从神话显现看缅甸对印度族裔群体的认知变迁——兼论缅甸族群政治的生成模式

The Change of Myanmar’s Perception of the Ethnic Indians from the Perspective of Myth-Also on the Generation Mode of Ethnic Politics in Myanmar

印度人及其文明在缅甸历史发展进程中扮演了重要角色,缅甸也因此被学界视为“东南亚的印度化国家”之一。缅甸印度人的社会角色与族群形象在不同时期经历了数次关键性转变,考察这些转变发生时的历史情境可以为理解当今缅甸的族群政治提供路径。本文考察了一则在缅甸广为流传的神话传说——岛彪神话的版本流变,关注其在缅甸王朝时代、殖民时代和当代语境中的表述差异,试图以此来透视缅甸印度人社群的历史变迁。本文认为,缅甸的印度人社群在历史变迁中经历了一个不断被化约的过程,他们从一个复杂的族群复合体逐渐被化约为充满负面意义的单向度人群。族群化约主义并非只发生在印度人社群之中,而是缅甸族群政治生成模式中的普遍性逻辑。

The Indians and their civilization have played an important role in the historical development of Myanmar,and Myanmar has thus been regarded as one of the“Indianized countries in Southeast Asia”by the academic community.The social role and ethnic image of the Indians in Myanmar have undergone several key changes in different historical periods.Therefore,the historical context in which these changes took place can provide a path to understanding ethnic politics in Myanmar today.This paper examines the variation of the version of a popular myth in Myanmar,the Taungbyon Tale,and focuses on the differences in its expression in the context of Burmese dynastic,colonial and contemporary periods,in an attempt to see into the historical changes of the Indian community in Myanmar.This paper argues that the Indian community in Myanmar has experienced a process of continuous reduction from a complex ethnic complex to a unidirectional group full of negative meanings.Ethnic reductionism does not only happen to the Indian community,as it is also the universal logic in the generation mode of ethnic politics in Myanmar.