Centering the Margin

Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands

Alexander Horstmann, Reed L. Wadley

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781845455910, 9781845450199
• eBook ISBN: 9780857454393
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

In a completely new approach to borders and border crossing, this volume suggests a re-conceptualization of the nation in Southeast Asia. Choosing an actor approach, the individual chapters in this volume capture the narratives of minorities, migrants and refugees who inhabit and cross borders as part of their everyday life. They show that people are not only constrained by borders; the crossing of borders also opens up new options of agency. Making active use of these, border-crossing actors construct their own live projects on the border in multiple ways against the original intention of the nation-state. Based on their intimate knowledge of the interaction of communities, anthropologists from Europe, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia provide a vivid picture of the effects of state policies at the borders on these communities.

Table of contents

• CENTERING THE MARGIN
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• FIGURES AND TABLES
• INTRODUCTION
• PART I: CENTER AND PERIPHERY IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN BORDERLANDS
• CHAPTER 1. “ONCE WERE BURMESE SHANS”
• CHAPTER 2. WOULD-BE CENTERS
• CHAPTER 3. POLITICAL PERIPHERY, COSMOLOGICAL CENTER
• PART II: ETHNIC MINORITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN BORDERLANDS
• CHAPTER 4. PREMODERN FLOWS IN POSTMODERN CHINA
• CHAPTER 5. BORDERS AND MULTIPLE REALITIES
• CHAPTER 6. IN THE MARGIN OF A BORDERLAND
• PART III: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN BORDERLANDS
• CHAPTER 7. DECONSTRUCTING CITIZENSHIP FROM THE BORDER
• CHAPTER 8. SEX AND THE SACRED
• CHAPTER 9. NARRATING THE BORDER
• NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
• INDEX