Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:58:15.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Putting the Mandala in its Place: A Practice-based Approach to the Spatialization of Power on the Southeast Asian ‘Periphery’—The Case of the Akha

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

Deborah E. Tooker
Get access

Extract

In this article, I argue that the ‘mandala’ and other spatialized concepts associated with the ‘cosmic polity’ in Southeast Asia (such as ‘exemplary center’ and ‘sinking status’, ‘galactic polity’, ‘concentric circles’, ‘nested emboxment’, etc.) are key concepts with a similar form that have dominated theories of premodern Southeast Asian political and social structure. I claim that previous approaches to the mandala polity have been defined from the perspective of dominant political groups, and thus are top-down or center-out models. As a result, theorists have inadvertently reified this perspective in a set of analytical concepts that reaffirm existing power structures. As such, they have skewed our understandings of the mandala away from that of a socially enacted set of spatial codes that communicate and index hierarchical status between individuals and groups, both dominant and nondominant.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , May 1996 , pp. 323 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Alting von Geusau, Leo. 1983. “Dialectics of Akhazan: The Interiorizations of a Perennial Minority Group.” In Highlanders of Thailand, edited by McKinnon, John and Bhruksasri, Wanat. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1972. “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture.” In Culture and Politics in Indonesia, edited by Holt, Claire et al. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Archaimbault, Charles. 1971. The New Year Ceremony at Basak (South Laos). Southeast Asia Program Data Paper no. 78. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University.Google Scholar
Caldwell, Ian. 1991. “The Myth of the Exemplary Center: Shelly Errington's Meaning and Power in a Southeast Asian Realm.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 22:109–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coedès, G. 1968. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Condominas, Georges. 1975. “Phiban Cults in Rural Laos.” In Change and Persistence in Thai Society, edited by Skinner, G. William and Kirsch, A. Thomas. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Condominas, Georges. 1978. “A Few Remarks about Thai Political Systems.” In Natural Symbols in South East Asia, edited by Milner, G. B.. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
Condominas, Georges. [1976] 1980. “Essai Sur L'Evolution des Systèmes Politiques Thais.” In L'Espace Social A Propos de L'Asie du Sud-Est. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Crossroads 1990. An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Special Thai Issue (Part Two), 5.1. Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University.Google Scholar
Dumont, Louis. 1980. Homo Hierarchicus, The Caste System and Its Implications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Original edition in French, Paris: Gallimard, 1966.Google Scholar
Durrenberger, E. Paul. 1980. “Annual Non-Buddhist Religious Observances of Mae Hong Son Shan.” Journal of the Siam Society 68:48–56.Google Scholar
Durrenberger, E. Paul. 1981. “The Southeast Asian Context of Theravada Buddhism.” Anthropology 5:45–62.Google Scholar
Durrenberger, E. Paul, and Tannenbaum, Nicola. 1989. “Continuities in Highland and Lowland Religions of Thailand.” Journal of the Siam Society 77 (1):83–89.Google Scholar
Egerod, Sören, and Hansson, Inga-Lill. 1974. “An Akha Conversation on Death and Funeral.” Acta Orientalia 36:225–84.Google Scholar
Errington, Shelly. 1989. Meaning and Power in a Southeast Asian Realm. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. 1980. “Questions on Geography.” In Power I Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977’, edited by Gordon, C.. Brighton: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford. 1980. Negara, the Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
George, Kenneth. 1991. “Cosmography and Resistance in Upland Sulawesi.” Paper presented in the Southeast Asia Seminar series at the Fairbank Center, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Gray, Christine E. 1992. “Royal Words and Their Unroyal Consequences.” Cultural Anthropology 7(4):448–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregory, D., and Urry, J., eds. 1985. Social Relations and Spatial Structures. New York: St. Martin's.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gullick, J. M. 1958. Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya. LSE Monographs in Social Anthropology, no. 17. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Gupta, Akhil, and Ferguson, James. 1992. “Beyond ‘Culture’: Space, Identity, and the Politics of Difference.” Cultural Anthropology 7(1): 6–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, David. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Heine-Geldern, R. 1942. “Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia.” Far Eastern Quarterly 2:15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heine-Geldern, R. 1956. “Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia.” Data Paper no. 18, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University. Ithaca, N.Y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, Leo. 1991. “Rice, Ideology, and the Legitimation of Hierarchy in Bali.” Man, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, new series 26(3):445–67.Google Scholar
Hutheesing, Otome Klein. 1990. “How does a ‘Tai’ Spirit come to be on a Lisu Home Altar? A Note on the Merger of Lowland and Highland Cosmologies.”Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Thai Studies,11–13 May, 1990. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Kunming, China.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
de Jong, P. E. de J. 1952. Minangkabau and Negri Sembilan, Sociopolitical Structures in Indonesia. The Hague: Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Kammerer, Cornelia Ann. 1986. “Gateway to the Akha World: Kinship, Ritual, and Community among Highlanders of Thailand.” Ph.D. diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Kirsch, A. T. 1973. Feasting and Social Oscillation: Religion and Society in Upland Southeast Asia. Cornell University Southeast Asia Program Data Paper no. 92. Ithaca, N.Y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirsch, A. T. 1975. “Economy, Polity, and Religion in Thailand.” In Change and Persistence in Thai Society, edited by Skinner, G. William and Kirsch, A. Thomas. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kirsch, A. T. 1990. “The Quest for Tai in Tai Context: Forethoughts and Afterthoughts.” Crossroads 5(1):69–79.Google Scholar
Kulke, Hermann. 1986. “The Early and the Imperial Kingdom in Southeast Asian History.” In Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th centuries, edited by Marr, David G. and Milner, A. C.. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Lansing, J. S. 1991. Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Leach, Edmund R. 1954. Political Systems of Highland Burma. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Leach, Edmund R. 1960–1961. “The Frontiers of Burma.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 3(1):49–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lefebvre, H. 1974. La Production de l'espace. Paris: Anthropos.Google Scholar
Lehman, F. K. 1987. “Monasteries, Palaces and Ambiguities: Burmese Sacred and Secular Space.” Contributions to Indian Sociology, n.s., 21(1):169–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Paul. 1969–1970. Ethnographic Notes on the Akhas of Burma. 4 vols. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files.Google Scholar
Lewis, Paul. 1989. Akha-English-Thai Dictionary. Chiang Rai, Thailand: Development and Agricultural Project for Akha.Google Scholar
Milner, G. B., ed. 1978. Natural Symbols in South East Asia. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.Google Scholar
Moertono, S. 1968. State and Statecraft in Old Java. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Modern Indonesia Project.Google Scholar
Mulder, Niels. 1994. Inside Thai Society. 4th ed.Bangkok: Editions Duang Kamol.Google Scholar
Mus, Paul. 1934. “Cultes indiens et indigenes au Champa.” BEFEO 33(1):367–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, Richard. 1990. “Tai in Tai Context: The Impact of a Ruling Center.” Crossroads 5(1): 1–21.Google Scholar
Pigeaud, T. G. T. 1960–1963. Java in the Fourteenth Century. A Study in Cultural History. The Nagara-Kertagama by Rakawi Prapanca of Majapahit, 1365 a.d. 5 vols. The Hague.Google Scholar
Renard, Ronald D. 1990. “Tai Lü Self, House, Village, and Moeng.” Crossroads 5(1):43–58.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Craig. 1995. “A New Look at Old Southeast Asia.” Journal of Asian Studies 54(2):419–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrieke, B. 1957. Ruler and Realm in Early Java. The Hague: W. van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Schulte Nordholt, Henk. 1981. “Negara: A Theatre State?” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 137(4):470–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulte Nordholt, H. G. 1971. The Political System of the Atoni of Timor. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1992. Foreword to Southeast Asian Studies in the Balance: Reflections from America, edited by Hirschman, C. et al. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Association for Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Shorto, H. L. 1963. “The 32 Myos in the Medieval Mon Kingdom.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 26(3):572–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, G. William, and Kirsch, A. Thomas, eds. 1975. Change and Persistence in Thai Society. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Snodgrass, Adrian. 1985. The Symbolism of the Stupa. Studies on Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Soja, Edward W. 1989. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1976. World Conqueror, World Renouncer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1977. “The Galactic Polity: The Structure of Traditional Kingdoms in Southeast Asia.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 293 (July):69–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1979. A Performative Approach to Ritual. Proceedings of the British Academy, London, vol. LXV. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1985. “The Galactic Polity in Southeast Asia” In Culture, Thought, and Social Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanabe, Shigeharu. 1988. “Spirits and Ideological Discourse: The Tai Lii Guardian Cults in Yunnan.” Sojourn, Social Issues in Southeast Asia 3(1): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tannenbaum, Nicola. 1989. “Power and Its Shan Transformations.” In Ritual, Power, and Economy: Upland-Lowland Contrasts in Mainland Southeast Asia, edited by Russell, Susan D.. Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Occasional Paper no. 14.Google Scholar
Tannenbaum, Nicola. 1990. “The Heart of the Village: Constituent Structures of Shan Communities.” Crossroads 5(1):23–41.Google Scholar
Tannenbaum, Nicola. 1991. “Haeng and Takho: Power in Shan Cosmology.” Ethnos 56(1–2):67–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tannenbaum, Nicola. 1992. “Households and Villages: The Political-Ritual Structures of Tai Communities.” Ethnology 31(3):259–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tapp, Nicholas. 1986. “Geomancy as an aspect of Upland-Lowland Relationships.” In The Hmong in Transition, edited by Hendricks, Glenn L. et al. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Winichakul, Thongchai. 1994. Siam Mapped, A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Tooker, Deborah E. 1988. “Inside and Outside: Schematic Replication at the Levels of Village, Household and Person among the Akha of Northern Thailand.” Ph.D. diss. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Tooker, Deborah E. 1990. “Some Continuities in the Communication of Hierarchy in Tai (Dai) and non-Tai (Akha/Hani) Groups.”Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Thai Studies, 11–13 May, 1990. Vol. 3. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Kunming, China.Google Scholar
Tooker, Deborah E. 1991. “Asymmetric Alliance in a Non-Stratified Society: Mechanisms of Egalitarianism among the Akha.”Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association,Chicago,November 1991.Google Scholar
Tooker, Deborah E. 1992. “Identity Systems of Highland Burma: ‘Belief, Akha zán, and a Critique of Interiorized Notions of Ethno-religious identity.” Man 27(4):799–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tooker, Deborah E. 1995. “The Aini zu of the Hani Minority Nationality: Some Comparative Thoughts on Akha in China, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma).” Yearbook of the International Institute for Asian Studies, 1994.Google Scholar
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 1993. In the Realm of the Diamond Queen. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Anthony R. 1983. “Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) Rites for Establishing a New Village.” Journal of the Siam Society 71(1–2): 149–207.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Paul. 1971. The Pivot of the Four Quarters. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Paul. 1983. Nagara and Commandery, Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Tradition. The University of Chicago, Department of Geography Research Papers nos. 207–8.Google Scholar
Wolters, O. W. 1982. History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar