Social Organization and Peasant Societies by Maurice Freedman

Author:Maurice Freedman [Freedman, Maurice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Minority Studies, Anthropology, Cultural & Social
ISBN: 9780202369044
Google: nl8gVsPeJC8C
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Goodreads: 7907774
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

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1. See Jakobson, 1960; also Jakobson and Halle, 1956.

1. An explanation of this translation is given below. U ni u zai carries the connotation of ‘all God’s creatures’. Zai is the opposite of hpaji. Hpaji denotes ‘wis-dorn’ in the sense of human cunning; zai denotes ‘wisdom’ in the sense of mysterious power. Man has hpaji but a tiger (shăraw) has zai. Zai is a quality of creatures of nature and thus means ‘wild’. In contrast ni means ‘near’, ‘domesti-cated’, ‘tame’.

1. Firths view of this argument may perhaps be inferred from Firth, 1936a, p. 261: ‘I must say that I could not find any differentiation in emotional tone corresponding to difference in propinquity of kinship when the same term was used in varying context, such as Malinowski describes.’

1. Text from Hanson, 1906, p. xxii. The translation on p. xxiii is completely misleading.

1. Leach, 1954, p. 80n. At this reference I list as one meaning of măyu: (f) ‘Green rice field before it comes to ear’. This needs elaboration. Growing paddy in its early stages while the ear is still inside the stalk is matut, ‘bound together’; măyu is the later stage of growth when it is still green but the ‘ear’ has broken out of the stalk sheath and is beginning to bend over. This is a period of maximum food scarcity and is given a seasonal name, măyu ta. It is at this period that Kachin communities hold a large-scale, two- or three-day, ritual, the purpose of which is to ensure good crops. The name of the ritual is măyu moi and the period at which it is held is măyu na. The form of the ritual which involves all the lineages domiciled in the community is such as to re-emphasize the hierarchy of political authority and also the associated hierarchy of traditional măyu-dama relationships. Such a ritual is described in brief outline in Leach, 1954, pp. 173-4, under the rubric ‘an important religious ceremonial held about the beginning of September’.

1. If Kachins always married their ‘mother’s brothers’ daughters’ this situation would not arise since the co-resident wives in any household would all be members of the same lineage. But ordinarily this is not the case. Each household has măyu-dama links with a number of different lineages and the mother of a sick child would be suspicious of any co-resident wife who is not of her own lineage.

1. This is true of moi, the visiting aunt. But the category moi includes all wives in the senior generation of the dama ni and most of these will not be close relatives of Ego at all. For a married girl moi includes the mother-in-law, but this is not part of the childish vocabulary. Firth’s analysis of the status of the father’s sister in Tikopia (Firth, 1936a, pp. 224-5) is very relevant, though it seems to me inconsistent that Firth should claim that the sister’s son ‘gains’ at the expense of the mother’s brother. The măyu-dama structure implies that among Kachins,

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