Zomia (geography)
Encyclopedia
Zomia is a geographical term coined in 2002 by historian
Willem van Schendel of the University of Amsterdam to refer to the huge massif
of mainland Southeast Asia that has historically been beyond the control of government
s based in the population centers of the lowland
s. The massif arose during the Alpine orogeny
, when the African
, Indian
and Cimmerian
Plate
s, and smaller Asian terranes, collided with that of Eurasia
. The name is from Zomi
, a term for highlander common to several related Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the India-Bangladesh-Burma border area.
The exact boundaries of Zomia differ among scholars: all would include the highland
s of north Indochina
(north Vietnam
and all Laos
,) Thailand, the Shan State of northern Burma, and the mountains of Southwest China
, others extend the region as far West as Tibet
, north India, Pakistan
, and Afghanistan
. These areas share a common elevated, rugged terrain
, and have been the home of ethnic minorities
that have preserved their local culture
s by residing far from state
control and influence. Other scholars have used the term to discuss the similar ways that Southeast Asian governments have handled minority groups.
The region covers more than 2.5 million square kilometers known as the “Southeast Asian Massif” and comprises nearly one hundred million marginal peoples. This large area is inside the fringe of nine states and at the middle of none, stretching across the standard regional designations (South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia); along with its ecological diversity and its relation to states, it arouses a lot of interest. It stands for an original entity of study, a type of international Appalachia
, and a different way in which to study regions.
of Yale University
used the concept of Zomia in his 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia to argue that the continuity of the ethnic cultures living there provides a counter-narrative to the traditional story about modernity
: namely, that once people are exposed to the conveniences of modern technology
and the modern state, they will assimilate. Rather, the tribes in Zomia are conscious refugees from modernity itself, choosing to live in more primitive
, locally-based economies. From the Preface:
Scott goes on to add that Zomia is the biggest remaining area of Earth whose inhabitants have not been completely absorbed by nation-states, although that time is coming to an end. Though Zomia is exceptionally diverse linguistically, the languages spoken in the hills are distinct from those spoken in the plains. Kinship structures, at least formally, also distinguish the hills from the lowlands. Hill societies do produce “a surplus”, but they do not use that surplus to support kings and monks. Distinction of status and wealth abound in the hills, as in the valleys. The difference is that in the valleys they tend to be enduring, while in the hills they are both unstable and geographically confined.
,” Michaud claims that the peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif
are in fact transnational, as many groups span over several countries. According to Michaud, “minority” is not the legitimate way to label the group either, since the populations are so vast. Michaud even claims that the word “group” is problematic because of its connotation with community and “social cohesion” that not all groups share.
In 2010, the Journal of Global History published a special issue, "Zomia and Beyond" , In this issue, contemporary historians of Southeast Asian history respond to Scott’s arguments. For example, although Southeast Asian expert Victor Lieberman agrees that the highland people crafted their own social worlds in response to the political and natural environments that they encountered, he also finds Scott’s documentation to be very weak, especially its lack of Burmese-language sources, saying that not only does this undermine several of Scott’s key arguments, but it brings some of his other theories about Zomia into question. Furthermore, Lieberman argues that Scott is overestimating the importance of manpower as a determinant in military success. While the bulk of Scott’s argument lies on the efforts of lowland states to dominate the highlands, Lieberman shows the importance of maritime commerce as an equally contributing factor.
Lieberman also says that examples not included in Scott’s analysis need to be taken into consideration. Scott firmly believes that the culture shaped as a defensive mechanism, as a reaction to surrounding political and social environments. Lieberman, however, argues that the highland peoples of Borneo
/Kalimantan
had virtually the same cultural characteristics as the Zomi
ans, such as the proliferation of local languages and swidden cultivation
, which were all developed without a lowland predatory state.
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Willem van Schendel of the University of Amsterdam to refer to the huge massif
Massif
In geology, a massif is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole...
of mainland Southeast Asia that has historically been beyond the control of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s based in the population centers of the lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
s. The massif arose during the Alpine orogeny
Alpine orogeny
The Alpine orogeny is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic and Tertiary that formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt...
, when the African
African Plate
The African Plate is a tectonic plate which includes the continent of Africa, as well as oceanic crust which lies between the continent and various surrounding ocean ridges.-Boundaries:...
, Indian
India Plate
The India Plate or Indian Plate is a tectonic plate that was originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwanaland from which it split off, eventually becoming a major plate. About 50 to 55 million years ago , it fused with the adjacent Australian Plate...
and Cimmerian
Cimmerian Plate
The Cimmerian Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that comprises parts of present-day Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and Malaya regions. The Cimmerian Plate was formerly part of the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea. Pangaea was shaped like a vast "C", facing east, and inside of the...
Plate
Plate tectonics
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
s, and smaller Asian terranes, collided with that of Eurasia
Eurasian Plate
The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate which includes most of the continent of Eurasia , with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent, and the area east of the Chersky Range in East Siberia...
. The name is from Zomi
Zomi
Zomi is the name of a major tribe found in various parts of South and South East Asia. The term Zomi meaning, 'Zo People' is derived from the generic name 'Zo', the progenitor of the Zomi. They are found in northwestern Myanmar, northeastern India and Bangladesh. Anthropologists classify them as...
, a term for highlander common to several related Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in the India-Bangladesh-Burma border area.
The exact boundaries of Zomia differ among scholars: all would include the highland
Highland (geography)
The term highland or upland is used to denote any mountainous region or elevated mountainous plateau. Generally speaking, the term upland tends to be used for ranges of hills, typically up to 500-600m, and highland for ranges of low mountains.The Scottish Highlands refers to the mountainous...
s of north Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
(north Vietnam
Geography of Vietnam
Vietnam is located on the eastern margin of the Indochinese peninsula and occupies about 331,688 square kilometers, of which about 25 % was under cultivation in 1987. It borders the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia...
and all Laos
Geography of Laos
Laos is a landlocked nation in Southeast Asia, northeast of Thailand, west of Vietnam, that covers 236,800 square kilometers in the center of the Southeast Asian peninsula, is surrounded by Burma , Cambodia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam...
,) Thailand, the Shan State of northern Burma, and the mountains of Southwest China
Mountains of Southwest China
The Mountains of Southwest China is a biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International which includes several temperate coniferous forests in southwestern China, which lie in the river valleys on the southeastern corner of the Tibetan plateau, between the alpine scrublands and steppes...
, others extend the region as far West as Tibet
Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau , also known as the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau is a vast, elevated plateau in Central Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai, in addition to smaller portions of western Sichuan, southwestern Gansu, and northern Yunnan in Western China and Ladakh in...
, north India, Pakistan
Geography of Pakistan
The geography of Pakistan is a profound blend of landscapes varying from plains to deserts, forests, hills, and plateaus ranging from the coastal areas of the Arabian Sea in the south to the mountains of the Karakoram range in the north...
, and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. These areas share a common elevated, rugged terrain
Terrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
, and have been the home of ethnic minorities
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
that have preserved their local culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
s by residing far from state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
control and influence. Other scholars have used the term to discuss the similar ways that Southeast Asian governments have handled minority groups.
The region covers more than 2.5 million square kilometers known as the “Southeast Asian Massif” and comprises nearly one hundred million marginal peoples. This large area is inside the fringe of nine states and at the middle of none, stretching across the standard regional designations (South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia); along with its ecological diversity and its relation to states, it arouses a lot of interest. It stands for an original entity of study, a type of international Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
, and a different way in which to study regions.
James C. Scott
Professor James C. ScottJames C. Scott
James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...
of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
used the concept of Zomia in his 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia to argue that the continuity of the ethnic cultures living there provides a counter-narrative to the traditional story about modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
: namely, that once people are exposed to the conveniences of modern technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
and the modern state, they will assimilate. Rather, the tribes in Zomia are conscious refugees from modernity itself, choosing to live in more primitive
Primitive
Primitive may refer to:* Anarcho-primitivism, an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization* Primitive culture, one that lacks major signs of economic development or modernity...
, locally-based economies. From the Preface:
Scott goes on to add that Zomia is the biggest remaining area of Earth whose inhabitants have not been completely absorbed by nation-states, although that time is coming to an end. Though Zomia is exceptionally diverse linguistically, the languages spoken in the hills are distinct from those spoken in the plains. Kinship structures, at least formally, also distinguish the hills from the lowlands. Hill societies do produce “a surplus”, but they do not use that surplus to support kings and monks. Distinction of status and wealth abound in the hills, as in the valleys. The difference is that in the valleys they tend to be enduring, while in the hills they are both unstable and geographically confined.
Differing perspectives
Jean Michaud, explains the many dilemmas that arise from the language used to address the group of people residing in Zomia in his Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif The people of Zomia are often referred to as “national minority groups,” and Michaud argues that contention arises with each of these words. In regards to the word “nationalNation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
,” Michaud claims that the peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif
Southeast Asian Massif
The term Southeast Asian Massif has first been used in a publication in 1997 by anthropologist Jean Michaud to discuss the human societies inhabiting the lands above approximately 300 metres in south-eastern portion of the Asian landmass...
are in fact transnational, as many groups span over several countries. According to Michaud, “minority” is not the legitimate way to label the group either, since the populations are so vast. Michaud even claims that the word “group” is problematic because of its connotation with community and “social cohesion” that not all groups share.
In 2010, the Journal of Global History published a special issue, "Zomia and Beyond" , In this issue, contemporary historians of Southeast Asian history respond to Scott’s arguments. For example, although Southeast Asian expert Victor Lieberman agrees that the highland people crafted their own social worlds in response to the political and natural environments that they encountered, he also finds Scott’s documentation to be very weak, especially its lack of Burmese-language sources, saying that not only does this undermine several of Scott’s key arguments, but it brings some of his other theories about Zomia into question. Furthermore, Lieberman argues that Scott is overestimating the importance of manpower as a determinant in military success. While the bulk of Scott’s argument lies on the efforts of lowland states to dominate the highlands, Lieberman shows the importance of maritime commerce as an equally contributing factor.
Lieberman also says that examples not included in Scott’s analysis need to be taken into consideration. Scott firmly believes that the culture shaped as a defensive mechanism, as a reaction to surrounding political and social environments. Lieberman, however, argues that the highland peoples of Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
/Kalimantan
Kalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
had virtually the same cultural characteristics as the Zomi
Zomi
Zomi is the name of a major tribe found in various parts of South and South East Asia. The term Zomi meaning, 'Zo People' is derived from the generic name 'Zo', the progenitor of the Zomi. They are found in northwestern Myanmar, northeastern India and Bangladesh. Anthropologists classify them as...
ans, such as the proliferation of local languages and swidden cultivation
Shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming, until the soil loses fertility...
, which were all developed without a lowland predatory state.
See also
- AnarchyAnarchyAnarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
- Anarcho-primitivismAnarcho-primitivismAnarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence gave rise to social stratification, coercion, and alienation...
- Hill tribe (Thailand)
- Mandala (Southeast Asian history)Mandala (Southeast Asian history)Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". The mandala is a model for describing the patterns of diffuse political power in early Southeast Asian history when local power was more important...
- MonthonMonthonA monthon |]], literally "circle") was a country subdivision of Thailand in the beginning of the 20th century. The Thai word 'monthon' is a translation of the word Mandala. These were created as a part of the thesaphiban bureaucratic administrative system, introduced by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab...
(Thai history) - Primitive culturePrimitive cultureIn older anthropology texts and discussions, the term "primitive culture" is used to refer to a society that is believed to lack cultural, technological, or economic sophistication/development...
- Palearctic ecozone
- Refugium (population biology)
- StatelessnessStatelessnessStatelessness is a legal concept describing the lack of any nationality. It is the absence of a recognized link between an individual and any state....
- ZomiZomiZomi is the name of a major tribe found in various parts of South and South East Asia. The term Zomi meaning, 'Zo People' is derived from the generic name 'Zo', the progenitor of the Zomi. They are found in northwestern Myanmar, northeastern India and Bangladesh. Anthropologists classify them as...