing and thoroughly enjovable stay. For the past two decades my real intellectual sustenance has come from the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University.The agraristas,fellows, speakers,graduate students,and associated faculty with whom I have taught have continually renewed my faith in the possibility of an intellectual venue that is both convivial and challenging,welcoming and tough.Kay Mansfield has always been,and continues to be,the heart and soul of the program, the compass from which we take our bearings.My colleagues K.Sivarama-
xvi Preface proclivities. Eric Tagliacozzo read the manuscript with unprecedented care and assigned me a reading program that I am still trying to complete. Finally, I have learned a great deal from five colleagues with whom I set out to study “vernacular and official identities” many years back: Peter Sahlins, Pingkaew Luanggaramsri, Kwanchewan Buadaeng, Chusak Wittayapak, and Janet Sturgeon, who is, avant la lettre, a practicing Zomianist. Some time back, in 1996, my colleague Helen Siu persuaded me to attend, as discussant, a conference on China’s borders and border peoples. Organized by Helen, Pamela Crossley, and David Faure, this conference was so provocative and lively that it served to germinate a good many of the ideas found here. The book arising from that meeting and edited by Pamela Crossley, Helen Siu, and Donald Sutton, Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), is packed with original history, theory, and ethnography. There are a good many institutions that harbored and supported me over the past decade while I ever so slowly found my bearings. I started background reading on upland Southeast Asia and on the relationship between states and itinerant peoples generally at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, where Alex Keyssar, Nancy Cott, Tony Bebbington, and Dan Segal were boon intellectual companions. That reading continued in the spring of 2001 at Oslo’s Centre for Development and the Environment, where I was the beneficiary of the intellect and charm of Desmond McNeill, Signe Howell, Nina Witoczek, and Bernt Hagvet and began Burmese lessons in earnest at the Democratic Voice of Burma radio station under the tolerant eye of Khin Maung Win. I finished the first draft of this manuscript while visiting the Department of Society and Globalization of the Graduate School of International Development Studies at Roskilde University. I want to record my warm thanks to Christian Lund, Preben Kaarsholm, Bodil Folke Frederiksen, Inge Jensen, and Ole Brun for an intellectually bracing and thoroughly enjoyable stay. For the past two decades my real intellectual sustenance has come from the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University. The agraristas, fellows, speakers, graduate students, and associated faculty with whom I have taught have continually renewed my faith in the possibility of an intellectual venue that is both convivial and challenging, welcoming and tough. Kay Mansfield has always been, and continues to be, the heart and soul of the program, the compass from which we take our bearings. My colleagues K. Sivarama-
PREFACE krishnan (aka Shivi),Eric Worby,Robert Harms,Arun Agrawal,Paul Freed- man,Linda-Anne Rebhun,and Michael Dove have all taken a liberal hand in my continuing education.Michael Dove and Harold Conklin have,between them,taught me everything I know about swidden cultivation that plays such an important role in my analysis. I have had a series of research assistants of such initiative and talent that they have saved me many months of futile toil and many errors.They will, I am confident,make names for themselves in short order.Arash Khazeni Shafqat Hussein,Austin Zeiderman,Alexander Lee,Katie Scharf,and Kate Harrison helped turn this project into something creditable Those many Burmese friends who refereed my struggles with the Bur- mese language deserve at least hazardous duty pay and perhaps sainthood- or perhaps that would be deva-hood in the Theravada context.I want to thank Saya Khin Maung Gyi,my longest-serving,most battle-scarred,and most patient teacher,as well as his entire family,including San San Lin.Let Let Aung(aka Viola Wu),Bo Bo Nge,KaLu Paw,and Khin Maung Win courageously braved painfully slow and misshapen conversations.Kaung Kyaw and Ko Soe Kyaw Thu,though not formally teachers,nonetheless, in befriending me,pushed me forward.Finally,in Mandalay and on various travels,Saya Naing Tun Lin,a natural teacher,invented a pedagogy suited to my modest talents and pursued it rigorously.We often had lessons on the spacious fourth-floor balcony of a small hotel.When I massacred,for the fourth or fifth time,the same tone or aspirate,he would abruptly rise and walk away to the edge of the balcony.I feared more than once that he would hurl himself over the railing in despair.He didn't.Instead he would come back,sit down,take a very deep breath,and resume.I would not have gotten through without him. While I was casting around for an appropriate title,a friend mentioned that Jimmy Casas Klausen,a political scientist at the University of Wiscon sin,Madison,was teaching a course in political philosophy titled The Art of Not Being Governed.Klausen generously agreed to let me use the title for my book,for which I am very grateful indeed.I await the day when he will no doubt put a philosophical footing under this whole enterprise with a book of his own on the subject. The maps in this volume were created with skill and imagination by Stacey Maples at the Yale Map Collection of Sterling Library.He gave car- tographic shape to my understanding of the spatial issues in Southeast Asian statecraft
Preface xvii krishnan (aka Shivi), Eric Worby, Robert Harms, Arun Agrawal, Paul Freedman, Linda-Anne Rebhun, and Michael Dove have all taken a liberal hand in my continuing education. Michael Dove and Harold Conklin have, between them, taught me everything I know about swidden cultivation that plays such an important role in my analysis. I have had a series of research assistants of such initiative and talent that they have saved me many months of futile toil and many errors. They will, I am confident, make names for themselves in short order. Arash Khazeni, Shafqat Hussein, Austin Zeiderman, Alexander Lee, Katie Scharf, and Kate Harrison helped turn this project into something creditable. Those many Burmese friends who refereed my struggles with the Burmese language deserve at least hazardous duty pay and perhaps sainthood— or perhaps that would be deva-hood in the Theravada context. I want to thank Saya Khin Maung Gyi, my longest-serving, most battle-scarred, and most patient teacher, as well as his entire family, including San San Lin. Let Let Aung (aka Viola Wu), Bo Bo Nge, KaLu Paw, and Khin Maung Win courageously braved painfully slow and misshapen conversations. Kaung Kyaw and Ko Soe Kyaw Thu, though not formally teachers, nonetheless, in befriending me, pushed me forward. Finally, in Mandalay and on various travels, Saya Naing Tun Lin, a natural teacher, invented a pedagogy suited to my modest talents and pursued it rigorously. We often had lessons on the spacious fourth-floor balcony of a small hotel. When I massacred, for the fourth or fifth time, the same tone or aspirate, he would abruptly rise and walk away to the edge of the balcony. I feared more than once that he would hurl himself over the railing in despair. He didn’t. Instead he would come back, sit down, take a very deep breath, and resume. I would not have gotten through without him. While I was casting around for an appropriate title, a friend mentioned that Jimmy Casas Klausen, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was teaching a course in political philosophy titled The Art of Not Being Governed. Klausen generously agreed to let me use the title for my book, for which I am very grateful indeed. I await the day when he will no doubt put a philosophical footing under this whole enterprise with a book of his own on the subject. The maps in this volume were created with skill and imagination by Stacey Maples at the Yale Map Collection of Sterling Library. He gave cartographic shape to my understanding of the spatial issues in Southeast Asian statecraft
xviii PREFACE Where it seemed appropriate I have added Burmese words and occa- sionally a phrase to the text.As there is no universally agreed upon system for transliterating Burmese into roman letters,I have adopted the system devised by John Okell at the School of Oriental and African Studies,University of London,and explained in his Burmese:An Introduction to the Spoken Lan- guage,Book I (DeKalb:Northern Illinois University,Center for Southeast Asian Studies,1994).To avoid any confusion,where the Burmese term seems important,I have added it in Burmese script. I could not have asked for a more supportive and talented editor for this, and for the other titles in the Agrarian Studies Series,than Jean Thomson Black.Nor could Yale University Press ask for a more inspired editor.My manuscript editor,Dan Heaton,combined a respect for the text with a firm- ness about my errors and excesses that has greatly improved what the reader will encounter. Last,and by no means least,I couldn't have thought or lived my way through this manuscript without the insights and companionship of my high altitude muse
xviii Preface Where it seemed appropriate I have added Burmese words and occasionally a phrase to the text. As there is no universally agreed upon system for transliterating Burmese into roman letters, I have adopted the system devised by John Okell at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and explained in his Burmese: An Introduction to the Spoken Language, Book 1 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1994). To avoid any confusion, where the Burmese term seems important, I have added it in Burmese script. I could not have asked for a more supportive and talented editor for this, and for the other titles in the Agrarian Studies Series, than Jean Thomson Black. Nor could Yale University Press ask for a more inspired editor. My manuscript editor, Dan Heaton, combined a respect for the text with a firmness about my errors and excesses that has greatly improved what the reader will encounter. Last, and by no means least, I couldn’t have thought or lived my way through this manuscript without the insights and companionship of my high altitude muse
The Art of Not Being Governed
The Art of Not Being Governed