REVKJEWS - Siamese Heritage Protection Program

180 Nicholas Tapp
scant official records. Lehman re-examines some of the evidence for supposing that the
Kayah (Karenni) emerged out of a mixed Shan-Karen polity somewhere before the end
of the 18th century, associated with various Buddhist messianic movements and concludes
that 'an overall pattern of adaptation to non-Karen people . . .. has characterized
the general category of Karen', proffering a cognitive view of ethnicity and the various
taxonomic constraints under which it is defined. Although the views of ethnicity range
from Lehman's to Marlowe's emphasis on behavioural features, with Ijima emphasising
religious and Stern linguistic factors, the contributors are united by a common agreement
that ethnicity, especially where the Karen are concerned, is not something fixed,
bounded, or static, but dynamic, mobile, relative and closely associated with processes
of sociocultural change.
School of Oriental & African Studies,
London University
Nicholas Tapp