Palaung - Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Little information is available on social organization among the Palaung. Status differentiation according to wealth is reported for the central tea-growing area. Those who are well off may have Palaung servants whose status is regarded as inferior. Witches are reported, whose power is believed to be hereditary and who live apart and marry among themselves.

Political Organization. The Palaungs of Taungpeng have a state system with a prince ( saohpa ) and a petty court patterned after that of the Shans. Most other Palaungs live in traditional Shan chieftaincy domains. In both cases, at least in the early part of this century, the village community appears to have been the primary unit of political organization. In Taungpeng local administration was carried out by village officials who functioned somewhat independently of the capital at Namhsan. In the state of Möngmit, the clans had chiefs who were chosen by the elders, but who were usually the oldest surviving male relatives. The choice had to be reported to the saohpa of Möngmit. Chiefs were in charge of heads of village groups, who were in turn responsible for the village headmen in their respective areas. Except where personal influence had made them hereditary, other positions were filled by men chosen by villagers and confirmed by the clan chief.

Social Control. In more recent times, judicial cases were tried by headmen of villages or, if serious, by the chief and the elders. Traditionally, however, the guilt or innocence of a person was determined by a variety of trials by ordeal. The strongest forces for social control are the requirements of proper behavior to gain Buddhist merit or to avoid reprisals by spirits.

Conflict. Nondivisiveness is taught as a moral precept. There are reports of in-fighting over succession to the office of clan chief. Otherwise, being under pressure from the more dominant Shans and Kachins, the Palaungs are described as a peaceful, timid people.