“Horse-Headed” Staffs and the Cult of the Horse Head in Northwestern Asia in the 2nd Millennium Bc

This article analyzes the semantics of staffs with the sculptural representations of horse heads. Such staffs were discovered in the steppe and forest-steppe Ob-Irtysh region; they date back to the beginning or the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Stylistically early and later objects are identified. The study provides some parallels with Siberian ethnographic data and the mythology of the Indo-European peoples. The Indo-Aryan semantic content of the Vedic mythological tradition is used for interpreting the meaning of the staffs. The article suggests that the semantic range of the “horse-headed” stone staffs and the Seima-Turbino pommel belongs to the worldview of the carriers of the Indo- Aryan dialects.     

Foraging–Farming Transitions in Island Southeast Asia

The origins of agriculture have been debated by archaeologists for most of the discipline’s history, no more so than in Island Southeast Asia. The orthodox view is that Neolithic farmers spread south by sea from mainland China to Taiwan and thence to Island Southeast Asia, taking with them a new material culture and domestic rice and pigs and speaking the precursor of the Austronesian languages that are spoken in the region today. Opponents of this ‘farming/language dispersal’ theory have proposed models of acculturation, in which foragers acquired new material culture and food resources by trading with farmers. However, new work in archaeology, palaeoecology, palynology and anthropology, especially in Borneo, and in genetics and linguistics for the region as a whole, is suggesting that foraging/farming transitions in Southeast Asia were far more complex than either of these opposing ‘grand narratives’ of discontinuity (population colonisation) or continuity (acculturation) allows. Through the course of the Early/Mid-Holocene new material culture, technologies and foods were variously taken up, promoted or resisted in order to provision changes in the social and ideological constitution of societies. Whilst new readings of the data for foraging–farming transitions in the region vary, a consensus is emerging that it is more useful to focus on how materials and modes of life were used to underwrite changes in social networks than to seek to explain the archaeological record in terms of migrating farmers or acculturating foragers.     

A Path to “Emergent Peace” in Northeast Asia: The Shadow of the Past Matters

This article explores the possibility of institutional multilateralism in Northeast Asia from the perspective of “emergent peace”. The main argument of the article is that a self-organising peace process arising from institutional multilateralism is constrained and enabled by the existing “morphogenetic fields”, the formative social spheres of collective action. Similar ideas or initiatives that are pursued by an agent/agents may result in different consequences depending on the characteristics of the morphogenetic fields. This argument is examined through two case studies. The first is Jean Monnet in Europe, who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and the other is Ahn Jung-geun in Northeast Asia, who proposed the detailed ideas of pan-Asianism akin to Monnet but failed to play a role as an agent. The case studies demonstrate that the feature of the morphogenetic fields is determined by the characteristics of embedded agency at a critical juncture, while the agency is bounded by the particular spatial and temporal conditions of the morphogenetic fields. In search of an emergent peace process in Northeast Asia, this article particularly highlights the Six-Party Talks, arguing that they are a by-product of, and an alternative to, the San Francisco System.     

Studying Isma‘ili Texts in Eleventh-Century Shiraz: al-Mu'ayyad and the “Conversion” of the Buyid Amir Abu Kalijar

As a key primary source for the history of the eleventh-century Isma‘ili majlis, the Fatimid chief missionary al-Mu'ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi's autobiographical Sira offers a prime opportunity to consider the application of centralizing features of the Fatimid state in eleventh-century Buyid Shiraz. Previous studies on the Fatimid majlis have raised questions about an Isma‘ili core curriculum as well as the intended audience/s of Fatimid da‘wa teachings. This article situates al-Mu'ayyad's memoir in the broader context of the Persian and Arabic historiographical traditions in order to provide new insights into the transmission of Isma‘ili doctrines in different social settings outside of Fatimid Cairo. It concludes that Abu Kalijar's study sessions with al-Mu'ayyad suggest that Qadi al-Nu‘man's Kitab Da‘a'im al-Islam was used as a core text for introducing some of the main principles of Fatimid religio-political rule in addition to Isma‘ili doctrines to non-Isma‘ili audiences.     

Is price most important? Healthcare tourism in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Healthcare tourism is a general term for traveling to another country to seek healthcare services. It spread from Western countries to emerging Southeast Asian nations in the past decade because of a series of factors. Price is likely considered as one of the important factors among most healthcare tourism providers and politicians. However, healthcare tourists tend to consider more before making a decision. According to some early studies, healthcare quality, package, convenience, country, price, emotional value, and social value were frequently considered factors. To examine the role of these factors, this study proposes a structural model to investigate the relationship of the perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of three Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. A sample of size 724 is collected at the Departure Hall of the Singapore Changi International Airport within a two-month period, using a systematic random sampling method, in which every third tourist who pass the surveyor is asked to fill in the questionnaire. All of the questionnaires handed out on a given day referred to the same country, and the three different countries are rotated on different days. All factors are significant and it is found that the two most important factors are functional value of healthcare quality and emotional value. Price is a significant but the least important factor. This indicates that cheaper price may be just a promotional gimmick or an obvious incentive, but it is not the main driving force for healthcare tourists to make their decisions. The results also provide empirical support that emphasis on perceived value of healthcare tourism may also translate into trust in the staff and other positive feelings. It is further found that the impact of perceived value on behavioral intentions is mediated by satisfaction for all three countries.     

Rare Earths: Future Elements of Conflict in Asia?

Abstract

China’s sudden suspension of rare earth exports to Japan in September 2010 represented the opening of a new front in the international competition for natural resources. As the demands of the global economy change, the international demand for rare earths, which are used in a diverse range of high-tech industries, has also increased. As China is currently the largest rare earths exporter, its actions in regulating rare earths exports will directly affect the interests of other states in the supply chain. This paper therefore examines how China assumed this dominant position in the supply chain. It also looks at how major rare earths consumers such as Japan and South Korea are reducing their reliance on and vulnerability to Chinese rare earths supplies through means such as seabed exploration in disputed territories, which might contribute to geopolitical tensions and instability in the East Asian region.