Between Tibetanization and Tribalization: Towards a New Anthropology of Tibeto-Burman Highlanders in Arunachal Pradesh

该项目解决了藏缅语社会人类学中最重要和最持久的缺陷之一，即缺乏对居住在青藏高原东南边缘沿着的高原人口的研究。具体的研究目标是通过对以前没有记录的藏缅高原社会进行民族志和民族历史研究，贡献新的人类学知识。研究结果将首次对阿鲁纳恰尔邦Subansiri地区的Mra-Na部落群进行科学描述（见地图），该部落群是该地区众多群体之一，是亚洲最不为人所知的社会之一。该项目？总的目标是开始建立一个可靠的人种学基础，用于分析居住在不丹东部和缅甸北方之间未经研究的山区的高地人口的社会和文化状况。本研究拒绝接受这些社会是孤立的概念，而是试图将它们理解为青藏高原和低山地区之间的关键中介，以及不仅在非常不同的社会，文化和物理环境之间进行谈判的过渡行为者，而且也被他们所改变。研究结果将扩大对西藏高原居民与其高原邻居之间互动和交流性质的批判性分析，这一过程被称为西藏化，迄今为止仅限于尼泊尔的人类学。该研究还将调查该地区最近的部落化进程，即外部产生的分类和许多高地社会的合并，如现代印度国家内所谓的在册部落，以及由此产生的社会后果。

This project addresses one of the most significant and enduring deficits in the anthropology of Tibeto-Burman speaking societies, namely the lack of research on highland populations dwelling along the southeastern margins of the Tibetan Plateau. The specific research goal is a contribution of new anthropological knowledge by way of an ethnographic and ethno-historical study of a previously undocumented Tibeto-Burman highland society. The results will yield the first scientific description of the Mra-Na clan cluster of the Subansiri district in Arunachal Pradesh (see map), one of various groups throughout this region who rank among the least known societies in Asia. The project¿s general goal is to begin building a reliable ethnographic basis for analysis of the social and cultural status of highland populations dwelling in the unresearched mountain zone between eastern Bhutan and northern Burma (Myanmar). Rejecting the notion of such societies being isolated, this research seeks instead to understand them as key intermediaries between the Tibetan plateau and lower hill regions, and as transitional actors who not only negotiate between very different social, cultural and physical environments, but who have also been transformed by them. The results will broaden critical analysis of the nature of interactions and exchanges between Tibetan plateau dwellers and their highland neighbours in terms of the process known as Tibetanization, which has so far been limited to the anthropology of Nepal. The research will also investigate very recent processes of ¿tribalization¿ in this region, that is, the externally generated classification and incorporation of many such highland societies as so-called Scheduled Tribes within the modern Indian state, and the social consequences this has had.