State policies, ethnic identity, and forests in China and Thailand

State-building processes in many parts of the world include policies for the integration of remote, forested areas on the borders of the state, and for the forest-dependent communities who dwell in them. These peoples are often ethnically different from the dominant population, and since many practice shifting cultivation, they have come into conflict with the growing state over territory, resources, and land use practices. The author's research looks at the Akha, a hill ethnic group originating in China and now found across mountainous mainland Southeast Asia. The study compares Akha in China and Thailand to discover how Akha access to resources and land management have changed and persisted since the 1930s under these vastly different political economies and state structures. In China the Akha are subsumed under the larger grouping of Hani, one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. The Hani in Xishuangbanna call themselves Akha, the same name used in Thailand; Akha here refers to both groups.