Class 15 - Difference and Indigeneity in Southeast Asia

Welcome back!

In the next two sessions, we’re going to talk about what it means to be indigenous, particularly in Southeast Asia. You should all have read the report by Micah Morton. Before we start, let’s all check in.

A Map of Asia

So we’re going to start with an exercise.

On the whiteboard, I’m going to share a map of Asia, but without any of the national boundaries. Look hard at this map, and think about the terrain. Think also about your own knowledge of Asian history and prehistory. Now I want you to collectively mark up the map according to where you think the natural boundaries between different peoples or ethnicities lie. I’ll give you ten minutes.

Thinking beyond national boundaries

As you can see, national boundaries are to some extent arbitrary, or historically contingent. To take two examples, had 20th century history been different, Kurdistan and Chinram would be distinct states. There is nothing natural or inevitable about the way that nation states are divided up. Neither is there anything natural or inevitable about the idea of the nation state.

One implication of this is that borders often divide peoples into nations, such that these people may have less in common historically with the fellow members of the same nation than they do with communities on the other side of the border.

Thinking through indigeneity

What I want you to do now is to go back and bracket a section of the paper that you were particularly interested in. Don’t bracket any more than two sentences. We’re going to share these brakceted sections in the main group.

Breakout Groups

We’ll start by talking about your impressions of the paper:

1. What did you find interesting?
2. What did you disagree with?
3. What is your understanding of the term “indigenous” after reading the paper?
4. Do you consider yourself indigenous? If so, in what sense?

We’ll feed back at the end.

Break

Let’s take a short break.

Indigeneity in Myanmar / Burma and the Wider Region

Let’s now turn our attention to some bigger issues. These questions need a much closer attention on the argument.

1. What is the difference between “nativism” and “indigeneity”?
2. When you apply the notion of indigeneity to your home country, who could be considered to be indigenous?
3. How are notions of indigeneity in Myanmar/Burma and the wider region different from those in colonial settler societies like Australia, Taiwan, New Zealand or the Americas?
4. What contribution can discourses of indigeneity make to the politics of Myanmar/Burma and the wider region? Do you think these are helpful or unhelpful?

Homework

For your homework, we’re going to home in on this a bit more by reading Michael Dunford’s paper, “Indigeneity, ethnopolitics, and taingyinthar: Myanmar and the global Indigenous Peoples’ movement.” I’ll upload it to Canvas for you to read.