Half a Century after Edmund R. Leach: Church, Ethnicity and Civil Society in Northern Highlands of Burma

This article is about a critical analysis of religion and politics in northern highlands of Burma by employing Emile Durkheim's concept of social solidarity and Edmund Leach's binary discourse of "gumsa-gumlao" social political models of Kachin society. It is written from an indigenous perspective of the Kachins (Lisu). Therefore, it challenges the perspectives of contemporary Western social and historical anthropologists. It reaffirms Leach's concept of social binaries and recognizes existence of internal tribal conflict and tension, and explores how tribal reconciliation could be achieved. Since tension and conflict are particularly significant in the sphere of religion, this article recommends that tribal reconciliation needs to be initiated within the church, as the failure to do so gives significant impact on the Kachin social and political structure.