A zone of refuge in Southeast Asia? Reconceptualizing interior spaces

Journal of Global History

Volumn 5, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 333-346

  Lieberman, Victor ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85011343502     PISSN: 17400228     EISSN: 17400236     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S1740022810000112     Document Type: Review

References (147)

1. A neologism derived from Tibeto-Burman and meaning ‘region of remote people’: James C. Scott, The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 14, 16.
2. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., p. x.
3. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 96–97.
4. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 67, 85.
5. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 64–73.
6. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., p. 97 and ch. 3, passim.
7. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 86–9, 151–3.
8. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 24–6, 127–9, 141–54, 326, and ch. 5, passim.
9. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 32, 137–45, 175, 240, 284–5.
10. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., p. 128.
11. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., ch. 7, esp. pp. 256–270.
12. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 129, 152–3, 279.
13. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 77, 162, 186–209, 279, 327.
14. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 207–19, 279.
15. The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., p. 219; also pp. 210, 220, 235, 277, 327 and 178–282 passim.
16. Compare The art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia., pp. 3, 12–13
17. with Francois Furet and Jacques Ozouf, Reading and writing: literacy in France from Calvin to Jules Ferry, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 297–9;
18. Xavier de Planhol, An historical geography of France, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. 326–344.
19. Scott, Art, pp. 29–32, 130–7, 189–90, 259–61, 328.
20. E. R. Leach, Political systems of highland Burma, London: Athlone Press, 1970 (reprint).
21. I have assiduously combed the Notes in Scott, Art, pp. 339–406
22. Scott's Notes refer to four publications of translated Burmese materials: Frank Trager and William Koenig, eds. and trans., Burmese sit-tans 1764–1826, Tucson, AZ: The Association for Asian Studies, 1979;
23. Than Tun, The royal orders of Burma, A.D. 1598–1885, 10 vols., Kyoto: The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 1983–1990;
24. Pe Maung Tin and G. H. Luce, The Glass Palace chronicle of the kings of Burma, London: Oxford University Press, 1923;
25. Nai Thein, comp. and tr., ‘Glass Palace chronicle: excerpts translated on Burmese invasions of Siam’, Journal of the Siam Society, 5, 1908, pp. 1–82 and 8, 1911, pp. 1–119.
26. (Scott, Art, pp. 345, 350, 369,374).
27. Toe Hla, ‘Moneylending and contractual thet-kayits: a socio-economic pattern of the later Kon-baung period, 1819–1885’, PhD thesis, Northern Illinois University, 1987
28. Jorg Schendel, ‘The Mandalay economy: Upper Burma's external trade, c.1850–90’, PhD thesis, University of Heidelberg, 2002.
29. Scott, Art, pp. 224–5.
30. In France it was 47%; in Japan, 40–50%. On Southeast Asian literacy, see Victor Lieberman, Strange parallels: Southeast Asia in global context. c. 800–1830, 2 vols., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 189, 313–16, 443–7, and vol. 2, pp. 27–8.
31. Examples of dating errors: Scott dates Anuvong's anti-Bangkok revolt at Vientiane to ‘the late nineteenth century’ (Scott, Art,pp. 303–4)
32. although it occurred in 1827: see Mayoury Ngaosyvathn and Pheuiphanh Ngaosyvathn, Paths to conflagration, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1998, chs. 6–8.
33. He writes that Chiang Mai lost its independence in the eighteenth century (Scott, Art, p. 341)
34. when in fact it did so in 1558: see Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 2, pp. 285–6, 299, 312–13;
35. David Wyatt, Thailand: a short history, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2nd edn, 2003, pp. 104–10, 116–17.
36. He starts the Pegu-Ava wars in 1747 (Scott, Art, p. 287)
37. six years too late: see Lieberman, Burmese administrative cycles, pp. 215–224.
38. He dates Tomé Pires' work thirty years too late (Scott, Art, p. 80)
39. see Armando Cortesao, trans. and ed., The Suma oriental of Tomé Pires and the book of Francisco Rodrigues, 2 vols., London: Hakluyt Society, 1944.
40. He has frontier revolts targeting the Ming that in fact targeted the Qing (Scott, Art, p. 316).
41. Srivijaya was succeeded by Melaka, while Melaka yielded to Aceh, Banten, and Johor, all thinly populated maritime-based polities.
42. See Scott, Art, p. 69;
43. Lieberman, Strange parallels,vol. 2, ch. 7.
44. The claim that Theravada Burma and Siam ‘potentially made the ruler into a Hindu-Buddhist god-king’ is wrong (Scott, Art, p. 155).
45. cited in my Burmese administrative cycles, pp. 218–19, 223, 231, 232n, 264 make clear that this was the case.
46. Other doubtful or erroneous assertions appear inter alia at Scott, Art, pp. 61–62
47. (pace Than Tun, key campaigns were fought during the rainy season); at pp. 35, 44–5
48. Strange parallels., pp. 64–73, esp. p. 69.
49. Li Tana, Nguyen Cochinchina, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1998;
50. George Dutton, The Tay Son uprising, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006;
51. Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 1, ch. 4.
52. Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 1,pp. 129–31, 236–58, 371–2.
53. See also Geoff Wade, ‘An early age of commerce in Southeast Asia, 900–1300 CE’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40, 2, 2009, pp. 221–265.
54. Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 1, pp. 151–3, 184–5, 302–13;
55. Hong Lysa, Thailand in the nineteenth century, Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 1984.
56. See previous note; also Ngaosyvathn and Ngaosyvathn, Paths to conflagration, pp. 45–50.
57. Aung-Thwin, Pagan; Greater Angkor Project, ‘Redefining Angkor’, Udaya, 4, 2003,pp. 107–125
58. Leigh Dayton, ‘The lost city’, New Scientist, 13 January 2001, pp. 30–3;
59. Roland Fletcher, ‘Seeing Angkor: new views on an old city’, Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia, 32–3, 2000–2001, pp. 1–27;
60. Jared Diamond, ‘Maya, Khmer, and Inca’, Nature, 461, 24 September 2009, pp. 479–480.
61. Lieberman, Strange Parallels, vol. 1, pp. 367–72, 386–96, 419–23.
62. Scott, Art, p. 27; also pp. 128, 142, 306, 326, 334.
63. Jean Michaud, Historical dictionary of the peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006, pp. 8–9, 50, 100, 130, 136, 161–2, 193, 241, 258, 265.
64. See also Frank Lebar, Gerald C. Hickey, and John K. Musgrave, Ethnic groups of mainland Southeast Asia, New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1964, esp. the excellent end maps;
65. Paul and Elaine Lewis, Peoples of the golden triangle, London: Thames and Hudson, 1984, pp. 102, 136, 172, 204, 242.
66. See discussion in Michaud, Historical dictionary, pp. xx, 7–9;
67. Charles Patterson Giersch, ‘Qing China's reluctant subjects’, PhD thesis, Yale University, 1998, pp. 40, 43–4;
68. Leo Shin, The making of the Chinese state, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, chs. 4, 5;
69. David Faure, ‘The Yao wars in the mid-Ming and their impact on Yao ethnicity’
70. Donald S. Sutton, ‘Ethnicity and the Miao frontier in the eighteenth century’, in Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton, eds., Empire at the Margins, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006, pp. 171–228.
71. See Scott, Art, pp. 117–18, 129, 138–49, 223, 284–93, 316, 341, 375–6.
72. Scott relies heavily on Herold Wiens, China's march toward the tropics, Hamden, CT: Shoestring Press, 1954.
73. Scott, Art, pp. 154, 285, 289–93, 316, 375–6; n. 38 above
74. Michaud, Historical dictionary, pp. xx, 92, 188–90.
75. Michaud, Historical dictionary, pp. 50 (Lolo-Muhso)
76. Scott, Art, pp. 149, 224.
77. Historical dictionary., p. 143.
78. Historical dictionary., p. 149, citing J. G. Scott.
79. Historical dictionary., pp. 149, citing Charles Keyes.
80. Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, pp. 130–1;
81. Michaud, Historical dictionary, p. 40.
82. Michaud, Historical dictionary, p. 193.
83. F. K. Lehman, The structure of Chin society, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1963, pp. 24, 26, 33–6.
84. A. Saulière, tr., ‘The Jesuits on Pegu at the end of the XVIth century’, Bengal Past and Present, 19, 1919, p. 74.
85. Alexander Dalrymple, Reprint from Dalrymple's oriental repertory, 1791–7, of portions relating to Burma, Rangoon, 1926, vo p. 130.
86. Moreover, in 1714 a failed Burmese princely pretender fled to the wilds, where, by a tribal woman, he fathered a boy who later claimed the throne of Ava: Hman-nan-daw-u-dwin pyu-zi-yin-ya-thaw maha-ya-zawin-daw-gyi, vol. 3, Mandalay: Ahtet myan-ma naing-ngan thadin-sa Press, 1908, p. 383.
87. Lieberman, Burmese administrative cycles, pp. 134–6, including nn. 239–49, and pp. 215–16;
88. idem, ‘Ethnic politics in eighteenth-century Burma’, Modern Asian Studies, 12, 3, 1978, pp. 468–9.
89. See, e.g., Lehman, Structure, pp. 28–39.
90. See, e.g., Leach, Political systems, pp. 36–7, 230ff., 246;
91. Lehman, Structure, ch. 1
92. James Anderson, The rebel den of Nung Tri Cao, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2007, pp. 13–14, 69–70, 77–87;
93. G. H. Luce, ‘Note on the peoples of Burma in the 12th- 13th century A.D.’, Journal of the Burma Research Society, 42, 1, 1959, pp. 52–74;
94. Michaud, Historical dictionary, pp. 118–22, 124–5, 141, 188;
95. Charles Higham, The archaeology of mainland Southeast Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 31–61, 143, 191, 228–30.
96. Scott, Art, p. 162.
97. Lehman, Structure, p. 25 refers to a sixteenth-century population ‘explosion’ in the northern Chin hills.
98. Lehman, Structure, p. 32; pp. 37–8 emphasize that Chin conflicts were typically with lowland bandits and independent local leaders, Shan as well as Burman, not with the monarchical state, although the Chin flattered themselves by dignifying their lowland rivals as agents of ‘the Burmese king’. On upland attitudes to lowlanders
99. see also Structure., pp. 28–39
100. Scott, Art, pp. 216–19, 221–4, 289–93.
101. Citations from I. Mabbett, ‘Some remarks on the present state of knowledge about slavery in Angkor’, in Anthony Reid, ed., Slavery, bondage, and dependency in Southeast Asia, New York: St Martin's Press, 1983, pp. 44–45.
102. See also Slavery, bondage, and dependency in Southeast Asia., pp. 44–63;
103. Luce, ‘Note’, pp. 56, 59, 61, 62, 68.
104. Leach, Political systems, pp. 39–40.
105. Ngaosyvathn and Ngaosyvathn, Paths to conflagration, pp. 45–50.
106. See also Katherine Bowie's graphic account of slave raiding and slave markets, ‘Slavery in nineteenth-century northern Thailand’, in E. Paul Durrenberger, ed., State power and culture in Thailand, New Haven, CT: Yale Southeast Asian Studies, 1996, pp. 100–138.
107. Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, ch. 6
108. Dutton, Tay Son uprising, pp. 210–211.
109. scott, Art, p. 216
110. Lehman, Structure, pp. 28–39.
111. Scott, Art, pp. 64, 179, 190–6.
112. See also Leach, Political systems, pp. 21, 27–8, 236–7;
113. Michaud, Historical dictionary, p. 100.
114. Cf. Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 1, pp. 38–40, 58–9, 87, 117–19, 135–8, 188–98, 286, 315–16, 382–3, 443–8, 455;
115. Scott, Art, pp. 220–237.
116. Cf. Scott, Art, ch. 7
117. Lieberman, Strange parallels, vol. 1, pp. 40–4, 131–5, 200–6, 266–73, 324–30, 365–7, 408–15, 429–33, and vol. 2, pp. 37–48, 63–7, and passim.
118. David Henley, ‘Conflict, justice, and the stranger-king roots of colonial rule in Indonesia and elsewhere’, Modern Asian Studies, 38, 1, 2004, p. 92.
119. On exceptionally high levels of violence in non-state societies, see Nicholas Wade, Before the dawn, New York: Penguin, 2006, pp. 85–6, 150–7;
120. Steven Pinker, ‘A history of violence’, 2007, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html (consulted 9 March 2010);
121. Lawrence Keeley, War before civilization, New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
122. Lehman, Structure, pp. 25–6, 81–2, 90–1;
123. Marcus Franke, War and nationalism in South Asia, London: Routledge, 2009, pp. 20–26.
124. Leach, Political systems, pp. 89–100, 185–7.
125. see n. 14 above; Leach, Political systems, chs. 6–8;
126. Scott, Art, pp. 213–16, 274–81;
127. Francois Robinne and Mandy Sadan, eds., Social dynamics in the highlands of Southeast Asia, Leiden: Brill, 2007, esp. pt. 2, critiquing Leach's theories of social oscillation.
128. Also in Wa, Akha, and Lahu areas. See Scott, Art, pp. 216–19, 328–31;
129. Lehman, Structure, pp. 37–38
130. Freek Colombijn, ‘The volatile state in Southeast Asia: evidence from Sumatra, 1600–1800’, Journal of Asian Studies, 62, 2, 2003, pp. 497–529, esp. 509–12.
131. Frank Lebar, ed., Ethnic groups of insular Southeast Asia: vol. 1, New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, 1972,pp. 150–97;
132. D. E. Brown, Brunei: the structure and history of a Bornean Malay sultanate, Brunei: Star Press, 1970, pp. 130–63;
133. M. C. Ricklefs, A history of modern Indonesia since c. 1200, 4th edn, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
134. Lebar, Ethnic groups, pp. 94–97
135. Barbara Watson Andaya, personal communications, 12 December 2008 and 4 January 2010.
136. David Henley, Fertility, food, and fever, Leiden: KITLV Press, 2005, pp. 1–100
137. idem, ‘Conflict’, pp. 90–91.
138. See Leonard Andaya, The world of Maluku, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1993, pp. 82, 99–109, 192, 216, 220ff.;
139. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edn, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2007, vol. 9, pp. 130–2 and vol. 25, pp. 273–4;
140. Axel Steensberg, New Guinea gardens, London: Academic Press, 1980, esp. chs. 1 and 2;
141. Jared Diamond, Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies, New York: W.W. Norton, 2007, pp. 147–50, 298–308, 315–19, 346–51;
142. Peter Ryan, ed., Encyclopedia of Papua and New Guinea, Clayton: Melbourne University Press, 1972, vol. 1, pp. 10–18;
143. Michael Rynkiewich, Cultures and languages of Papua New Guinea, Goroka: Melanesian Institute, 2004, pp. 35–36, 40–4;
144. Julie Campbell, Irian Jaya-Papua, Singapore: Graham Brash, 1991, pp. 39, 63;
145. C. R. Hallpike, Bloodshed and vengeance in the Papuan mountains, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977, esp. chs. 5 and 8;
146. Diana Howlett, Papua New Guinea, London: Thomas Nelson, 1973, chs. 1–4;
147. Wade, Before the dawn. pp. 85–6, 152–7.