ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some possible historical bases for the Thirty-Seven nats in connection with a general discussion of the historical context of Burmese supernaturalism. It discusses their relationship to the Burmese social structure and, more especially, to the different structural "levels" of traditional Burmese society. Although centered in his fief —what I am here calling a "region", which corresponds to a large administrative unit in the traditional Burmese kingdom —his dominion is not restricted to it; rather, it extends to any region to which his subjects may choose to migrate. The isomorphism between the structural level of nats and that of political officials extends as well to their respective habitations. The punitive consequences of political rebellion are emphasized not only in nat myths and in their odes, but also in their commemorative rituals. If the nats honored at the festival symbolize an opposition to Buddhist values, so much of the behavior of their devotees at the festival is similarly anti-Buddhist.
