An Evolutionary Approach to the Southeast Asian Cultural Sequence [and Comments and Reply]

Recent archaelogical work has directed attention toward Southeast Asia. However, while the substantive results of this research are significant for tracing worldwide prehistoric developments, the integration of these findings into a regional archaeological framework continues to be a problem. Most t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current anthropology 1976-06, Vol.17 (2), p.221-242
Main Authors: Hutterer, Karl L., Allen, Jim, Arutiunov, S. A., Bayard, D. T., Bhattacharya, D. K., Bronson, Bennet, Chlenov, M. A., Donkin, R. A., Ellen, Roy F., Harris, David R., Hayden, Brian, Higham, C. F. W., Kleindienst, Maxine R., Kress, Jonathan H., Krzyzaniak, Lech, Moore, David R., George E. B. Morren, Jr, Pearson, Richard, Treloggen, Jean, Peterson, Warren, Stargardt, Janice, Whyte, Robert Orr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Ethnography
Human ecology
Hunter gatherers
South Asian culture
Southeast Asian culture
Stone tools
Subsistence hunting
Sustainable agriculture
Tropical rain forests
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Summary:Recent archaelogical work has directed attention toward Southeast Asia. However, while the substantive results of this research are significant for tracing worldwide prehistoric developments, the integration of these findings into a regional archaeological framework continues to be a problem. Most traditional chronological-developmental frameworks of Southeast Asian prehistory were patterned after the European paradigm of five prehistoric ages. It was implied that cultural developments occurred in several major stages and were relatively uniform throughout the region. The results of several recent excavations as well as ethnographic evidence contradict these assumptions. It is argued here that an explanation for these contradictions can be found in the ecology of Southeast Asia. Much of the region falls within the zone of the perhumid tropics. Resource distribution and a number of other ecological conditions of that zone are responsible for a high degree of geographical discontinuity of the human ecology and an ever increasing cultural diversity over time.
ISSN:0011-3204
1537-5382
DOI:10.1086/201711