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Despite the growth of interest in the history of anthropology as a over the last two decades, surprisingly little has been published in English on the development of anthropology in East and Southeast Asia and its relationship to the rest of the academic \"world-system.\" The anthropological experience in this region has been varied. Japanese anthropology developed early, and ranks second only to that of the United States in terms of size. Anthropology in China has finally recovered from the experience of invasion, war, and revolution, and now flourishes both on the mainland and in Taiwan. Scholars in Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines have also attempted to break with the legacy of colonialism and develop research relevant to their own national needs. This book includes accounts of these developments by some of the most distinguished scholars in the region. Also discussed are issues of language, authorship, and audience; and the effects these have on writing by anthropologists, whether \"native\" or \"foreign.\" The book will be invaluable to anyone with an interest in the anthropology of East and Southeast Asia or the development of anthropology as a global discipline.

This impressive array of essays considers the contingent and shifting meanings of gender and the body in contemporary Southeast Asia. By analyzing femininity and masculinity as fluid processes rather than social or biological givens, the authors provide new ways of understanding how gender intersects with local, national, and transnational forms of knowledge and power. Contributors cut across disciplinary boundaries and draw on fresh fieldwork and textual analysis, including newspaper accounts, radio reports, and feminist writing. Their subjects range widely: the writings of feminist Filipinas; Thai stories of widow ghosts; eye-witness accounts of a beheading; narratives of bewitching genitals, recalcitrant husbands, and market women as femmes fatales. Geographically, the essays cover Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The essays bring to this region the theoretical insights of gender theory, political economy, and cultural studies. Gender and other forms of inequality and difference emerge as changing systems of symbols and meanings. Bodies are explored as sites of political, economic, and cultural transformation. The issues raised in these pages make important connections between behavior, bodies, domination, and resistance in this dynamic and vibrant region.

How can we define Southeast Asia - a region that has a plethora of diverse (and seemingly irreconcilable) faiths and cultures?. Karim Raslan, one of Asia's leading commentators and the author of Ceritalah: Malaysia in Transition, addresses this puzzle as he trudges through the vast landscapes of the region. From Mahathir to Michelle Yeoh, from Islam to Indonesian rap music, Journeys Through Southeast Asia: Ceritalah 2 puts together the pieces of a massive puzzle that is Southeast Asia. By revealing facets of the region that have escaped our detection, Karim sweeps us from our familiar environs and brings us to the neglected Muslim enclaves in Buddhist Thailand - the bustling Rangoon of the 1930s; and the debilitated kratons in Solo. Tracing the steps of painters and poets, politicians and clerics, our guide wanders through overlooked communities, high-level conferences and elegant art galleries. With his usual wit and insight, Karim brings us closer to the vortex of Southeast Asia by painting an image that is both familiar and excitingly remote.

Since the Islamic resurgence hit Southeast Asia in the 1980s, Muslim societies now have greater aspirations for adhering to the Shariah, the body of laws meant to govern Muslims' day-to-day lives. At the institutional level, the desire for this compliance manifested in the establishment of various institutions such as Islamic banking and financial programmes. At the personal and societal levels, there are increasing demands for the provision of halal-certified goods and services, most commonly in the food and beverage industry. However, increasingly, compliance to the Shariah is no longer limited to laws or ensuring that food and beverages are halal, but has become an entire lifestyle. The rise of the Muslim middle class in Southeast Asia has catalysed this preference.

This lively survey of the peoples, cultures, and societies of Southeast Asia introduces a region of tremendous geographic, linguistic, historical, and religious diversity. Encompassing both mainland and island countries, these engaging essays describe personhood and identity, family and household organization, nation-states, religion, popular culture and the arts, the legacies of war and recovery, globalization, and the environment. Throughout, the focus is on the daily lives and experiences of ordinary people. Most of the essays are original to this volume, while a few are widely taught classics. All were chosen for their timeliness and interest, and are ideally suited for the classroom.

First Published in 2002.Foodways can reveal the strongest and deepest traces of human history and culture, and this pioneering volume is a detailed study of the development of the traditional dietary culture of Southeast Asia from Laos and Vietnam to the Philippines and New Guinea from earliest times to the present.

No detailed description available for \"Changing Identities in Modern Southeast Asia\".

Southeast Asia has undergone innumerable far-reaching changes and dramatic transformations over the last half-century. This book explores the concept of power in relation to these transformations, and examines its various social, cultural, religious, economic and political forms. The book works from the ground up, portraying Southeast Asians\\u2019 own perspectives, conceptualizations and experiences of power through empirically rich case studies. Exploring concepts of power in diverse settings, from the stratagems of Indonesian politicians and the aspirations of marginal Lao bureaucrats, to mass \\u2018Prayer Power\\u2019 rallies in the Philippines, self-cultivation practices of Thai Buddhists and relations with the dead in Singapore, the book lays out a new framework for the analysis of power in Southeast Asia in which orientations towards or away from certain models, practices and configurations of power take centre stage in analysis. In doing so the book demonstrates how power cannot be pinned down to a single definition, but is woven into Southeast Asian lives in complex, subtle, and often surprising ways. Integrating theoretical debates with empirical evidence drawn from the contributing authors\\u2019 own research, this book is of particular interest to scholars and students of Anthropology and Asian Studies.

In Global Goes Local , international scholars from a variety of disciplinary perspectives examine different forms of popular culture in Asia. Covering topics from pop music in Korea to TV commercials in Malaysia, this collection shows how imported cultural forms can be invested with fresh meaning and transformed by local artists to result in new forms of assertion and resistance that also meet the needs of their particular audiences.