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4374 social change, Southeast

Parsons, T. (1964) Evolutionary Universals in Society. variation has been overlaid with centuries of American Sociological Review 29(3): 339–57. contact, trade, migration, and cultural exchange Plekhanov, G. V. (1956) The Development of the from within the and from other parts Monist View of History. Foreign Pub- of Asia, and for the past 500 years from lishing House, Moscow. (for general overviews of the region, see Rostow, W. W. (1960) The Stages of : A Non-Communist Manifesto. Cambridge Osborne 1997; Somers Heidhues 2000; Shamsul University Press, Cambridge. 2001; Wertheim 1968). The common character- Spengler, O. (1945) The Decline of the West. A. A. istic of mainland is , Knopf, New York. although there are very significant variations Tiryakian, E. A. (2005) Comparative Analysis of across and within . is the major- Modernity: 1203 and 2003. In: Ben-Rafael, E. & ity in , Brunei, and , Sternberg, Y. (Eds.), Comparing Modernities: Plur- and there are significant minority Muslim popu- alism versus Homogeneity (In Homage to S. N. lations in , southern , and the Eisenstadt). Brill, Leiden. southern . is the major A Study of History Toynbee, A. J. (1965) , 2 vols. religion of the Philippines, and there are small Abridgement of Vols. 1–10 by D. C. Somervell. Dell, New York. Christian minorities throughout the region. Tucker, R. C. (Ed.) (1978) The Marx–Engels Reader, is the major religion in Bali, an island 2nd edn. W. W. Norton, New York. in Indonesia, and among the Indian minority populations of Malaysia and Singapore. The lowlands of both mainland and insular South- tend to be densely settled, and wet (irrigated) agriculture is the predominant feature of the countryside. Rural areas are social change, knitted together with small and medium-size market towns. The major metropolitan areas Southeast Asia of the region (Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore, Manila, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Charles Hirschman and Jennifer Edwards Minh City) are typically port cities or located along major rivers. Many of these towns and Southeast Asia consists of the 11 countries cities have significant Chinese minorities (often that lie between the and intermarried with the local population) that play . On the mainland of Southeast Asia are an important role in commerce. Every (Burma), Thailand, , , has remote highland and mountainous and . Insular Southeast Asia includes which are often populated by ethnic minorities. Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, In terms of land area, population size, and and Singapore and most recently East . cultural and linguistic diversity, Southeast Asia While most of Malaysia () is comparable to Europe. By the year 2000 the is on the mainland, it is usually considered part population of Southeast Asia exceeded 500 mil- of insular Southeast Asia because the Malay – about 8 percent of the ’s total. Indo- population (the majority ethnic population of nesia is the fifth most populous country in the Malaysia) shares a common and reli- world, while the oil-rich sultanate of Brunei gion with much of the Indonesian population. (located on the island of Borneo) is one of the The city- of Singapore (on an island con- smallest. The other large countries of the region, nected by a mile-long causeway to Peninsular Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, are Malaysia) was historically part of Malaysia, more populous than all European countries but because of its unique ethnic composition except for Russia and Germany. The sea (South (three-quarters of the population is of Chinese China Sea, the Indian and Pacific Oceans) sur- origin) it is more similar to East Asia than rounds much of the region, especially the Southeast Asia. immense Indonesian and Filipino archipelagos. While there are some common geographical While the sea can be a barrier, the ocean and the and cultural features, diversity is the hallmark rivers of the region are avenues that have fos- of the region. Incredible indigenous cultural tered local and long-distance trade throughout social change, Southeast Asia 4375 history. The same oceans can also be cruelly land, people, and potential resources. In a series destructive forces, as evidenced by the enor- of expansions, the British conquered the area of mous loss of life and of entire communities from present day Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia, the December 2004 tsunami. the Dutch completed their conquest of the (now Indonesia), and the French took the areas that formed their Indochina (pre- POLITICAL HISTORY sent day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos). At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States The contemporary political divisions of the defeated nationalist forces to take control of the region are largely a product of European imperi- Philippines just as the Spanish empire was alism, especially of the nineteenth century. Prior crumbling. Siam (Thailand) was the only indi- to European intervention, there were great genous Southeast Asian state to escape the grip regional civilizations – both agrarian states and of colonialism. maritime that waxed and waned over The political history of the region has not the centuries. The remains of temple complexes been stable or evolutionary. As western coun- at Angkor (in Cambodia) and Pagan (in Burma) tries moved toward more democratic social and rival the architectural achievements of any pre- political institutions over the first decades of modern world civilization. Early western obser- the twentieth centuries, the colonists (British, vers of the city of Melaka (a fifteenth-century Dutch, American, and French) constructed maritime empire centered on the west coast of authoritarian dependencies in the tropics based the Malayan ) described it as more on export economies and racial ideologies. magnificent than any contemporary European Although there were stirrings of nationalist sen- city. These early polities were founded on inten- timent during the first half of the twentieth sive rice cultivation with complex irrigation sys- century, it was only after World War II that tems and/or the dominance of regional and the nationalist forces were strong enough and long-distance trade. The region has also been the international environment favorable enough deeply influenced by contacts with the great to bring political independence to the region. civilizations of and China. The cultural The critical turning point was the Japanese con- influences from outside have invariably been quest and occupation of Southeast Asia from transformed into distinctive local forms in dif- 1942 to 1945, which permanently shattered the ferent Southeast Asian contexts. The ease of myth of European superiority. The colonial movement throughout the region seems to have powers returned after World War II, but shaped cultures that easily absorbed new ideas, encountered popular nationalist movements that immigrants, and a tolerance for diversity. demanded the end of colonialism. European influence began in the sixteenth Independence was negotiated peacefully by century with the appearance of Portuguese and the Americans in the Philippines and the British Spanish naval forces, followed by the arrival of in Burma and Malaysia, but nationalist forces the Dutch in the seventeenth century, and then had to wage wars of independence against the by the British and French. In the early centuries Dutch in Indonesia (1945–50) and against of contact, European powers were able to dom- France in Vietnam (1945–54). The interplay of inate the seas and thereby limit the expansion of nationalist struggles, class conflicts, and East– Southeast Asian polities, but rarely penetrated West rivalry had a marked influence very far inland from their coastal trading cities. on political developments in the region. In All of Southeast Asia was transformed, however, almost every country there were radical and in the nineteenth century, as the industrial revo- communist movements that held the allegiance lution in the West stimulated demand for of significant sectors of the population. In sev- mineral and agricultural products around the eral cases, communist parties were part of the globe. New economic organizations of planta- nationalist movement, but then departed (or tions, mines, and markets led to large-scale were driven out of) the political arena as domes- migration of people and capital to frontier areas tic and international tensions escalated. Vietnam and to the cities of Southeast Asia. There was an was unique in that the nationalist movement accompanying flurry of imperialist wars to grab was led by communists. After the French were 4376 social change, Southeast Asia defeated in 1954 and agreed to grant indepen- the twenty-first century, but few expect it to last dence to Vietnam, the United States intervened for many more years. Even in Malaysia and to set up a noncommunist Vietnam state in the Singapore, perhaps the most stable countries in southern region of the country. After another the region, change was in the air, when after 20 years of war and a million casualties, Vietnam several decades of rule, first Lee Kwan Yew in was finally united as an independent state in Singapore and then Mahathir Mohamed in 1975. Following 1975, tensions between the Malaysia handed over power to appointed suc- socialist states (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) cessors. After many years of instability, Cambo- and the rest of the region were the major focus dia experienced consecutive peaceful elections in of international relations in the region, but by 1998 and 2003. the late 1990s these rivalries had subsided. The 1990s also witnessed the creation of the Domestic political developments within indi- new state of East Timor. After a long history of vidual countries of the region have been no less political repression by Indonesia, the people of dramatic. Governments have oscillated between East Timor voted for independence in a UN authoritarian and democratic forms with no supervised referendum in 1999. After a period clear linear trend. Behind the headlines of mili- of brutal retaliatory violence from Indonesian tary coups, regional wars for autonomy, and sponsored militias, East Timor was granted ‘‘managed’’ elections, have been the complex international recognition as an independent political struggles among various contending state in 2002. groups defined by class, region, ethnicity, and kinship. These struggles have ranged from civil war to fairly open elections. Large-scale violence SOCIOECONOMIC CHANGE is not the norm, but massacres in Indonesia, Cambodia, and East Timor have been among Southeast Asia has been one of the most eco- the worst of such episodes in modern times. nomically dynamic regions in the developing Popular civil protests against ruling elites in world. Economic change has been accompanied the Philippines and Burma have had significant by many other attributes of modernization, domestic and international reverberations. including the widespread availability of educa- Neither academic scholarship nor political tion, modern transportation, and the mass reporting has offered broad empirical general- media during the post-Independence era. This izations or convincing interpretations of the is most evident for the original ASEAN (Asso- postwar political change in Southeast Asia. ciation of Southeast Asian Nations) countries Evolutionary – and sometimes revolutionary – of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, social change continued throughout much of Philippines, and Brunei (admitted in 1984). Southeast Asia in the and 1990s. After Several of these countries are often identified the collapse of the , the socialist as second-tier Asian (following the earlier countries in the region, including Vietnam, model of the rapidly developing countries Cambodia, and Laos, moved rapidly toward of South , Taiwan, , and more market-driven economies. Several other Singapore). Progress has been slower in the countries in the region experienced major poli- remaining Southeast Asian countries of Viet- tical movements that led to changes in national nam, Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Cambodia, leadership. The ‘‘people power’’ movement led which were admitted to ASEAN in the 1990s. to the end of the Marcos regime in the Philip- Many indicators of development in South- pines and a return of regular elections. Nonvio- east Asia, including very low levels of mortality lent mass street protests ended the string of and almost universal secondary schooling, are military coups in Thailand and ushered in an approaching the prevailing standards of devel- era of open democratic governance. Popular pro- oped countries. Demographic research has tests also forced the end of the Suharto regime revealed very rapid declines in fertility in sev- in 1998 and brought the first free elections in eral Southeast Asian countries, particularly in 45 years in Indonesia. The Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. continues to rule Burma in the early years of If the current pace of decline continues, social change, Southeast Asia 4377 replacement-level fertility (two children per capitalism’’ and highly speculative financial ) should be reached in the near future markets widely considered to be important con- (Hirschman & Guest 1990). tributing factors. At the same time, however, there is wide Despite the economic crisis of the late 1990s, variation within the region and within some economic growth has resumed in the region, countries on all of these indicators. Life expec- even for some of the poorer countries like Laos. tancy varies by over 20 years across some of the Assuming that current socioeconomic trends ASEAN countries, with a low of 55 years in continue, several countries in the region will Laos and a high of 82 in Singapore. While probably follow Japan, Korea, and Taiwan along Singapore and Malaysia are competing for high the path of development in the early decades of tech industry jobs, the majority of the popula- the twenty-first century. tion in Burma and Laos remains in subsistence agriculture. The reasons for the success of some countries SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH and economic stagnation in others are a matter of dispute. The East Asian model of state- Scholarship on Southeast Asia has often reached sponsored export industrialization is widely beyond the boundaries of the region to influence discussed in policy and academic circles, but debates over social science concepts, theory, and the parallels between East Asian and Southeast models. Perhaps most influential has been the Asian economic development strategies are still work on Indonesia by anthropologist Clifford a matter of considerable uncertainty. Although Geertz. His evocative concepts of the ‘‘theatre market-driven capitalism is part of the story, state,’’ ‘‘thick description,’’ and ‘‘agricultural the role of the governments in managing their involution’’ have stimulated debate and research economies has also been integral to economic in several social science disciplines, including development in the region. What is striking sociology. His model of agricultural involution about economic development in the region is (Geertz 1968) has been one of the most provo- the degree to which it has been carried out cative developments in scholarship on Indonesia by fairly authoritarian states. The relationship over the last generation. A strikingly bold thesis, between and economic growth and agricultural involution is an attempt to explain development, argued to go hand in hand by how became one of the most densely settled modernization theorists, seemed to be chal- populations in the world within a traditional lenged by the experience of Southeast Asian agricultural economy. To address this question, tigers towards the end of the twentieth century, Geertz presents an ecological interpretation of but much research is left to be done on the the evolution (involution) of Javanese social causes and consequences of economic develop- structure in the face of rapid ment and modernization in the region. and Dutch colonialism within the constraints For much of the 1990s, most of Southeast (and possibilities) of wet rice economy. The Asia experienced rapid economic growth and colonial system prevented industrialization and the development of a middle-class population the development of an indigenous entrepreneur- whose growing social and political influence ial class. The traditional rice economy, however, has been widely discussed in the research litera- could absorb a larger population because addi- ture (McVey 1992; Girling 1996; Embong tional labor inputs in the maintenance of irri- 2001). For example, the reform political move- gation facilities, water control, weeding, and ments in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia are harvesting yielded marginal increments in rice thought to be one manifestation of the increas- production. Over the decades, this refinement ing role of the new middle class. The period of of traditional production technology (involu- very rapid economic growth was halted in late tion) led to an increasing rigidification of 1997 by the ‘‘Asian economic crisis’’ that hit the traditional Javanese culture that discouraged region, and Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia innovation and any efforts at social change – in particular. The causes of the crisis are the therefore reinforcing the structural limits of subject of much debate, with the role of ‘‘crony the colonial system. Even after independence 4378 social change, Southeast Asia when structural limits were lifted, the legacy scholars of other world regions and, more of the past, as reflected in Javanese culture, generally, the development of social theory. remained. Geertz’s thesis remains highly controversial and many of its components have been con- Status of Women fronted with negative evidence (for a review of the debate, see White 1983; Geertz 1984). For In addition to the theoretical concepts men- example, Geertz deemphasized social class divi- tioned above, empirical generalizations have sions with his interpretation of ‘‘shared pov- arisen from studies of Southeast Asian societies erty’’ as the traditional social strategy. Most that have relevance far beyond the region. research has shown significant inequality of Empirically, the most common cultural charac- landholding and other socioeconomic dimen- teristic across the region is the relatively high sions in Javanese villages, although it is not status of women in Southeast Asian societies, clear if inequality is permanently perpetuated especially when compared to East Asia and between families across generations. Even South Asia. While women still face many social accepting many of the criticisms, agricultural and cultural obstacles in Southeast Asia, the involution is a seminal sociological model that situation appears much different than the patri- should serve to generate empirical research on archal societies of other Asian societies and the the historical development of Asian societies. model of traditional female domesticity of many western societies. While there are a few matrili- neal societies in the region, Southeast Asian kin- Moral Economy ship systems are typically bilateral, with equal importance attached to the husband’s and ’s A classic question in social science concerns the families. The patrilocal custom of an obligatory causes of revolution or rebellion. Neither residence of a newly married couple with or near Marxian theory, which emphasizes exploita- the groom’s family is largely absent in Southeast tion, nor relative deprivation theory seem to Asia. The residence of young couples after mar- be satisfactory models to explain the occurrence riage seems to be largely a matter of choice or of revolutions or rebellions. The most sophisti- dependent on the relative economic opportu- cated sociological theory of peasant rebellion is nities. There is no strong sex preference for based upon historical materials from Burma children in Southeast Asia, and both and and Vietnam by political scientist James Scott boy children are highly valued. Divorce, often (1976). Scott argues that peasants only rebel initiated by , was part of the cultural fabric when their normative expectations of a mini- of several Southeast Asian societies, including mum subsistence level are not met. These con- Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand (Hirschman & ditions are more likely to occur when capitalist Teerawichitchainan 2003). market relations and colonial states erode tradi- The relatively positive status of women is also tional social structures and the reciprocal obli- evident in earlier times. Historian Anthony Reid gations of peasants and their patrons. (1988: 146–72) reports that early European In a more recent study based upon fieldwork observers were struck by the active role of in a rural Malaysian village, Scott (1985) exam- women in economic and political affairs in ines how class antagonisms are displayed in Southeast Asia. Traditional folklore also sug- everyday life. Given that rebellion is a very rare gested that women play an active role in court- event in most societies, Scott calls attention ship and that female sexual expectations were as to political, social, and linguistic behaviors important as men’s. (weapons of the weak) that reveal the depth of At present, women seem to be well repre- antipathy and potential social conflict, but do sented in schools, universities, and in employ- not risk violent reaction from the state and ment in all modern sectors of the economy in powerful elites. In these two books and related almost every country of Southeast Asia. There is publications, Scott has provided original inter- only a modest scholarly literature on the higher pretations of peasant political behavior in status of women in Southeast Asia (Andaya Southeast Asia and set a research agenda for 2001; Van Esterik 1982), and few efforts have social change, Southeast Asia 4379 been made to explain the links between traditional of women throughout Southeast Asia suggest roles of women as productive workers in the rural common historical and cultural roots among all rice economy and their relative ease of entry into the peoples of the region. The long history of the modern sector, particularly in manufactur- migration from other regions, the ecological, ing industries such as textiles. The impact of cultural, and social differences between lowland modernization and economic development on and upland peoples, as well as the presence of relations and on the status of women linguistic and religious pluralism, have created are important topics for future scholarship. multi-ethnic societies in every country in the region. Colonialism created many divisions that affected variations in the political and economic Cultural Pluralism developments of Southeast Asian countries dur- ing the twentieth century. The study of these Cultural pluralism has been the focus of both processes of modernization and social changes in historical and contemporary research on South- politics, family structure, ethnic relations, and east Asia. Historically, one of the defining other social spheres makes Southeast Asia an features of the region was the relatively easy extraordinarily interesting sociological labora- absorption of peoples, ideas, and cultural prac- tory for comparative research. tices from elsewhere. In the twentieth century, however, assimilation into Southeast Asian SEE ALSO: Colonialism (Neocolonialism); societies became more difficult with the creation Gender, Development and; Modernization; of political and social barriers. Some of the key Plural Society; Social Change; Transition from sources of ethnic and religious conflict in the Communism region are illuminated in Chirot and Reid’s (1997) collection of essays that compare the experiences of the Chinese in Southeast Asia REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED with those of Jews in . The READINGS implications of religious and ethnic diversity in the region for democratization have also Andaya, B. (2001) Southeast Asian Studies: Gender. garnered scholarly attention (e.g., Hefner 2001). In: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (Eds.), Interna- In particular, the relationship between politics tional Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral and Islam is a topic of growing regional research Sciences. Elsevier Science, Oxford. interest with implications far beyond the region. Chirot, D. & Reid, A. (Eds.) (1997) Essential Outsiders: Chinese and Jews in the Modern Transformation of Even with their majority Muslim populations, Southeast Asia and Central Europe. University of Indonesia and Malaysia have managed to main- Washington Press, Seattle. tain relatively secular states in spite of challenges Embong, A. R. (Ed.) (2001) Southeast Asian Middle from opposition parties that espouse religiously Classes: Prospects for Social Change and Demo- oriented politics. Hefner (2000) challenges the cratization. Univeristi Kebangsaan Press, Bangi, widely asserted stereotype that democracy is Malaysia. unable to flourish in the presence of Islam. Geertz, C. (1968) Agricultural Involution: The Pro- cesses of Ecological Change in Indonesia. University of California Press, Berkeley. CONCLUSION Geertz, C. (1984) Culture and Social Change. Man 19 (December): 511–32. A generation or two ago there was intense dis- Girling, J. L. S. (1996) Interpreting Development: cussion and debate over the question of whether Capitalism, Democracy and the Middle Class in Southeast Asia was a region in more than a geo- Thailand. Southeast Asia Program, Cornell Uni- graphic sense. The question has pretty much versity, Ithaca, NY. Civil Islam: and Demo- been settled by historical and contemporary Hefner, R. W. (2000) cratization in Indonesia. Princeton University research (Wolters 1999; Reid 2003). In spite Press, Princeton. of the great political, economic, and sociocul- Hefner, R. W. (Ed.) (2001) The Politics of Multi- tural diversity in the region, there are many culturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia, common cultural, political, and social forms. Singapore and Indonesia. University of Hawaii The similarity of family systems and the status Press, Honolulu. 4380 social cognition

Hirschman, C. & Teerawichitchainan, B. (2003) Cul- are reluctant to accept that thinking itself could tural and Socioeconomic Influences on Divorce have a social dimension. Psychologists and cog- during Modernization: Southeast Asia, 1940s to nitive scientists tend to consider thought as an 1960s. Population and Development Review 29: internal brain activity. Sociologists generally 215–53. avoid the problem by focusing on social beha- Hirschman, C. & Guest, P. (1990) The Emerging Demographic Transitions of Southeast Asia. vior. When sociologists look at consciousness, Population and Development Review 16: 121–52. they generally study how internal psychological McVey, R. (Ed.) (1992) Southeast Asian Capitalists. processes have been shaped by external social Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, demands. Media scholars examine patterns of Ithaca, NY. persuasion, and political sociologists look at Osborne, M. (1997) Southeast Asia: An Introductory ideology and hegemonic practices. All agree that History, 7th edn. Allen & Unwin, Sydney. collective life proceeds through the mind as well Reid, A. (1988) Southeast Asia in the Age of Com- as the body, but few consider social cognition or merce, 1450–1680. Vol. 1: The Lands Below the how thinking might take place through interac- Winds. Yale University Press, New Haven. tion (Scribner & Cole 1974; Longino 1990; Reid, A. (Ed.) (2003) Southeast Asian Studies: Pacific Perspectives. Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Hutchins 1995; Turnbull 2000; Rosental 2003). Arizona State University, Tempe. Scholars doing work in the sociology of scien- Scott, J. C. (1976) The Moral Economy of the Peasant: tific knowledge (SSK) have been the exception. Subsistence and Rebellion in Southeast Asia. Yale Conducting fieldwork in laboratories, they have University Press, New Haven. repeatedly found that ideas emerge through Scott, J. C. (1985) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday interaction. Researchers talk to one another Forms of Peasant Resistance. Yale University Press, about what they are seeing and how they under- New Haven. stand their data (Bloor 1990; Longino 1990; Shamsul, A. B. (2001) Southeast Asian Studies: Knorr Cetina 1999). Their thinking takes place Society. In: Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B. (Eds.), in conversation and this fact is documented International Encyclopedia of the Social and Beha- vioral Sciences. Elsevier Science, Oxford. in the long list of authors in many scientific Somers Heidhues, M. (2000) Southeast Asia: A Con- publications. cise History. Thames & Hudson, London. The problem for those interested in social Van Esterik, P. (1982) Women of Southeast Asia. cognition is to define the more general condi- Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illi- tions under which such activity takes place nois University, Dekalb. (Latour 1993; Rosental 2003; Mukerji 2006). Wertheim, W. F. (1968) Southeast Asia. In: Sills, D. Ed Hutchins (1995), an anthropologist working (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social in cognitive science, has been a leader in this Sciences, Vol. 1. Macmillian and Free Press, New field. He explains that social cognition can take York, pp. 423–34. place even when individuals are alone. He asks White, B. (1983) Agricultural Involution and its Critics: Twenty Years After. Bulletin of Concerned us to imagine a student sitting at a desk, doing a Asian Scholars 15 (April/June): 18–41. math problem. There is paper on the desk and a Wolters, O. W. (1999) History, Culture, and Region in pencil in the student’s hand. Where, Hutchins Southeast Asian Perspectives, rev. edn. Southeast asks, is the thinking going on? The simple Asia Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. answer is in the brain. The student absorbs the problem, solves it internally, and puts the result onto the paper. But Hutchins argues that the calculations in fact take place on the paper as well as in the brain. The student uses cultural social cognition symbols to do the problem, and manipulates them in culturally prescribed ways, using tech- Chandra Mukerji niques designed for pencil and paper. Many math problems are impossible to solve without Studies of social cognition attempt to explain writing them down. So, Hutchins argues, the how thought or cognitive problem solving takes thought is both in the brain and in the material places in groups. While scholars generally agree world. The brain learns to do what the culture that learning can be a collective activity, many says can be done on paper, and the problem is