Gravers, Mikael (ed.) (2007), Exploring Ethnic Diversity in Burma, Copenhagen: NIAS Press (= NIAS Studies in Asian Topics Series, 39) ..."...In his introduction, the editor sets the stage with a general discussion of the politics of ethnic identification, which, as he makes convincingly clear, entails basically finding and asserting a meaningful and satisfying position for the ?we? group vis-?-vis significant and often dominating ?others?. He concludes these considerations by formulating two interrelated questions that could have served as thematic guidelines for the following chapters: ?Why did ethnicity acquire such an important role in Burma and Burmese post-colonial politics? And why has violence encompassed ethnic identification in such persistent and intransigent ways?? (p. 8). While these ambitious questions are hardly (and probably could not be) answered in most of the subsequent chapters, another goal postulated by Gravers for the research  Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 4/2009 139  presented here seems more realistic: to facilitate the critical reassessment of their own agenda on the part of ?ethnic? elites in Burma through ?thorough research of ethnic diversity, its history and ethnography? (p. 28). Of course, this would require that the results and arguments presented in the present volume find their way into political discourse in Burma. In view of the fact that the reception of earlier Western publications on Burma, however biased, has time and again played a considerable role in the construction of ?ethnic? positions by local elites, such an expectation is perhaps not altogether idle. Besides such programmatic issues, the bulk of the introductory chapter consists of an eminently readable historical overview that contrasts the meaning of ethnic identification in pre-colonial times with the functions of ethnic labels imposed during the days of British colonial administration – a legacy that is still recognizable in present-day political processes.... ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print)....ISBN [book] 9788791114960, 283 pages