Accepted Panels

This anthropological research project examines identity creation and maintenance for minority groups living in the complex environment of the borderlands. The paper explores the identity of the Marma group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and the challenges in negotiating their continued existence in a region where landless refugees from the delta regions of Bangladesh have been moving to the higher ground of the hill tracts. The centre - the nation state - no longer recognizes the ethnic groups in these peripheries as separate ethnic entities, and there is a drive to force cultural assimilation to the majority culture. The Marma have responded to this by not assimilating but by accentuating their difference. There were many examples of Marma cultural uniqueness: The oral histories that retold their epic journey from Pegu in Burma, facing war and defeat to settle in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. And the distilling of a Marma cultural essence through material objects such as the sword, the coin garland and the royal chart. The pageantry and shine that accompanied annual rituals such as the tax collection ceremony. Using narratives on migration, as well as material objects and ceremonials, the group was able to differentiate themselves from the majority culture and also gain legitimacy to live in the hill tracts and some freedom in an otherwise highly militarized and politicized border zone.