HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

The course is part of the B.A. program in "Languages, Cultures, and Societies of Asia and Mediterranean Africa" (India and South-East Asia Curriculum).
Its educational objectives fall within the area of historical, cultural, and humanistic skills learning.

Knowledge and understanding:
- identify and understand key transformations of South-East Asia, from its origins to contemporary times
- gain awareness of archival research methodologies in the historical study of South-East Asia

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- Ability to read and discuss critically the historiography of Southeast Asia
- Develop analytical tools to discuss, interpret, and deconstruct historical sources
- Analyse religious and cultural changes in two or more Southeast Asian societies

Historical interest in the societies, cultures, and peoples of South-East Asia

The history of Southeast Asia (including Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines, and Vietnam) is both distinctive and deeply connected with that of the great empires to the west (India, the Middle East, and Europe) and to the east (Japan) and north (China). Southeast Asia is, historically, a major crossroad of cultural exchange, regional and global trade, and religious beliefs. This course will serve as an introduction to the long history of this diverse region.

Key historical transformations of South-East Asia, in the pre-modern, colonial and post-colonial period, will be examined along the following axes of comparison:
- mainland and insular South-East Asia
- lowland state or state-like societies and upland 'stateless peoples'
- primary and secondary sources: natural, material, written, and oral

Required readings/textbooks:
Osborne, M. (2021). Southeast Asia: An Introductory History, 13th edition. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin (selected chapters).
Scott, J. (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press (selected chapters).

Thematic subjects/articles-essays:
Geertz, C. (2005), 'Deep play: notes on the Balinese cockfight', Daedalus 134 (4): 56-86.
Tambiah, S. (2013), 'The galactic polity in Southeast Asia', HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3 (3): 503–34.

Additional required readings will be announced in class and provided through Moodle.

Written exam: Multiple-choice test

The test will assess:
a) the student's knowledge of chronology, periodization, and the main events and personalities of Southeast Asian history;
b) the student's ability to contextualize a given event, institution, or personality in the time and space of Southeast Asian history from classical to contemporary ages;
c) the student's ability to identify and understand the main cultural factors that have influenced Southeast Asian historical processes.
d) the student's knowledge and ability to understand critically the texts assigned in the bibliography.

The exam grade (max 30/30) will be determined by the sum of the scores obtained from the answers to the individual questions.

Lectures (interspersed with presentations of films and materials), group discussions, exercises in small groups.

Italian

written