Negara Ubud: The Theatre‐state in Twenty‐first‐century Bali

In his book Negara: The Theatre‐state in Nineteenth‐century Bali (1980), Clifford Geertz argued that ceremonial display, rather than material power, was the real basis and indeed the purpose of pre‐colonial states in Bali, and by extension South East Asia. This article argues, on the basis of historical and ethnographic evidence from one of these kingdoms, that he was largely wrong about pre‐colonial Bali, but that, ironically and presciently, his model makes increasing sense in early twenty‐first century Bali. The article also discusses the reasons for this and finally suggests a more dynamic model based on Bourdieu’s metaphor of material and symbolic capital, which seeks to bring Geertz’s essentially static model to historical life.     

Seeking the State: Appropriating Bureaucratic Symbolism and Wealth in the Margins of Southeast Asia

Anthropological research on Southeast Asian states has contributed to understanding how local communities engage with states in their everyday lives. Two approaches drawing out the complexities of state‐society entanglement stand out. First is Foucault's idea that states possess the art‐of‐government. Through techniques such as mapping, census data, biometrics and so on, states are believed to achieve new levels of control over people, who are thus rendered as individual citizens. Second is Scott's idea that societies possess the art‐of‐not‐being‐governed. People, particularly in peripheral areas, seek to escape state control, for instance by sheltering in the hills and forests of Asia. In this article, we seek to identify and expand upon a literature which we see as emerging from the space opened between Foucault and Scott's work, to demonstrate the many creative and diverse ways that peripheral societies seek out states. In doing this we present a synthesis of diverse forms of entanglement to provide new insights into understanding relations between societies and states.     

Geographies of state failure and sophistication in maritime piracy hijackings

Many analysts are concerned about territories subject to state failure becoming safe havens for terrorists. In this article, I apply this logic to maritime piracy syndicates and their ship hijacking operations, and argue that a focus on the geographies of state failure can help us explain why pirates' behavior varies between failed and weak states. Analysis of a dataset of hijacking incidents suggests that state failure is associated with less sophisticated attacks, while state weakness encourages more sophisticated attacks. Through case studies of the process by which pirates carry out their attacks in East Africa and Southeast Asia, I argue that it is the differences in political and economic landscapes that influence how pirates embed their operations across territory, and thus how they carry out their operations. Notably, because they do not have to worry about enforcement, pirates in failed states can engage in time-intensive kidnappings for ransom, while only weak states provide the markets and transportation infrastructure necessary for operations where ships and cargo are seized and sold for profit. These findings suggest that weak states might actually be more problematic for international security in some respects than failed states.     

Geographies at the margins: borders in South Asia–an introduction

This introduction to a special section exploring \"Geographies at the Margins\" of South Asia offers a discussion that links the literature on borders and margins to the regional complexities and geographies of South Asia. Specifically, we argue for linking of these literatures to develop an optic for thinking about external and internal borders that is at once relational and comparative. South Asia, as has often been observed, is a region marked with multiple borders and margins. It is also a space where the articulation between such spaces is at once suggestive and crucial for understanding the political geography of South Asia and the ways that borders and margins are similarly implicated in working out the postcolonial politics of nation, state, and space.     

The cultivation of perennial rice,an early phase in Southeast Asian agriculture?

Domesticated rice, Oryza sativa L., though a perennial, is nowadays usually cultivated as an annual. This has led a number of commentators to misinterpret the historical record. The older view that rice was domesticated around the Bay of Bengal and in parts of mainland Southeast Asia has been replaced by competing views of earliest domestication in that region and in the Yangzi valley. Botanical considerations point clearly to the retention of perennial characteristics while archaeological and historical evidences point to cultivation with more than a single harvest from an initial planting – the practice of ratooning. Evidence is reviewed briefly for China and more extensively for Southeast Asia. Modern field evidence is used to support the notion that ratooning was probably more widespread in the past and that this practice may represent an early phase in the history of rice agriculture in Southeast Asia as it does in China.     

东南亚宗教的特点及其在中国对外交流中的作用——兼谈东南亚华人宗教的特点

论文介绍了东南亚国家宗教的基本情况和特点,阐述了东南亚区域发展中宗教在整合意识形态、维护地区国家主权、促进地区经济合作与交流等方面的积极作用,进而对宗教在促进中国与东南亚国家交流中的积极作用提出了具体建议。认为儒教、道教、佛教作为维系华人社会的重要纽带,促进着华人社会的稳定和发展,对儒教、道教、佛教的宗教感情实际上寄托了华人的民族感情。东南亚华人宗教与中国传统宗教血脉相连,要在平衡发挥五大宗教作用的基础上,注重发挥东南亚国家华人宗教在与中国交流中的独特作用。     

中国俄国史研究百年检视与思考

中俄交往始于蒙古西征和金帐汗国时代(1238-1480年),中国学人撰写俄国史自1878年刊印的鹭江奇迹人的《俄国志略》,到今天已经有整整140年的历史。中国的俄国史学科伴随民族命运、国家危机以及世界形势的变化而生,自诞生之日起即负有学人情怀、民族重任和学术职责三重使命。因此,俄国史学科在中国一直发挥着“知夷”和“盗火”的两大作用。中华人民共和国成立后,俄国史(包括苏联时期和俄罗斯联邦时期)研究获得了70年的巨大发展,主要成就有:1985年中国苏联东欧史研究会成立(1992年英文更名为中国俄罗斯东欧中亚史研究会),高等院校、社会科学院、党校、国家有关部委及党政机构纷纷设立俄国史或俄罗斯问题研究机构,建立了从历史学学士、俄国史硕士到俄国史博士的三级专业人才培养体系,俄国史和俄罗斯问题研究的专业期刊创立并连续出版,大量的俄国通史、中俄(中苏)关系史、专题著作、各类教科书、翻译著作(来自俄文、英法、法文、德文、波兰文等)出版,中国俄国史学者积极参与国际学术会议和国际合作研究,具有中国特色的中国“俄罗斯学”新学科正在建立过程中。     

东南亚地区农业起源研究综论

自20世纪50年代始,东南亚地区的农业起源探索历程至今已半个多世纪。大量考古发现表明,东南亚早期农业的性质是依赖于根系作物的驯化和块茎作物的栽培,该地区早期农业的特点与树木栽培的实践紧密相连,但农业起源的时间尺度仍未很好地建立。基于东南亚地区植物遗存和农业性质的特殊性,多种研究方法得以运用,也相继提出了许多不同的理念。东南亚地区农业起源的研究对中国华南地区早期农业的探索具有很好的启示作用。     

Sewn Boats of Southeast Asia: the stitched‐plank and lashed‐lug tradition

This article updates research into the sewn‐boat traditions of Southeast Asia with recent finds that provide evidence of the transition from stitched planks with lashed‐lug frames to planks fastened with dowels and locked dowels alongside lashed‐lug frames. The differences between Southeast Asian, East Asian, and Indo‐Arabic boatbuilding are discussed and the meaning of anomalies, such as the Maldivian dhonis, examined. Considering the known history of trade and exchange throughout the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, the lack of hybridization between boatbuilding traditions is noted.     

Economic crises in the ASEAN area: types and responses

Southeast Asia, the world region covering the countries of ASEAN, lies at the crossroads between China and India. Since early times it has been part of the global economy, going through cycles of boom and bust at least from the nineteenth century onwards. This essay compares three successive economic crises during the 1880s, 1930s and late 1990s. It shows how different types of crisis reflected as well as produced changes in the connectivity between production factors and institutional arrangements. Whereas the crisis of the 1880s was ‘local’, that of the 1930s was both ‘national’ and ‘delegated global’ and that of the 1990s ‘regional’ in nature. The types of crisis and the ways in which they were handled reflected structural changes in the institutional architecture of the global economy.     

中亚的地缘政治--历史和现实

一个多世纪以来 ,中亚的地缘政治格局和作用不断发生变化 ,并在不同时期以不同的方式影响着中国。“9·11”事件之后 ,中亚的地缘政治形势变得更加复杂 ,大国的、区域的、国际的利益交织在一起 ,成为全球关注的热点。阿富汗反恐战争的结束为中亚国家提供了国际合作的新通道 ,尽管中亚在国际地缘政治格局中的作用将越来越重要 ,但它不会成为新的地缘政治“核心地区”。     

The ethics, politics, and realities of maritime archaeology in Southeast Asia

There is a constant battle between maritime archaeologists and commercial salvors throughout the world. In many developed countries, the arguments of archaeologists are valid, and their actions fully justify their stance. This is not so in Southeast Asia. In this region, archaeological information is being lost on a massive scale. Co-operation between the two groups, and with regional governments, is essential to prevent more irreparable damage.     

郑和下西洋与东南亚华侨华人

根据笔者实地考察,东南亚至少有15个郑和寺庙和近30个有关郑和的传说。它们反映了早期南洋中国移民的生活状况、他们与当地妇女的通婚、华侨宗教信仰的特点以及华侨华人在中外文化交流中所发挥的重要的桥梁作用。东南亚华人纪念郑和活动的特点是“四个结合”,即将纪念郑和与继承中华传统文化、吸收定居国文化相结合,与宣扬祖籍国和定居国的友好关系相结合,与发扬华人创业精神相结合以及与争取华族正当权益、促进族群和睦、繁荣当地经济相结合。虽然郑和在东南亚影响很大,但海外对郑和的了解仍十分有限,因此,在海外全面、深入地介绍郑和任重而道远。     

试论20世纪初东南亚日人对当地华侨民族主义的影响

20世纪初 ,日人依靠其政府扶持迅速崛起于东南亚地区 ,这一切对当地华侨民族主义产生了重要的影响。首先 ,日人在当地待遇的改善更加凸显出华侨地位的不平等 ,刺激着华侨不断抗争 ,向日人看齐成为华侨民族主义发展的原动力和奋斗目标之一。其次 ,日人的崛起历程犹如一个参照系 ,使华侨切实体验到一国的强大对其侨民在海外发展的积极意义 ,推动着他们为中国的强大而奋斗。最后 ,一战期间 ,日人在当地的经济扩张威胁到华侨在当地的生存发展 ,为此 ,广大华侨高举民族主义旗帜 ,开展抵制日货运动 ,与日人展开斗争     

东南亚的非传统安全问题

后冷战时期,东南亚地区面临着非常严峻的恐怖主义、海盗、毒品生产与贩运等非传统安全问题的困扰。尽管表现形式各异,但是东南亚地区各类非传统安全问题的形成与贫困都有着密不可分的关系。各类非传统安全问题无论对东南亚各国的经济发展和社会稳定,还是对东南亚国家之间的关系以及东南亚国家与区域外部大国的关系都产生了重大影响。为了有效应对非传统安全问题的挑战,东南亚国家在调整自己的安全观念的同时,还从不同层面出发采取了很多切实有效的举措．