LOOKING FORWARD BY STUDYING THE PAST IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGY: THE NEXT 50 YEARS Miriam Stark Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii,
[email protected] INTRODUCTION Southeast Asia’s context was no less dynamic in the Cold I am pleased to contribute this discussion to the collection War world: new countries (like Brunei and Singapore) of articles resulting from Nam Kim and Alison Carter’s emerged from their colonial beginnings; Ferdinand E. 2013 conference entitled, “Recent Advances in the Ar- Marcos was first inaugurated on Dec 30, 1965 and would chaeology of East and Southeast Asia.” Participants intro- steer the Philippines for the next two decades; and Major duced recent archaeological research from East and General Suharto led the Indonesian government’s three- Southeast Asia that addressed a wide range of issues from year pushback against a putatively communist coup that every time period and major artifact class under archaeo- would kill between 500,000 and one million communists, logical study. As the conference’s keynote speaker, I ethnic Chinese and alleged leftist Indonesian citizens. The sought overarching themes and offered a vision for East United States escalated its military involvement in Indo- and Southeast Asian archaeology’s next 50 years. Upon china and began plans to triple the number of American reflection, variability is the first most important theme of troops in Vietnam to 400,000. This engagement, which the Wisconsin conference papers: many participants of- continued for a decade, drew many Western countries into fered new approaches, and several challenged conven- the fray and plunged much of mainland Southeast Asia tional wisdom.