Kinship and Life Stages

Abstract

Like every other settlement in the Hill Tracts, each Mru settlement has its karbari, its “manager.” This post, as mentioned, goes back to the organization set up by the colonial administration, although the word karbari itself comes from the Bangla language. Some karbari still use the title of ruatsa, a Burmese word literally meaning “village-eater;” ruatsa originally referred to a man to whom the king gave the right to live off the earnings of the village. Both terms then imply a dependency upon a higher power. Before the time of the British, the ruatsa may have functioned somewhat like the later headmen; in such a case, they may have “eaten” more than one settlement. This era, however, lies more than a hundred years in the past; and it is questionable whether all Mru villages were already at that time subordinated to a ruatsa — and whether the ruatsa themselves were in fact dependent upon a Marma ruler or whether they simply adopted the title. It is quite possible that the individual settlements had no leader. Even today all concerns are discussed communally, and the karbari has no more say in a matter than any other household head.