HIST 185 | ANCIENT SE ASIA DAVID BIGGS | SPRL 2360 | TTH 340-500 PM [email protected] | Office Hrs TR 100-300 PM | HMNSS 6600
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
HIST 185 | ANCIENT SE ASIA DAVID BIGGS | SPRL 2360 | TTH 340-500 PM [email protected] | OffiCe Hrs TR 100-300 PM | HMNSS 6600 Southeast Asia's ancient and early modern past, its landscapes and cultures are some of the most diverse and colorful in the world. From the stunning temple cities of Angkor to stories of an emergent global economy built on precious spices from the region, the ancient and early modern history of Southeast Asia offers a fascinating glimpse into the origins of nations and of peoples shaped by centuries of commerce with foreign empires in an ecological and global crossroads. Bayon, Angkor Thom - ca. 1250 CE COURSE PLAN Because the course covers a long sweep of time and space in just ten weeks, it is organized into three blocks with exams after each portion. There is no comprehensive final exam, and each of the three exams will focus on the readings and lectures for just that block. Besides the exams, you will be responsible for producing a term paper that will be developed in three deliverable parts, building off of themes and readings in the course but ending with the requirement that you specialize on more focused research at one time and one place. The paper will be organized as well into three deliverable parts: Paper1, Paper2, and Final Paper. Paper delivery dates will follow four days after exam dates. The final paper should be approximately 2500-3000 words and will be due after the final, on Wednesday Dec 12. Here is a glance at the course schedule and associated %-values of your final grade: L01. Sept 27 – Introduction L02. Oct 2 – Environment L03. Oct 4 – Island Prehistory L04. Oct 9 – Mainland Prehistory L05. Oct 11—Early Mainland Kingdoms L06. Oct 16 – Srivijaya & Island Kingdoms EXAM1. OCT 18 | 15% PAPER1. OCT 22. 5PM | 10% L07. Oct 23 – Sinicization L08. Oct 25 – Water Kingdoms, Classical Kingdoms L09. Oct 30 – Theater States L10. Nov 1 –Angkor Wat L11. Nov 6 – Pagan EXAM2. NOV 8 | 15% PAPER2. NOV 12. 5PM | 10% L12. Nov 13 – Mongol Transition L13. Nov 15 – Religious Conversions L14. Nov 20 – Spice Trade L15. Nov 22 – Vernacularized States L16. Nov 27 – Euro-Chinese Trade (Talk: Davis) L17. Nov 29 – Island Poverty L18. Dec 4 – The Modernizing Mainland EXAM 3. DEC 8. 3-5PM | 20% FINAL PAPER. DEC 12. 5PM | 20% IN-CLASS QUIZZES/PARTICIPATION: 10% Your attendance in class and keeping up with the readings and materials, not cramming, is vitally important and usually the difference between As and Bs or lower depending on effort. If you are willing to put in the time skimming/reading, answering the comprehension questions, then I guarantee you will ace this course. To spur this, I will give quizzes sporadically. You do not need to ace them all – total of 30 pts – but you do need to get at least 15 pts to get the 10% participation grade. READINGS This course is based on .pdf readings. There are a few textbooks out there, and I have extracted a few good chapters from each (as pdf’s) to provide you with good, overview chapters. (PLEASE READ THEM CLOSELY). The other readings for the most part focus on particular case studies or themes. How to read for HIST 185: Read the TXTBOOK readings (designated TXT01.pdf, TXT02.pdf, etc.) WORD-FOR-WORD. These readings are crafted by senior scholars and intended especially for the undergraduate student. They provide good organizational coverage, helpful timelines, useful detail boxes. Before the scheduled lecture SKIM the R readings (designated R01.pdf, R02.pdf, R03.pdf). This means opening up the essay, sipping your coffee beverage or tea, and winding your way through the reading. Spend 15 minutes. After the lecture Use the comprehension questions and your notes from lecture to dig deeper in the R readings. Highlight important sections. Take notes that you can return to in studying for the exam. TERM PAPER We’ll develop this with prompts and discussions in class, but so you can plan, the paper in this course will comprise two building stages with deliverables—annotated bibliography due on Monday, October 22, partial draft due on Monday, November 12, and a final, full paper due on Wednesday, December 12. The paper will ask you to focus on one culture in SE Asia as an area of focus for the course. This could be broadly defined (i.e. Vietnamese or Filipino) or more narrowly defined (i.e. Hue Culture or Cebuano). We’ll PaPer FoCus: How early history shaPes a Culture. Your paper should address the question of how the early past defines a particular culture. What events or experiences in your study site’s early past were central to the development of your culture’s identity? 10-Week Development We’ll build these papers in parts. We’ll begin first with a literature review, drawing on sources from Rivera Library as well as academic essays. Then second you will be expected to identify your paper’s focus, identifying primary resources. Finally, your complete essay will be due on December 12th. COURSE SCHEDULE THURS SEPT 27: COURSE INTRO READING FOR WEEKEND: TXT01.PDF – “INTRODUCTION” TXT02.PDF – “ENVIRONMENTS, LANGUAGES, CULTURES AND PEOPLES” TXT03.PDF – “PREHISTORY” WATCHING Ecosystems of Bali and Lombok, Wallace Line https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iYFMzLOU9g (NOTE: be sure to turn on subtitles - cc symbol - and select English) TUES OCT 2. ENVIRONMENT & GEOGRAPHY TXT01 AND TXT02 1. What are three, key eco-social differences between the island and mainland worlds? 2. In what ways is water a defining feature of SE Asian societies? 3. How does it differently define mainland and island cultures? 4. How does it connect diverse cultures? 5. Along single river basins? 6. By sea? 7. What is the Wallace Line? THURS OCT 4 - PRE-HISTORY/ARCHEOLOGY - INTRO / ISLAND WORLD TXT03 1. Why did pre-historic sites in the mainland feature axes but not the sites in the islands? 2. What do the terms Austroasiatic and Austronesian define? 3. Why did most early human inhabitants tend to live in monsoonal, seasonally dry plains instead of the bio-diverse rainforests close to the equator? 4. Be able to describe three famous neolithic sites in SE Asia: Hòa Binh (Vietnam), Kok Phanom Di (Thailand), and Spirit Cave (Sarawak, Malaysia) R01.PDF - Bellwood. "The Prehistory of Island Southeast Asia" 1. What are the three major regions of Island SE Asia? 2. How did Homo Erectus get to Java? 3. What's the Sunda-Banda Arc? 4. What can the Austronesian language family tell us about early human groups in the island world? HAVE YOU SELECTED YOUR STUDY SITE??? THIS WEEKEND IS A GREAT TIME TO GET STARTED TUES OCT 9 – PRE-HISTORY / MAINLAND / BRONZE AGE R02.PDF - Higham. "Later Prehistory of Mainland SE Asia" 1. What's the "alleged fulcrum" Higham is talking about circa 1000 BC? 2. Why might nationalist SE Asian governments argue for autonomous kingdoms dating before this "fulcrum"? 3. In the Khorat Plateau, what 3 or 4 key materials led to the rise of dense settlements? 4. What do bronze drums and boat burials tell us about bronze-age culture in n. Vietnam? 5. How is China connected with the history of Dong Son? 6. What style of ancient irrigation was used, especially in the Mun/Chi River Valleys? 7. Why is water-control important to establishing historic polities? 8. How might bronze-working sites in SE Asia relate to bronze-working sites in E Asia more generally? THURS OCT 11 - EARLY MAINLAND KINGDOMS R03.PDF - Elizabeth Moore (SOAS). "The Early Buddhist Archaeology of Myanmar: Tagaung, Thagara, and the Mon-Pyu Dichotomy" 1. What's the main difference in Myanmar between the Mon and Pyu history? 2. Where did the Pyu's originally come from? What language group are they from? 3. How about the Mons? 4. What sort of landscape fostered city-states such as Tagaung to Thagara 5. What role did Buddhism play in forming a nation-state from disparate ethnic groups? R04.PDF - Michael Vickery - "Funan Reviewed: Deconstructing the Ancients," Bulletin de l'Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient : 2003: 90: Issue 90-91, pp. 101-143 1. What's the legend of the founding of Funan? 2. Which modern nations claim their lineage from Funan? 3. Where is one of the big archaeological sites, Oc Eo, located? 4. How did contemporary epigraphers and archeologists disagree about the nature of Indianization/Hinduization at Funan? 5. What do Chinese sources tell us about Funan and Chinese commerce? TUES OCT 16 – SRIVIjAYA / ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES WORKSHOP R05.PDF - Lawrence Palmer Briggs. "The Origin of the Sailendra Dynasty: Present Status of the Question," Journal of the American Oriental Society , Vol. 70, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1950), pp. 76-89 1. How did Coedes discover the ancient Sumatran kingdom of Srivijaya? 2. Who was I-Ching? How did he help Coedes? 3. How did colonial-era scholarship (early 1900s) lead to digs in Palembang? 4. Who were the Sailendras and where did they come from, according to LP Briggs? THURS OCT 18 – MIDTERM 1 MON OCT 22 – ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE TUES OCT 23 – INTRO CLASSICAL KINGDOMS | SINICIZATION TXT04.PDF – Intro of Classical Kingdoms, 900-1400 CE R06.PDF: Wang Gungwu. The Nan Hai Trade: The Early History of Chinese Trade in the South China Sea. pp. 7-14 and 69-110. 1. How did the particular monsoon winds of the South China Sea make it an ideal place for expanding Chinese commerce? 2. What does Nan Yueh mean? 3. Who were the western Yuehs and where was their capital? 4.