Excerpt from The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology

To many a visitor to Burma, who views the country from the deck of an Irrawaddy River steamer or from the window of a railway carriage, there appears to belittle difference between the Karen and the Burman. This is not strange, for many individuals of the non Burman tribes wear the Burmese costume and speak the Burmese language; and they present no markedly different characteristics in feature or color of skin. I have often heard the remark that there is no difference between the Burman and the Karen. It is doubtless because the Government of Burma recognizes that there is a difference in the tribal characteristics, customs, and religion that it has adopted the Wise policy of publishing a series of complete studies, of which this purports to be one, of these various peoples. If the reader will have the patience to read these pages, it is hoped that he will realize that, though the Karen have lived for genera tions in the closest proximity to the Burmese, they preserve their own racial traits, which are quite distinct from those of their more volatile neighbors with whom they have had little in common.

This work deals more particularly with the Sgaw branch of the Karen people. My own acquaintance has been more intimate with this tribe, though I have known many of the other groups. This circumstance, together with the fact that the Bwe and Taungthu peoples have already been described in the Upper Burma Gazetteer, as well as the limitations of space, has led me to limit my discussion to brief references to the other tribes. But I am convinced that in the main the Sgaw exhibit the general characteristics that are truly Karen in the broadest sense of the term. I have also omitted any detailed study of the large mass of Karen folklore, which may possibly be incorporated in some future study.

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