Grace Is Incommensurability in Commensuration
The Semantics of Bwan among Three Generations of Wa and Lahu Prophets
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4380155 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hans Steinmüller (0000-0002-5921-421X, London School of Economics, UK [email protected], corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 104-120 |
| Publication date | 2022-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7674 • E-ISSN: 2047-7716 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/cja.2022.400108 |
| OpenAlex | W4293097591 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 15 |
Since the seventeenth century, prophets have reappeared periodically among the Wa and Lahu ethnic groups of mainland Southeast Asia. Exceptionally talented, these men built on the syncretic cults of runaway soldiers, secretive Buddhist sects, and Christian missionaries and became leaders of millenarian movements. Typically, in the Wa language, such leaders are said to be very strong and blessed, or full of grace (bwan). The prophets might be understood as reincarnations of mythical 'men of prowess' or as the representatives of the peripheral situation. However, both interpretations fundamentally misread the semantics of grace in Wa and neighbouring languages: a kind of cunning and strength that is so radical that it cannot be measured or mediated. Grace, here, is neither a 'mediative concept' (as Pitt-Rivers suggested), nor is it the consequence of Christian conversion. Instead, grace is the incommensurability that emerges at the margin of a world that is being measured
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Buddhism · Epistemology · Mainland · Millenarianism · Political science · Sociology · Theology · Western thought · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Asian Studies and History · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Millenarianism, Christian Movements, and Ethnic Change among the Miao in Southwest China
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives
History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives
The moral economy of militarism
The Gift
Shaping of the Yunnan-Burma Frontier by Secret Societies since the End of the 17th Century
Para‐nationalism
Mining, history, and the anti-state Wa
Merit and the Millennium
Ariyaand the Golden Book
The Gift, the Indian Gift and the 'Indian Gift
Changes in Ethnic Identity Among Han Immigrants in the Wa Hills from the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries
People First
Conscription by Capture in the Wa State of Myanmar
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |