The Archaeology of South Asian Cities

Urbanism in the Indian subcontinent occurred in three distinct time periods in which cultural cohesion over large regions is archaeologically demonstrated through the architecture and artifacts of social, ritual, and economic activity. In the Indus (2500–1900 B.C.) and Early Historic (3rd century B.C. to 4th century A.D.) periods, cities were not necessarily tied to political territories or guided by strong political leaders, but by the Medieval period (after the 9th century A.D.), urban zones were the base for political growth, warfare, and aggrandizement. The comparison of these three eras is undertaken within a framework for defining cities that balances quantitative criteria such as population size and areal extent with two types of qualitative criteria: internal specialization on the basis of materials found within archaeological sites, and external specialization on the basis of data recovered through regional analysis. Cities from the three eras also are evaluated from the perspective of the ordinary inhabitant through the examination of the social, religious, and economic factors that prompted and rewarded urban residence. While the Indus and Early Historic cities were attractive because of the networks of opportunity found there, Medieval cities additionally benefitted from a “push” factor as ordinary inhabitants allied themselves to urban areas in times of political stress and uncertainty.

A critical assessment of South Asian highland ethnography

Christoph von Fürer Haimendorf (ed). Asian Highland Societies in Anthropological Perspective. Sterling Publishers, New Delhi; Distributed in USA by Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. 1981. 265 pages. $30.00.     

Striking similarities: representing South Asian women's industrial action in Britain

The focus of this article is two significant episodes in British labour politics. The first is the Grunwick strike between 1976 and 1978; the second a dispute at Gate Gourmet that began in 2005. In both disputes, women of South Asian origin were the key actors and their legacy has been constructed through striking imagery as one in which against the odds exotic or passive Others became unexpected heroines of industrial struggle. These representations retained their power, despite significant social, economic and political changes in ‘post-Fordist’ Britain, including in the political rights of strikers, and in the participation and position of both women and minority workers in the labour force. Drawing on interviews with South Asian women involved in each dispute, this article challenges these representations and their significance in accounts of the action, documenting the complex, multiple motives of South Asian women involved in labour politics in the UK.     

Asian Transnational Enterprises and Technology Transfer in Thailand

Like many of its neighbours, Thailand is increasingly interested in upgrading the technological capability of its indigenous firms through the inward investment (foreign direct investment, FDI) of transnational enterprises (TNEs). Its science and technology policies, however, remain fragmented, and they compete with regional distribution priorities. This paper examines the nature of technology transfer between Asian TNEs (Japan and the newly industrializing economies (NIEs), that is, the NIEs of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) and Thai firms based on the responses of some 145 firms from a 2005 survey. It finds only modest levels of technological transfer in production and process technologies. Asian TNEs evaluate factor cost advantages and government incentives favourably. Logistic regressions, however, indicate that government incentives are negatively related to technology process modification between NIE subsidiaries and Thai customers. But, the technical training of Thai workers significantly increases the likelihood of Asian subsidiaries undertaking process technology transfers. Among NIE firms, the ability to import foreign skilled labour further increases the likelihood of such technological activities. Finally, forward linkages among the NIEs are positively associated with firm location in the urban agglomerations of Bangkok and Chon Buri, and, among smaller firms. Our study suggests that prevailing FDI policies have little influence on technology transfer, while technology policies that favour large TNEs work against smaller NIEs that are engaged in modest technology transfer.     

The Politics of Provisioning: Feeding South Asian Prisoners During the First World War

During the First World War, the German and British Governments supplied culturally appropriate rations and secured special facilities for food preparation and consumption for South Asian prisoners of war whose loyalty both governments sought. The food provided in POW camps to South Asians serves as an index of the political status of colonial subjects at a moment when the future of European empires was far from certain. The British Government’s approach to feeding its South Asian servicemen held by the enemy thus reveals this population’s place within Britain’s wartime national and imperial imaginary and in its post-war planning.     

Situating middle class identities: American college women of South Asian descent

This article explores the ways in which American college women of South Asian descent discuss their positioning as middle class. The article analyses participants' talk around class as evidence of embeddedness in American class discourses and a complex and contradictory scheme of identification that implicates other identities like gender, race and culture. Respondents often articulated class using the American Dream, where the social capital their parents immigrated with is left unexamined in favour of a narrative of ‘rags to riches’. Young women also used other constructs like ‘stability’, ‘race’ and ‘resources’ to make reference to class, but also to participate in an American discursive silence around it. Finally, the notion of a drive towards professionalism as an immigrant goal is examined, and it is suggested that this serves to further deflect discussions of class. This article synthesises theories of diaspora, ‘translocational positioning’ and habitus, and examines the production of American class discourse as a performance of an American middle class habitus.     

Mobile Modernities: A South Asian family negotiates immigration,gender and class in Canada

For the modern Indian immigrant family ‘modernity’ is not necessarily found in the west. Using qualitative data drawn from in-depth interviews with one immigrant Sikh family, conducted in both Vancouver and the Punjab, we draw attention to the mobile and contradictory modernities family members have faced in their migration, settlement and subsequent transnational activities. We explore how class, gender and sexuality have framed the experiences of the members of this family in differential, partial and sometimes ironic ways. In so doing we construct a theoretical argument about the nature and geography of modernity, and how it relates to immigrant settlement in Canada.     

Communal Discourses,Marriage, and the Politics of Gendered Social Boundaries among South Asian Immigrants in Tanzania

Focusing on communal discourses among South Asian groups in Tanzania, the author highlights the manner in which discourses around religion, caste and race shape gendered patterns of migration and marriage and the everyday politics of social boundaries in an immigrant community. The article demonstrates how discursive processes operating at the community level mediate between the household and the broader political economic processes. It also illustrates that although discourses, boundaries and social relations are easily modified in response to changing circumstances, new narratives and ideologies frequently emerge to ensure that the predominant balance of power in a community is not disturbed significantly.     

Motifs,Metaphors and Mythomoteurs: Some Reflections on Medieval South Asian Ethnicity

Abstract. This article takes account of medieval literary sources in Sinhala Sri Lanka and Tamil South India to describe the existence of notions of ethnic loyalty and ethnic categorisation in premodern societies. Literary tropes such as metaphors and motifs in the two cultural areas are discussed in detail and placed in the context of sociological concepts such as lateral and vertical ethnie. In doing so the argument is made that there have been forms of politicised ethnic solidarity in the past, and that these forms are parallel to modem nationalism.     

日本及其东亚邻邦制陶技术的起源

简介 本文旨在回顾与比较东亚地区尤其是有关日本和俄罗斯远东地区从旧石器时代向新石器时代过渡阶段考古记录的情况.制陶技术的出现标志着旧石器时代的结束和新石器时代的开始(参见:Chard 1974;Barnes 1999).东亚地区新石器时代最早阶段的最完整的记录当属日本的考古序列,因为如下一系列的因素使得这里的信息数据比东亚其他发现早期陶器的地区都更为详尽:(1)拥有众多的考古学家和其他方面的专家;(2)大批建设项目需要发掘;(3)有相对充足的资金保证.