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Pioneers of the plantation economy: militarism, dispossession, and the limits of growth in the Wa State of Myanmar

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  • Steinmüller, Hans

Abstract

The characteristic mobility of highland populations in Southeast Asia relied to a large extent on their particular adaption to an ecological environment: swidden cultivation of tubers on mountain slopes. This ecology corresponded to cosmologies in which potency was limitless, or at least had no fixed and delimited precinct (as did the rice paddies and Buddhist realms in the valleys). Military state building, modern transport, and new crops and agricultural technologies have effectively ended swidden cultivation. In this article, I follow the pioneers of the plantation economy in the Wa State of Myanmar, who dispossess local populations of their land and employ them as plantation labour. The limits of growth and potency they encounter are (a) in the natural environment and (b) in the resistance of local populations. Yet, even though there are such limits, the potency to which these pioneers aspire is still limitless. It is however channelled through a new economy of life, epitomised in the plantation, nourished in excessive feasting, and maintained by the kinship dynamics of capture and care.

Suggested Citation

  • Steinmüller, Hans, 2021. "Pioneers of the plantation economy: militarism, dispossession, and the limits of growth in the Wa State of Myanmar," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 107010, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:107010
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107010/
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wendy Wolford & Saturnino M. Borras Jr. & Ruth Hall & Ian Scoones & Ben White & Michael Levien, 2013. "Regimes of Dispossession: From Steel Towns to Special Economic Zones," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(2), pages 381-407, March.
    2. Fiskesjö, Magnus, 2010. "Mining, history, and the anti-state Wa: the politics of autonomy between Burma and China," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 241-264, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    plantation; dispossession; life; economy; Wa; Research Infrastructure Investment Fund;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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