Coastal and Maritime Dynamics of Southeast Asia, 5th - 19th Century

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Trading systems, inter-regional cultural exchange, migrations and diasporic communities have received substantial consideration in studies of Southeast Asia and its surrounding seas. Yet, Southeast Asia's mariners and the political and social systems they were part of still seem so opaque. In order to gain a clearer understanding of how regional maritime dynamics interfaced with political and social worlds above the high-water mark, this panel examines connections and interactions along and between coasts, and between the maritime and onshore worlds of Southeast Asia from the 5th to 19th centuries.

This panel may be viewed as either regional or border-crossing, as the topic inherently deals with forms of long-distance exchange and interaction. Panelists will restrict presentations to 20 minutes in order to foster discussion of potentially innovative topics, methodological challenges and new approaches to sources.

Area of Study

• Southeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Jennifer L. Gaynor, University at Buffalo

Chair

• Jennifer L. Gaynor, University at Buffalo

Individual Presentations

• Socio-Political Structure, Membership and Mobility in the Pre-Modern Malay Coastal Port-Polity, 13th - 15th Century - Derek Heng, Yale-NUS College

• Networked Upstream-Downstream and Maritime "Activity Zones" in 16th-19th Century Banjarmasin (Southeast Borneo) - Kenneth R. Hall, Ball State University

• The Shipmasters of Insular Southeast Asia: Seafarers and Entrepreneurs - Pierre-Yves Manguin, École française d’Extrême-Orient

• Sultan Hasanuddin's Rationale for Re-Expansion: Avenging Tiworo's Defeat in the Seascape of the Spice Wars - Jennifer L. Gaynor, University at Buffalo

Discussant

• Charles Wheeler, Independent Scholar