Abstract

Since the pioneering work by Ann L. Stoler revealed that “matters of intimacy” were “matters of state,” there has been increased scholarly attention to colonial families, domesticities and sexualities. Yet this flourishing area of inquiry remains limited by its preoccupation with relations between European men and “Native” women and inattention to unions between locals and “Oriental” or “Asiatic” foreigners whose mass migration was encouraged throughout the various European empires. This paper examines comparatively these prevalent intimate encounters in British Burma and shows important commonalities in the way that affective ties, family affairs and anxieties about intermarriage were managed and confronted.

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