![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Several contemporary relevant issues in Southeast Asia-such as globalisation, maritime transportation, piracy, and the complex relations between coastal and inland populations-have a long and increasingly well-understood history in this part of the world. At the same time, many of these aquatic populations face challenges similar to those of indigenous peoples in general: poverty, social exclusion and external pressures from neighbouring communities and, indeed, from the wider world. Their houseboats, coastal stilt villages and sea-oriented economies form some of the last truly authentic exponents of the region’s great maritime history. Even today, Southeast Asia is home to communities for whom life is predominantly spent ashore and afloat. The seascapes of Southeast Asia are as dynamic as they are diverse.Īmidst the world’s largest archipelago, history has continuously been shaped, dominated and punctuated by events that took place on the water. On the other, 19th and 20th-century developments have largely confined these communities to the margins of society, while their erstwhile “maritory” has become the battleground of competing “globalised” crime syndicates, maritime terrorists and post-independent nation states with modern navies. On the one hand, many of the interethnic power relations that helped shape the maritime history of Southeast Asia have remained intact to date and can help us understand a number of present-day phenomena. Since the emergence of large-scale harbour polities in Sumatra, Borneo and other parts of insular Southeast Asia, nomadic maritime communities have intermittently appropriated the roles of protégés, outlaws and victims in a multilayered and multifaceted interplay of seaborne navigation, commerce and warfare. Their cultures and aquatic lifestyles, it is argued, are relevant to understanding the wider context of various historical and contemporary issues in this region. It highlights the region’s “sea people”, giving special attention to their complex and dynamic interactions with terrestrial communities. This study explores the profound maritime dimension in Southeast Asia’s past and present. ![]()
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