Archaeology and Anthropology in Southeast Asia

1987 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-181
Author(s):  
Wilhelm G. Solheim

I agreed in the fall of 1979 to be the guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies on the state of the art of archaeology and anthropology in Southeast Asia. This special issue was to be published in March 1984 and I was to have the papers to the editor by the 15th of October 1983; plenty of time I thought. I first attempted to get two senior American anthropologists to be associate editors, one for Mainland Southeast Asia and one for Island Southeast Asia. This did not work out so in the fall of 1980 I started to organize authors for each country. By the summer of 1981 I had arranged authors for thirteen reports.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette J. CHUA ◽  
David M. ENGEL

AbstractThe diversity and pluralism of Southeast Asia make it an ideal subject for law and society researchers, but by and large they have not given the region the attention it deserves. In this article, we argue for a more intense and systematic linking of research about Southeast Asia and the field of law and society. We focus on the theme ofstate and personhoodto suggest how some of the central concerns of law and society may be relevant to Southeast Asian peoples and cultures. We illustrate our argument by selecting nine excellent articles by Southeast Asian scholars who do not currently identify their work with the law and society field, and we demonstrate that their research is rich with implications for the field. We welcome in particular the ways in which they have portrayed personhood as an ongoing construction and have highlighted its contingent relationship with the state. Building on these themes, we conclude the article with a plea for a more far-reaching engagement between Southeast Asian studies and law and society research.


1995 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Stanley J. O'Connor

Humane literacy? An essay on undergraduate education? Isn't it a solecism to broach such concerns in this special issue ofThe Journal of Southeast Asian Studieswhere contributors are invited to take stock of the current state of scholarship in various fields of study? My response is simply if not now, then when? I am writing from North America where Southeast Asian studies has gained only a precarious beach-head in the academy and nowhere is this more evident than in the very limited undergraduate investment in our field. Despite the fact that any expansion of academic appointments for specialists on the region will be spurred by evidence of general student interest, a concern with that issue, on our occasions of collective self scrutiny, has been subordinated to questions of research direction, funding strategies, and the prevailing degree of accord between the various disciplines and area studies. But, however ancillary the general education mission of the undergraduate college may seem to professional scholars eager to get on both with their research and the training of graduate students, it is nevertheless a principal responsibility of those deans who control academic appointments. We differ from our colleagues within Southeast Asia where an interest in the region can be either assumed, or expected eventually to develop. While American universities place globalization high on their agendas today, it is not at all evident that their students will wish to study about Southeast Asia rather than, say, Africa or Latin America. So we do need to focus on how we may demonstrate the centrality of what we do to the process of self-discovery and the integration of learning that is at the heart of general education.


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