Southeast Asia

Sport, development and globalization: Perspectives from south-east Asia, in D.M. Nault (ed.), Developing Asia. Boca Raton: Brown Walker Press, 195-214.

by John Nauright

Published  in D.M. Nault (ed.), Developing Asia. Boca Raton: Brown Walker Press, 2009, pp. 195-214.

Co-authoed with Charles Little.

Managing Living Heritage Sites in Mainland Southeast Asia (Ph.D. Thesis)

by Patcharawee Tunprawat

The Southeast Asian Lead-Isotope Project: Investigating metallurgical proxies for late prehistoric regional and inter-regional social interactions

by Oliver Pryce

A Flux That Binds: The Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project

by Oliver Pryce

The continued lack of a widely agreed upon Southeast Asian prehistoric ceramic sequence means that archaeologists... more The continued lack of a widely agreed upon Southeast Asian prehistoric ceramic sequence means that archaeologists working in the region sometimes struggle to reliably identify and interpret medium- to long-range social interactions, including neighboring populations in East and South Asia. The Southeast Asian Lead Isotope Project (SEALIP) has been designed to contribute to our comprehension of regional connectedness for the late prehistoric Metal Age using copper-base and lead metal exchange networks as a social interaction proxy—a proxy that will of course omit social groups that did not for whatever reason develop or adopt metallurgical production or consumption behaviors. This paper outlines why archaeometallurgy is more than just the “history of metallurgy” and how such lead isotope research has the potential to furnish critical data for all scholars of Southeast Asian late prehistory. The current SEALIP database permits the two long-known prehistoric copper production centers, the Khao Wong Prachan valley in central Thailand and Phu Lon in northeast Thailand, to be reliably distinguished isotopically, fulfilling the Provenance Hypothesis and justifying the ongoing regional metal exchange program. The data also indicate that these two major copper producers were simultaneously importing copper-base metal, supporting previous suggestions that early Southeast Asian metal exchange was motivated more by gifting than commerce.

Smelting Iron from Laterite: Technical Possibility or Ethnographic Aberration?

by Oliver Pryce

Pryce, T O & Natapintu, S (2009) Smelting Iron from Laterite: Technical Possibility or Ethnographic Aberration? Asian Perspectives 48, 249-264.

Direct Detection of Southeast Asian Smelting Sites by Aster Remote Sensing Imagery: Technical Issues and Future Perspectives

by Oliver Pryce

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WH8-50JHC1N-1&_user=126524&_coverDate=07/17/2010&_rdoc=11&_fmt=high&_orig=browse&_srch=doc-info(%23toc%236844%239999%23999999999%2399999%23FLA%23display%23Articles)&_cdi=6844&_sort=d&_docanchor=&_ct=55&_acct=C000010360&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=126524&md5=07117d440aa9e229441f9a755a6ef371

Satellite-based multi-spectral remote sensing data were used in an attempt to identify control signatures for known... more Satellite-based multi-spectral remote sensing data were used in an attempt to identify control signatures for known prehistoric copper smelting sites in Thailand. It had been hoped that these characteristic signals could then be used as a reference for the detection of unknown Southeast Asian metal production sites, with the overall intention of strengthening the evidence base for early technological interactions with China and India. Regrettably, control signatures were not identified from the ASTER data due to issues of scale, chemistry, and vegetation, but we are able to offer reasons for this setback that might lead other scholars to develop successful applications of this methodology in more amenable (non-tropical) environments. Combined with ground truthing, intensive survey, excavation, and the technological analysis of metallurgical assemblages, this potentially useful and cost effective approach could lead to improved data density for the metal technology transmission discussions currently spanning Eurasia.

Southeast Asia’s First Isotopically-Defined Prehistoric Copper Production System: When Did Extractive Metallurgy Begin in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of Central Thailand?

by Oliver Pryce

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123374218/PDFSTART

Southeast Asian metallurgical developments have been a focus of international academic interest since Solheim (1968)... more Southeast Asian metallurgical developments have been a focus of international academic interest since Solheim (1968) and Bayard (1972) first published bronze artefacts in claimed early/middle third millennium BCE contexts from northeastern Thailand, igniting a regional ‘origins’ of metallurgy debate that has smouldered for 40 years (e.g., White and Hamilton 2009, Higham in press). In this paper, we present the results of a lead isotope pilot study centred on the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand—currently Southeast Asia’s only documented prehistoric copper smelting locale. These preliminary data indicate that our ongoing regional metal exchange research programme may be able to elucidate interaction networks between copper-producing and -consuming societies within and beyond Southeast Asia from c. 2000 BCE to c. 500 CE. Furthermore, we are able to offer tentative evidence relevant to White and Hamilton’s (2009) ‘Rapid Eurasian Technological Expansion Model’ for the Sino-Siberian derivation of regional metal technologies around the turn of the third/second
millennium BCE.

Prehistoric Copper Production and Technological Reproduction in the Khao Wong Prachan Valley of Central Thailand

by Oliver Pryce

http://springerlink.com/content/hw37216j482j81h4/fulltext.pdf

This paper concerns the identification and explanation of change in prehistoric extractive metallurgical behaviour in... more This paper concerns the identification and explanation of change in prehistoric extractive metallurgical behaviour in the Iron Age Khao Wong Prachan Valley of central Thailand. This metallurgical complex is amongst the largest in Eurasia and constitutes Southeast Asia’s only documented pre-modern copper-smelting evidence. The two Iron Age smelting sites investigated, Non Pa Wai and Nil Kham Haeng, provide a sequence of metallurgical consumption and production evidence from c. 500 BCE to c. 500 CE. The enormous quantity of industrial waste at these sites suggests they were probably major copper supply nodes within ancient Southeast Asian metal exchange networks.

76 excavated samples of mineral, technical ceramic, and slag from Non Pa Wai and Nil Kham Haeng were analysed in hand specimen, microstructurally by reflected-light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and chemically by polarising energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometry ([P]ED-XRF) and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SEM-EDS). The analytical data were used to generate detailed technological reconstructions of copper smelting behaviour at the two sites, which were refined by a programme of field experimentation.

Results indicate a c. 1000 year trend of Valley copper smelters’ improving technical proficiency from what may be an experimental phase of production in the mid 1st millennium BCE. This amelioration in production was accompanied by a substantial increase in the human effort of copper extraction. This shift in local ‘metallurgical ethos’ is interpreted as a response to rising regional demand for copper in late prehistory.

Rights and Conflicts in the Management of Fisheries in the Lower Songkhram River Basin, Northeast Thailand

by Kenneth Ruddle

(2008) Environmental Management, 43:557-570 (M.Khumsri, K.Ruddle and G. P.Shivakoti).

Conclusion: Errors and Insights, In Managing Coastal and Inland Waters

by Kenneth Ruddle

(2010) Pre-existing Aquatic Management Systems in Southeast Asia. K. Ruddle and A.Satria (eds.) pp. 161-173. Dordrecht & Heidelberg. Springer Publishing Company. (K. Ruddle and A.Satria)

In addition to the erroneous assumption that tropical fisheries are
‘open access’ and not managed by... more In addition to the erroneous assumption that tropical fisheries are
‘open access’ and not managed by pre-existing systems, and therefore require externally imposed management systems to protect resources from collapse and lift fishing communities out of poverty, the Western approach to fisheries ‘development’ and management suffers from several other basic flaws. These are that (1) pre-existing systems are as much, if not more, concerned with the community of fishers and their families and not just fisheries, and their principal role is ensuring community harmony and continuity; (2) pre-existing systems can involve multiple and overlapping rights that are flexible and adapted to changing needs and circumstances; (3) fisheries are just one component of a community resource assemblage with fisheries managed in their ecological context of being dependent on the good management of linked upstream ecosystems, and on risk management and ensuring balanced nutritional resources of the community; and (4) pre-existing systems
are greatly affected by a constellation of interacting external pressures for change. If these cultural, ecological, economic, political and social context factors are not appreciated, any ‘imposed management system’ would likely fail from the outset to achieve its goals.

Social and Historical Aspects of the Assimilation of Christianity in Southeast Asia from 1500-1900 with Reference to Thailand and the Philippines

by Phra Nicholas Thanissaro

Journal of Asian Mission (2009), Vol.11, No.1-2, pp.31-55.

Though many have attempted to address the complexities of the encounter between Christianity and non-western... more Though many have attempted to address the complexities of the encounter between Christianity and non-western societies, the literature has not dealt much with Southeast Asia. This article attempts to help fill that gap by examining some of the factors affecting the assimilation of Christianity in Southeast Asia by looking at two countries in detail: Thailand and the Philippines. These two countries offer strikingly different assimilation results. Thailand was not colonized when Christianity was introduced while in the Philippines colonization and Christianity were intimately linked. As a result, both Thailand and the Philippines are a study in contrasts.

Publications of DAMIN Program

by Georges Depeyrot

www.anr-damin.net

Regional Organizations and International Politics: Japanese Influence over the Asian Development Bank and the UN Security Council

by Daniel Yew Mao Lim

Co-authored with James Raymond Vreeland, Forthcoming in World Politics, 2013, Vol 65 No. 1

Japan has consistently sought influence over the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a platform from which it... more Japan has consistently sought influence over the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), a platform from which it seeks to shape global affairs. As Japan has a privileged position in the governance of another international organization – the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – we investigate whether Japan leverages its power in this international financial institution to facilitate project loans for the elected members of the UNSC. Analyzing panel data of ADB loan disbursements to 24 developing member-countries from 1968 to 2009, we find evidence that temporary UNSC membership increases ADB loans particularly during the post-1985 period, when Japan asserted greater influence in multilateral organizations. We estimate an average increase of about 30 percent in ADB loans when countries serve on the UNSC. Because of Japan’s history of imperialism and the regional tensions generated by the powerful US-Japanese alliance, the ADB provides a convenient mechanism by which to obfuscate favors for politically important countries. The organization can be used as a “nonpolitical cloak” to “legitimize controversial policies, helping Japan to share the risks and the blame” (Yasutomo 1993a: 339).

Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia

by Simon Springer

Springer, S. Forthcoming. Illegal evictions? Overwriting possession and orality with law’s violence in Cambodia. Journal of Agrarian Change.

The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of... more The unfolding of a juridico-cadastral system in present-day Cambodia is at odds with local understandings of landholding, which are entrenched in notions of community consensus and existing occupation. The discrepancy between such orally recognized antecedents and the written word of law have been at the heart of the recent wave of dispossessions that have swept across the country. Contra the standard critique that corruption has set the tone, this paper argues that evictions in Cambodia are often literally underwritten by the articles of law. Whereas ‘possession’ is a well-understood and accepted concept in Cambodia, a cultural basis rooted in what James C. Scott refers to as ‘orality’, coupled with a long history of subsistence agriculture, semi-nomadic lifestyles, barter economies, and–until recently–widespread land availability have all ensured that notions of ‘property’ are vague among the country’s majority rural poor. In drawing a firm distinction between possessions and property, where the former is premised upon actual use and the latter is embedded in exploitation, this article examines how proprietorship is inextricably bound to the violence of law.

Carpenter and Nguyen (2003) Keys to the genera of social wasps of Southeast Asia (Hymenoptera Vespidae)

by Anthony Daglio

Sacrificio di bovini, rituale funerario e culto degli antenati nelle culture tribali dell'India e del sudest asiatico

by Francesco Brighenti

First published online on the www.svabhinava.org website in 2003.

Buffalo Sacrifice and Mortuary Ritual in Tribal Cultures of Monsoon Asia

by Francesco Brighenti

F. Brighenti, "Buffalo Sacrifice and Mortuary Ritual in Tribal Cultures of Monsoon Asia / Sacrificio del bufalo e rituale mortuario nelle culture tribali dell'Asia monsonica", Bubalus bubalis 11 (2005), pp. 7-13.

The water buffalo is one of the animals of greatest economic and religious value used as a sacrificial victim in the... more The water buffalo is one of the animals of greatest economic and religious value used as a sacrificial victim in the Indian subcontinent, southern China, and Southeast Asia. In these monsoon regions of Asia, the buffaloes are offered in sacrifice to divinities or divine spirits by populations adhering to Hinduism or Buddhism (the two great religions having originated in ancient India), and by tribal groups adhering to shamanic religions.

ESDP in Asia: The Aceh Monitoring Mission in Indonesia

by Felix Heiduk

Felix Heiduk: ESDP in Asia: The Aceh Monitoring Mission in Indonesia, in: Muriel Asseburg, Ronja Kempin (ed.): The EU as a Strategic Actor in the Realm of Security and Defence? A Systematic Assessment of ESDP Missions and Operations, SWP Research Paper, Berlin 2009, pp. 100-111

Emerging Third World multinationals: a case study of the foreign operations of Singapore firms

by Raj Aggarwal

Book review of Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia (2011)

by Ian Baird

Book reviewed by Ian G. Baird, Journal of Asian Studies 71(2): 581-583 (May 2012).