Eastern Asia and Oceania
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I Eastern Asia and Oceania WILHELM G. SOLHEIM II FAR-EASTERN PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION MEETINGS Two business meetings were held by the Far-Eastern Prehistory Association during the Tenth Pacific Science Congress. The primary business was the election of Council Members and the Executive Council for FEPA. After brief discussion it was decided to elect, where known, or find where the area was unknown, a council member to represent every country within our area of interest. For Japan, Australia, and the V nited States it was decided to elect more than one council member in recognition of their proportionally greater number of archreologists who are working within our area. The new Council Members of FEPA are as follows: on the Executive Council-Wilhelm G. Solheim II (V.S.A.) as Chairman, Roger Duff (New Zealand) as Secretary, and Ichiro Yawata (Japan), Douglas Osborne (Micronesia-V.S.A.), and Jack Golson (Australia), with Bernard Groslier (Cambodia) the previous Chairman as ex-officio; Council Members-A. P. Okladnikov* (Northeast Asia), Yu-ho Toh* (North Korea), Che-won Kim (South Korea), Namio Egami (Japan), Hsia Nai* (China Mainland), Li Chi (China, Formosa), F. S. Drake (Hong Kong),--(North Vietnam), Nghiem Tham (South Vietnam), Georges Condominas (Laos), Prince Dhani Nivat (Thailand), V Aung Thaw (Burma), Alastair Lamb (Malaya), R. Soekmono (Indonesia), Barbara Harrisson (British Borneo), Antonio de Almeida (Timor and Macao), Alfredo Evangelista (Philippines), Takeo Kanaseki (Ryiikyiis), Kenneth Emory (Hawaii), Bengt Danielsson (French Polynesia), Jacques Barrau (New Caledonia and New Hebrides), C. A. Leembruggen (Fiji),--(Netherlands New Guinea), F. D. Mc Carthy (Australia), Chester Chard, Alexander Spoehr, Clement Meighan (V.S.A.), Gonzales Figueroa (Chile), Pierre Verin (Madagascar), and H. R. van Heekeren* (Europe) (*Acceptance not yet received.) There was discussion on the financial· position of FEPA and the contents of Asian Perspectives; it was generally agreed that in both areas we would continue as in the past, with the assistance of a finance committee. The question of a constitu tion and by-laws came up and the concensus of opinion was that we should continue to be as flexible as possible, without a formal organization. Three permanent committees were set up, these being a Resolutions Committee, Finance Committee, and a Committee for the Standardization of Methods. The latter committee is to work on the standardization of field, laboratory, writing and publication techniques for our area as a whole. This would be on such things as different scales for mapping, and general organization ofexcavation and its presenta tion so that each area would be more easily understandable in reference to the surrounding areas. The members of these committees are as follows: Resolutions 6 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES 5, 1961 Committee-Douglas Osborne, R. P. Soejono (Indonesia), Roger Duff, Ichiro Yawata, and Wilhelm G. Solheim II; Committeefor the Standardization ofMethods -Bill Mulloy (U.S.A.), Roger Green (New Zealand), Richard Shutler, Jr (U.S.A.), Ichiro Yawata, and Pierre 'lerin; Finance Committee-Alexander Spoehr, Richard K. Beardsley (U.S.A.), Saul Riesenberg (U.S.A.), Arnold Pilling (U.S.A.), and Tom Harrisson (Sarawak). The Resolutions Committee prepared two resolutions which were presented, discussed, amended, and approved by the members present at the second meeting. They were presented at the resolutions meeting of the Section of Anthropology and Social Sciences, and approved for presentation to the Congress as a whole. The FEPA also supported the Pacific Area Archreological Program in the resolution it presented. These three resolutions were approved by the Council of the Pacific Science Association and adopted at the Closing Plenary Session of the Congress on September 2, 1961. Resolutions of the Tenth Pacific Science Congress Resolution Number 2 on Pacific island archreology is presented in Section 13 on 'Oceania.' Resolution Number 3: 'Southeast Asia and the adjacent is.lands constitute a major source of information about the peoples and cultures of the Pacific islands, as does South America on the other side of the Pacific, where research has advanced more rapidly.' RESOLVED that all possible assistance be given to institutions or projects concerned with the archreology of this area with the express hope that when the next Pacific Science Congress is held there will be enough trained personnel and enough interested institutions and governments to develop a coordinated plan for Southeast Asia and the islands of Indonesia, Borneo, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the Ryukyus. Resolution Number 4: 'A coordinated program which is underway for the development of the Lower Mekong Valley in Southeast Asia will impound large reservoirs for hydroelectric power, navigation, irrigation, drainage, and flood control of the Lower Mekong and its tributaries. The present, research stage of this project, which will soon be completed, includes technical studies on geography, geology, hydrography, meteorology, climatology, and biology, but does not include a study of the culture and prehistory of the people of the area, which has been inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years and was once part of the great Funan, Kambudja, and Siamese empires. Precedents for archreological studies under similar circumstances are the River Basin Survey program in the United States of America and the Aswan Dam Project in Egypt (United Arab Republic).' RESOLVED that a strong effort be made to institute as soon as possible a coordinated archreological salvage program in the Lower Mekong Valley before many of the remains are permanently lost to science. Further resolved that an equally intensive research program be devoted to the study and recording of the local traditional cultures of the Lower Mekong Valley before disruption occurs. EASTERN ASIA AND OCEANIA w. G. SOLHEIM II 7 Other resolutions of interest are as follows: I. The Congress commends the interest in museum undertakings being exhibited in Thailand, Burma, Malaya, Laos, Tahiti, and Palau and recommends that the governments of those areas encourage and support museums as basic elements in the educational system and in the preservation of national treasures and recognize their activities as appropriate and desirable government functions. RESOLVED that the Congress endorses the recommendation of the Asian Pacific Area seminar on The Role of the Museum as a Cultural Center in the Development of the Community (Tokyo, 1960, under the auspices of UNESCO and the Japanese Government) "that UNESCO consider cooperation with a member state in establishing a pilot project for the training of museum staff in the Asian-Pacific area." Resolved further that the Congress recommends that financial support for this center should not be the sole responsibility of anyone government but be shared by international agencies and by the governments of those Asian and Pacific countries which would utilize the facilities of such a center. 5. Current research on Austronesian and Papuan languages is inadequate for scientific needs, and some of them face imminent extinction unless prompt action is taken. Though estimates place the number of languages in the area close to a thousand, approximately a fourth or a fifth of the total for the entire world, only a few of the world's small group of linguists have worked in the Oceanic area. As prehistoric population movements in Oceania have been a major interest of this Congress, and as linguistic information constitutes a principal line of evidence toward the reconstruction of population movements, large-scale expansion of both descriptive and comparative linguistic studies is essential to the efficient exploitation of linguistic evidence. RESOLVED that all possible steps be taken to expand research on Pacific languages. 6. Further linguistic surveys in Southeast Asia are needed. RESOLVED that every possible assistance and encouragement be given to institutions of the new nations of Southeast Asia wishing to make linguistic surveys of their peoples. 7. The New Guinea-Melanesian area, one of the few remaining Pacific localities with societies relatively unaffected by foreign contact, is of increasing anthropo logical importance. RESOLVED that anthropological research in this area be encouraged to provide essential data on the operation of small, independent societies and to establish base lines for eventual long-range study of change under foreign contact. THE GOLDEN JUBILEE CONGRESS, UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG In honour of the fiftieth year of its founding in 191 I, the University of Hong Kong held its Golden Jubilee Congress in September 1961, at which a number of symposia were organized. Of interest to archreologists was the symposium on 'Historical, Archreological and Linguistic Studies on Southern China, South-East Asia and the Hong Kong Region', organized by Professor F. S. Drake. 8 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES The general plan ofthe symposium was to have papers presented in the mornings and to have the afternoons available for field trips to sites of archreological and historical interest. The sections of the programme 9f particular interest to our Asian Perspectives are: September II. 'Archreology and pre-historic migrations in S.E. Asia', with Wolfram Eberhard as chairman. A. General I. Selected Aspects of Neolithic Adze Typology of S.E. Asia and Polynesia Roger Duff, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand. 2. Two Late Prehistoric Pottery Traditions in S.E. Asia-Wilhelm G. Solheim