Southeast Asian Anthropologies Nthropology Is a Flourishing Discipline in Southeast Asia
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spine width: 20 mm Vineeta Sinha Eric C. Thompson and editors Southeast Asian Anthropologies nthropology is a flourishing discipline in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian A Anthropologies renders visible the development of national traditions and transnational practices of anthropology across the region. The authors are practising anthropologists and Southeast Asian scholars with decades of experience working National Traditions in the intellectual traditions and institutions that have taken root in Southeast Asia Southeast Asian Anthropologies since the mid-twentieth century. Anthropology’s self-criticism of the colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial and Transnational Practices conditions of its own production remains relevant for Southeast Asia. There has been a vigorous debate and a wide range of suggestions on what might be done to de-center the Euro-, andro-, hetero- and other centrisms of the discipline from an emerging world anthropologies perspective. However, actually transforming anthropology requires practice beyond mere critique. The chapters in this volume focus on practices and paradigms of anthropologists working from and within Southeast Asia. Three overlapping issues are addressed in these pages: first, the historical development of unique traditions of research, scholarship, and social engagement editors across diverse anthropological communities of the region, which have adopted and adapted different anthropological trends to their local circumstances; second, Eric C. Thompson and the opportunities and challenges faced by Southeast Asian anthropologists as they Vineeta Sinha practise their craft in different institutional and political contexts; and third, the emergence of locally grounded, intra-regional, transnational linkages and practices undertaken by Southeast Asian-based anthropologists. “Filling a gap in anthologies on World Anthropologies appearing since the 1980s, this incisive collection opens up new vistas in covering the development of anthropologies in Southeast Asia, a region that has been severely under represented, and in its focus on transnational perspectives as well as national imaginaries in the ways that theoretical elaboration and anthropological practice have matured in the region.” – Greg Acciaioli, University of Western Australia Eric C. Thompson is associate professor in the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Vineeta Sinha is head of the Department of Sociology and the South Asian Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg 9 789814 722964 SEAsian Anthropologies Cvr_Nusp.indd 1 3/4/19 12:45 PM SOUTHEAST ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGIES SOUTHEAST ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGIES National Traditions and Transnational Practices Edited by Eric C. Thompson and Vineeta Sinha © 2019 Eric C. Thompson andVineeta Sinha This book is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ Published by: NUS Press National University of Singapore AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link Singapore 117569 Fax: (65) 6774-0652 E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg ISBN 978-981-4722-96-4 (paper) All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data Name(s): Thompson, Eric C., editor. | Sinha, Vineeta, editor. Title: Southeast Asian anthropologies : national traditions and transnational practices / edited by Eric C. Thompson and Vineeta Sinha. Description: Singapore : NUS Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifier(s): OCN 1079501537 | ISBN 978-981-4722-96-4 (paperback) Subject(s): LCSH: Anthropology--Southeast Asia. | Anthropology--Southeast Asia-- History. Classification: DDC 301.0959--dc23 Cover Photo: Pattana Kitiarsa, in the field, interviewing his Isan compatriot Srisomporn Sa-nga Sungnern. Photo Credit: Jaruwat Nonthachai, from the personal collection of Rungnapa Kitiarsa, used with permission. The electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-981-3250-09-3. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. In memory of Ananda Rajah (1952–2007) and Pattana Kitiarsa (1968–2013) who led the way. Contents Preface ix Introduction Anthropologies in Southeast Asia 1 Eric C. Thompson and Vineeta Sinha Section 1 The Making of Anthropological Traditions Chapter 1 Concepts of Filipinos: Anthropology as 21 Social Science, Politics and Nationhood Jose Jowel Canuday and Emma Porio Chapter 2 Cambodian Anthropology: 56 Negotiating Identity and Change Chivoin Peou Chapter 3 Vietnamese Anthropology at the 83 Crossroads of Change Nguyen Van Chinh Section 2 Challenges in Anthropological Practice Chapter 4 Recovering Filipino Production 111 of a Maritime Anthropology Maria F. Mangahas and Suzanna Rodriguez-Roldan Chapter 5 Domesticating Social Anthropology 141 in West Malaysia Yeoh Seng-Guan vii viii Contents Chapter 6 Documenting “Anthropological Work” 169 in Singapore: The Journey of a Discipline Vineeta Sinha Section 3 Trends in Transnational Anthropologies Chapter 7 Local and Transnational Anthropologies 207 of Borneo Victor T. King and Zawawi Ibrahim Chapter 8 Boundaries and Ambitions of 243 Indonesian Anthropology Yunita T. Winarto and Iwan M. Pirous Chapter 9 Assessing Doi Moi (Renovation) Anthropology 276 in Vietnam Dang Nguyen Anh Chapter 10 The Transnational Anthropology of Thailand 292 Ratana Tosakul About the Contributors 322 Index 326 Preface The contributions to this volume reflect ongoing endeavors in the making of Southeast Asian anthropologies. The specific project from which this compilation derives was funded by a grant on “Southeast Asian Anthropologies” from the National University of Singapore (R-111-000-134-112). More broadly over several decades, through research, writing and other professional activities, the editors of this volume along with other colleagues in Singapore and from around the region, including the contributors to this volume, have been engaged in ongoing activities to reconfigure and construct anthropologies of and in Southeast Asia. This book takes stock of some, but far from all, of these labors. In October 2014, it was our pleasure to host more than a dozen scholars from across the region at the National University of Singapore, including amongst them a range of senior to mid career and early career anthropologists. Scholars attending the workshop included Chivoin Peou, Dang Nguyen Anh, Dave Lumenta, Emma Porio, Eric C. Thompson, Jowel Canuday, Nguyen Van Chinh, Noritah Omar, Ratana Tosakul, Roxana Waterson, Vineeta Sinha, Wan Zawawi Ibrahim and Yeoh Seng Guan. In addition, Maria Mangahas and Nico Warouw contributed papers to the workshop for discussion, though they were not able to attend due to scheduling conflicts. We also note that most but not all of these scholars identify primarily as anthro- pologists; though all are professionally engaged with anthropology and/or social sciences aligned with the rubric of anthropology. Our university hosts many research workshops and meetings, and the editors of this volume attend dozens of workshops and seminars every year and are involved in organizing at least half a dozen or more, in large and small ways. Yet this workshop was special. ix x Preface It began as the spark of an idea to bring practicing anthropologists from across the Southeast Asia region together and into conversation with each other. The chapters of the book were originally commis- sioned as papers for the workshop, and ultimately this publication has materialized, with selected practicing anthropologists invited to write about current trends and developments within their own communities of practice. The result, we hoped, would be a productive dialogue on the development of the discipline in various national contexts and discussions on the transnational linkages that exist or could be forged across and amongst these traditions. The outcome has exceeded our highest expectations. Due to the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness of those attending, we were privileged to be a part of two days of intense, often light-hearted, and consistently collegial discussion of anthropology as conceptualized and practiced across the great diversity of Southeast Asian nations. For various reasons, not every paper presented at the workshop could make it into the current volume. But we are happy to be able to include the chapter by Yunita Winarto and Iwan Pirous, not originally a part of our conference, but first presented much earlier in December 2008 at a conference on “The Asia Pacific and the Emerging World System,” Ritsumaikan Asia Pacific University, Beppu, Japan. We hope that the publication of this collection will render increasingly visible the development, trends and paradigms of South- east Asian anthropologies; first and foremost for scholars working within each of these traditions and second to those working in parallel anthropological traditions across the region. It is not possible for us to reproduce in all their detail the