The rapid postwar economic growth in the Southeast Asia region has led
to a transformation of many of the societies there, together with the
development of new types of anthropological research in the region.
Local societies with originally quite different cultures have been
incorporated into multi-ethnic states with their own projects of
nation-building based on the creation of "national cultures" using these
indigenous elements. At the same time, the expansion of international
capitalism has led to increasing flows of money, people, languages and
cultures across national boundaries, resulting in new hybrid social
structures and cultural forms.
This book examines the nature of these processes in contemporary
Southeast Asia with detailed case studies drawn from countries across
the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore
and Thailand. At the macro-level these include studies of
nation-building and the incorporation of minorities. At the micro-level
they range from studies of popular cultural forms, such as music and
textiles to the impact of new sects and the world religions on local
religious practice. Moving between the global and the local are the
various streams of migrants within the region, including labor migrants
responding to the changing distribution of economic opportunities and
ethnic minorities moving in response to natural disaster.