Content area
This thesis uses ideas of conflict and material culture to address a hitherto under-examined area of activity: the materialities of conflict in Burma. It does so by employing conflict and resistance as an underutilised framework for understanding Burmese and specifically Kachin material culture. As an interdisciplinary study that draws on the fields of material culture studies, anthropology, and Burma studies, this research challenges established modes of representing Burmese material culture by placing objects associated with marginalised communities and their experiences at the centre of the study.
The study critically engages with ideas of conflict materialities (Saunders, 2004), while arguing that there is a need for extended research in other non-Western contexts. While indigenous 'ways of knowing' have the potential to enhance understanding of material culture, this is often overlooked in conflict contexts. Therefore, by integrating local knowledge with material-focused concepts such as 'displaced objects' (Dudley, 2010; 2021), 'material absence' (Bille et.al, 2010), and an 'object-making process' (Ingold, 2000; 2011) this thesis highlights how such circumstances alter perceptions of everyday material culture and introduce new meanings.
With a focus on the Kachin community, this study draws on Kachin epistemologies and ontologies to understand the roles and meanings of material culture in moments of acute trauma and societal transformation. It involves my 'insider' observations about Kachin cultural practices drawn from growing up in the country, as well as from undertaking interviews with Kachin research participants. In-depth online interviews were conducted under exceptional circumstances, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 military coup.
Through a series of material-led case studies the study analyses the link between protest, sonic experience, and localised Kachin concepts, which intersect and act as catalysts for new emotional and sensory narrations of Burmese things. It also demonstrates how a new approach to object-led research which involves examining an object's material conditions within the context of Burma's conflict events can provide fresh perspectives and a distinct perspective on understanding social change and how Kachin objects are linked to politically tumultuous contexts.