Special theme: An Anthropological Study of ‘Control’ and ‘Public’ in Myanmar National Museum of Myanmar has a long and rich history and enjoys unique cultural traditions. Ethnology Society in this country is changing rapidly in the modern world. At Minpaku, the Inter-University research project ‘An anthropological study of “control” and Osaka “public”: Community, information and resources in Myanmar’ (2012-2016) has been organized in 2012 by Keiko Tosa, a contributor to this special section. The following essays offer personal views on local society, politics, media, folk Number 38 belief, and religion in Myanmar. June 2014 Anthropology Newsletter Control and Division in Village MINPAKU Life: Field Experiences in Burma Katsumi Tamura The Graduate University for Advanced Studies Since the beginning of my study of Myanmar (Burma), the country was under military government or that led by the army except for the short interval of the democracy movement in 1988. In 1977 when I visited for the first time, Burma was under the regime of ‘Burmese Way to Socialism’. The government controlled many aspects of peoples’ life by many means, that is, the socialistic economic system, dictatorship by one party, media control by censorship, a system of surveillence, and so on. In this situation, I conducted field research while staying in a village from 1979 to 1980. During that work, two kinds of intellect approached me. One was from the intelligentsia and the other was intelligence. The government was watching not only over its people but also over foreigners. This was sometimes accompanied with kindness and protection for foreigners, which was appreciated as Burmese hospitality. According to their social custom, it was not Villagers travelling by ox-cart to join a ceremony, central Burma proper for women, children, (Tamura, 1979) http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/ 2 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 38 June 2014 Tamura is Executive or guests move about alone. They were national level. I also did not conduct Director at The socially ‘weak’ persons, they should be detailed research on economic and Graduate University for Advanced Studies kindly protected, and were not allowed social systems, for such topics and professor to move freely. The Burmese sometimes were taken as related to the emeritus at Minpaku. government might have considered it a ‘socialist regime’. As a cultural duty to watch over and protect The other intellect met was from the anthropologist, he has done researches in foreigners. In fact, when I started to intelligentsia, that is, persons Mainland Southeast stay in the village, a troop of policemen concerned with the academic world, Asia and Southeast also began to stay, in order to patrol culture, and arts. While ordinary China, especially in the village, although they disappeared Burmese often hesitated or feared to Burma for more than 35 years. Recently he after around a week. have contact with foreigners, contact published Burmese My stay and research were with intelligentsia became a gateway for Kingship and comparatively free. At that time, foreign foreigners. Such people approached Myanmar Politics (in researchers were very rare, so there was foreigners with intellectual interest. Japanese, Fukyosha, 2014). Also, he is a no systematic control. I had no Under the regime of Ne Win, the chief editor of an obligation to report the process and country was nearly closed and people introductory book, results of my fieldwork, and had no could get little information from abroad. Burmese Study (in counterpart assigned by a concerned For them, connection with foreigners Japanese, authority. I could enjoy friendly and also had social purposes, such as Akashishoten, 2013). peaceful relationships with the villagers. raising prestige, or economic benefit. However, more problematic was In fact, one historian, a former self-control. I often heard of foreigners university professor, became a gateway being accused of wrong-doing and for my research, allowing me to work in being expulsed from the country. At the the village of his parents, while staying time, I had no specific permission for in the house of his relative. research. I had only the permission for In a Burmese village, people gather travelling to the particular village. I to talk while drinking tea in the night should return to Yangon to renew my time, according to divisions of gender, visa every three months, and each time generation and closeness. This is called I also had to obtain the permission for lapeik-waing (a tea-circle). The topics of travel. I was anxious about this, so was conversation cover a wide range, from implicitly under self-control. I refrained national level politics to gossip from doing research on politics of the concerning the neighbors. Some young men go around in the village, dropping in at various gatherings to gain information, especially from seniors. Contents While most villagers go outside the village residential area for agricultural An Anthropological Study of work, school, or for other reasons ‘Control’ and ‘Public’ in Myanmar during the daytime, people enjoy talking and social life in the village Katsumi Tamura becomes busy at night, from sun-set to Control and Division in Village Life: Field Experiences about nine o’clock. A tea-circle gathered in Burma ................................................................... 1 regularly under the eaves of the house where I stayed, and became a main Kenji Ino resource for collecting information and A Decision in Distress: Aung San Suu Kyi .................. 3 the data of my research. The daily interactions outlined above U Thaw Kaung, Sithu lead to the formation of intimate Media Control and Relaxation in Myanmar ................. 5 relationships (khin), which become the base of various activities, such as Yukako Iikuni mutual assistance in agricultural National Control and the Public Space for works, labor exchange, co-fellowship in Spirit Worship in Burmese World ................................ 6 religious events, political connections, and so on. Villagers have a network of Keiko Tosa Buddhist Public or Counterpublics in Myanmar ......... 8 intimate relationships centered on themselves — this is a common feature of societies in the plains of Southeast Conferences ................................................................. 10 Asia. The village is recognized as the space where these networks have Information .................................................................. 14 greatest density, overlapping with each other. In this way, the village can be New Staff ..................................................................... 14 recognized as a kind of community, that is, a social space with public aspects. Visiting Scholars .......................................................... 14 Also, among villagers there exists an association for mutual assistance, Publications ................................................................. 16 thaye-naye-athin (literally, the association for auspicious and June 2014 MINPAKU Anthropology Newsletter No 38 3 inauspicious events). The association until just two years ago. was composed of groups divided Khin does not lead to common according to gender and generation and interest for the public but more directly individuals took their part in each to one’s personal or factional interest, group for ritual feasts, especially on the because it is based on closeness occasion of funerals. This led to between two people. It can also be closeness, as well as a common turned into a means of control, through consciousness among the villagers (and mutual watching. perhaps also to the fact that marriage Myanmar has been changing rapidly outside of the village was lowly in the course of democratization over evaluated). the last two or three years. In the city, I wonder whether intimate people are more able to get information relationships and the personal through mass media and internet, and networks among villagers can lead to a especially with online social networks. social public. Relationships do extend In rural areas people depend more on beyond the village boundary, but when broadcast by television, newspapers, they are formed between persons of and journals instead of oral ‘superior’ and ‘inferior’ status, they communications. Traditional social become patron-client relationships, relationships will be forced to change in which leads to the formation of factions. this process. We do not yet have an In the village, there were severe image of society in the future of this conflicts among factions, which caused country. delay in the introduction of electricity A Decision in Distress: Aung San Suu Kyi Kenji Ino The University of Kitakyushu On April 13, 2013, Aung San Suu Kyi represent the real interests of the Ino is professor at the visited Japan for the first time since her nation and people. The military School of Regional Development, emancipation from house arrest. Her government allowed democratization University of overseas trip was a symbolic occurrence within the framework of a military- Kitakyushu. He showing that the democratic movement guided democracy. Regarding this received his PhD in Myanmar had reached a new stage. attitude of the military, Aung San Suu (social sciences) from Hitotsubashi However, her facial expression on Kyi commented at a mass meeting that University. From television was severe, and a certain the military government pursued a March, 1988 to suffering was held back. ‘Myanmar Way to Democracy’ which February, 1991, he