Ethnographic Notes on Conceptions and Dynamics of Political Power in Upper Burma (Prior to the 1962 Military Coup)

Abstract

This article describes the conceptions of governmental held by Burmese villagers in Upper Burma, and the degree to which their conceptions correspond to the behavior of government officials at the township and district levels. The present is Burma to the 1962 military coup. (Burmese villages, political power, government officials) Some years ago Nash (1965:76-79, 271-72) observed that Burmese society is best understood by means of three concepts, or (as they might be called) organizing principles: goun, hpoun, and awza. The first can be glossed as prestige, the second as charisma, the third as authority. Although Nash is correct, in my view these three concepts must be augmented by a fourth. (ana). Since, however, and authority, in Burma and elsewhere, sustain a reciprocal relationship - sometimes is a function of authority, sometimes authority is a function of - the Burmese most frequently speak of awza-ana when referring to political power. Having elsewhere discussed the social and cultural relevance of prestige (Spiro 1966, 1996) and charisma (Spiro 1982:396-404) in Burmese village society, in this article I discuss power, specifically political power.(2) Before doing so, however, it is perhaps useful to explain the critical terms in the title. First, ethnographic signals that the discussion of political is not based on such currently fashionable abstract concepts as (Foucaultian) of power or (Gramscian) hegemonic structures that have come to pervade contemporary social science discussions of power. Rather, this discussion is based on concrete expressions of political (governmental) power, and the actors' conceptions of such power, as the former were observed and the latter elicited in the course of anthropological fieldwork in the Upper Burma village that I call Yeigyi. Second, notes signals that this article neither derives from nor attempts to develop a unified theory of relations. Nonetheless, since many of the observations recorded here have been replicated pari passu in many other peasant societies, their implications for the development of such a theory are self-evident. Finally, the expression prior to the 1962 military coup indicates that the fifteen months of fieldwork on which this article is based occurred immediately before the present military government seized power, when I (together with other foreign scholars) was forced to leave the country. Hence, it is that period that represents this article's present. Because it has not been possible to conduct fieldwork there since then, the oppressive political record of this illegal government (which, according to Amnesty International, is one of the world's worst offenders against human rights) is not dealt with here. VILLAGERS' CONCEPTIONS OF GOVERNMENTAL POWER In some important respects villagers, conceptions of governmental are informed by traditional political values regnant during the Burmese monarchy. (For descriptions of the monarchy and its complex administrative system see Crawfurd 1834; Foucar 1946; Harvey 1925;, Koenig 1990; Lieberman 1984; Mya Sein 1938; Nisbet 1901.) According to these values, the authority and legitimacy of the monarchy rested on the following four foundations. first, the Indian concept of royalty associated with the Code of Manu, with its emphasis on the magical of the court regalia; second, the Hindu-derived cosmological significance of the capital, according to which the royal palace symbolized the center of the universe and its inhabitants were accorded divine status, third, the conception of the king as the Protector of the Faith and kin some cases) his claim to being a Future Buddha (bodhisatta) and universal emperor (cakkavatti); and fourth, the Buddhist doctrine of karma (kamma), which provided religious sanction for the regime. (For detailed discussions see Cady 1958:ch. …