Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- 1 The Writing of Southeast Asian History
- PART ONE FROM PREHISTORY TO C. 1500 CE
- PART TWO FROM c. 1500 to c. 1800 CE
- 6 Interactions with the Outside World and Adaptation in Southeast Asian Society, 1500–1800
- 7 Political Development between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- 8 Economic and Social Change, c. 1400–1800
- 9 Religious Developments in Southeast Asia c. 1500–1800
- References
10 - The Age of Transition: The Mid-Eighteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries
from PART TWO - FROM c. 1500 to c. 1800 CE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- 1 The Writing of Southeast Asian History
- PART ONE FROM PREHISTORY TO C. 1500 CE
- PART TWO FROM c. 1500 to c. 1800 CE
- 6 Interactions with the Outside World and Adaptation in Southeast Asian Society, 1500–1800
- 7 Political Development between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries
- 8 Economic and Social Change, c. 1400–1800
- 9 Religious Developments in Southeast Asia c. 1500–1800
- References
Summary
STATE RIVALRY AND CYCLICITY
Geographical, cultural and ethnic diversity renders any overview of Southeast Asia’s history a difficult task. The same problems of diversity are met even in the study of individual components of the region, given, for example, the differences between Shan and Mon in Burma, Vietnamese and Khmer in the Indochinese peninsula, Tagalog and Moro in the Philippines, and coastal Malay and hill Batak in north Sumatra. What cultural and historical identity obtained between or within particular segments was, to a large extent, the dictate of geography. A Confucianist Vietnam and a Christian Philippines on Southeast Asia’s fringes confirm the significance of geographical location. Beneath the striking overlay of differences, Southeast Asian societies shared a substratum of distinct traditions of lineage patterns, social structuring and belief systems which were related to the overarching concern over resource management within their particular environment. In time, the accommodation of these features with varying degrees of external influences added a second dimension to the identity of pre-modern societies. Burmese and Thai responses to Theravāda Buddhism were different, as were the responses to Islam in Java and in the Malay world. The European element added a third dimension to the evolution of these societies. European penetration has, in fact, been considered a watershed, with its earlier inroads into the maritime regions constituting a further distancing between developments there and the mainland. To what extent was this dichotomy between colonial and indigenous administrations real in terms of social impact?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia , pp. 572 - 620Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993
References
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