Singh, Sarinda (2012) Bureaucratic migrants and the potential of prosperity in upland Laos. In: Chua, Liana, Cook, Joanna, Long, Nicholas, and Wilson, Lee, (eds.) Southeast Asian Perspectives on Power. Modern Anthropology of Southeast Asia, 1 . Taylor & Francis, Oxon, RN, pp. 119-134.

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Abstract

[Extract] A key theme informing understandings of power across Southeast Asia is the contract between lowland centers and upland frontiers. The lowlands are sites of productive irrigated agricultur, religious and cultural refinement and political integration and welath, wheras the uplands signify the opposite. While associated with 'tributary frameworks of pre-modern states' (Jonsson 2000: 76), many moderns states and non-state actors also utilize and perpetuate such upland-lowland distinctions. In recent years, a considerable body of research has questioned the presumed divide between centres and peripheries across Southeast Asia. For instance, Scott's (2009: 24-7) 'anarchist history' of the region sees uplands as an ecological 'shatter zone' where a 'fugitive population' of swidden agriculturalists flee to evade unwanted control of lowland states.

Item ID:	27845
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-0-415-68345-6
Date Deposited:	27 Jun 2013 00:00
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1601 Anthropology > 160104 Social and Cultural Anthropology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9599 Other Cultural Understanding > 959999 Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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