ABSTRACT
The Karen are an invention of the modern world, a product of Christian missionization, colonial and postcolonial ethnographic research, and policies regarding ethnic minorities adopted by the governments of independent Burma and Thailand. Beginning in the early nineteenth century the local worlds of Karennicspeaking peoples began to be penetrated in significant ways by new outside influences and such penetration intensified throughout the twentieth century. These exogenous influences have resulted in the transformation of many Karennic-speaking peoples first in Burma and then in Thailand into ethnic minorities under the rubric of ‘Karen’. Christianity can be said to have created ‘Karen’ identity in Burma. Together with producing a new Christian literature in Karen language, the missionaries also promoted education for Karen through the establishment of schools. These schools were the crucible for an emergent sense of Karen-ness that transcended local communities.
