LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology
1 total work
This book explores the strategic roles played by Edmund Leach and Noel Stevenson, two British anthropologists initially linked by their ties to LSE, who were brought together during the World War Two Japanese invasion and occupation of Burma. During the years 1937-1950, Leach and Stevenson were pushed to the forefront of a new kind of guerrilla warfare, having been enlisted to develop an anthropological understanding of the China-Burma-India (CBI) frontier. This frontier is among the anthropologically more complex regions in the world, and undoubtedly one of the most difficult landscapes in which modern armies have fought in. Their big questions became ‘What is really going on here, and how can we best explain it?’ and ‘What are the futures of the peoples on the CBI frontier?’Through research based on previously unavailable documents, including official records and private papers, Robert Anderson draws together the many threads of intersecting peoples, cultures and places. He places new sources in the wider geopolitical economic context of the CBI frontier to reveal the connections between hitherto unexplored aspects of its history. The book also details the lessons that Leach and Stevenson drew from their experiences, and the vital significance they hold for us today.