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[Nathaniel]

Originally Posted by aiontay

Nathaniel,

I've spent plenty of time with Kachin people in Thailand (the exile community in Chiang Mai) among the Kachins in the Northern Shan State, and the Kachin here in Oklahoma. Yeah, Oklahoma. There is a Kachin woman (Maru) from Kutkai whose aunt and uncle worked for me on a crop substitution project who now lives about 3 miles from my parents' house in Tulsa, OK. My thesis is on the Kachins. All this to say that Jinghpaw does not necessarily equal Kachin. In fact, the majority of the ten Kachin families in Tulsa are not Jinghpaw. Around Kutkai there were plenty of Maru, Lashi, and Atsi. And then there are those Lisu, who sometimes are and sometimes aren't Kachin.

Thanks Ainotay for the background. Still all confusing to me...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachin_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingpo_...Categorization
I read different books that mention the different classification systems and can't keep things straight. I think I need to make a flow chart so I can keep the different tribal groups straight and the different names for the same group...ie Thai name for a certain group and the Burmese name, Chinese, Lao, etc for the same group.