While the field of Southeast Asian studies in US, European, and Australian academies faces challenges and decline, the discipline has developed significantly in Southeast Asia and elsewhere in Asia. Given the apparent shift in academic investment, this examination of patterns in awarding prizes for work in the field over the past two decades seeks to understand where “prestige” in the field is located. Assuming that prizes are more than just recognition for a scholar’s individual work, and that they also act as indicators for the development of Southeast Asian studies in a broader sense, this analysis concludes that prestige continues to be bestowed predominantly to those studying, working, and publishing in countries outside the region, particularly the United States. Our analysis reveals that overwhelmingly awardees of the preeminent book prizes given for excellence in Southeast Asian studies completed their higher research degree in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia (91 percent) and are currently affiliated with institutions in Europe, the United States, and Australia (94 percent). Although the number of institutions based in Asia, both old and new, has increased in recent decades, these institutions do not yet award book prizes akin to those under study, nor is there a regional association that does. It may be that a lack of institutionalized collaboration across these regional centers is one of the factors that indirectly boosts the ongoing dominance of institutions based in the US, Europe, and Australia. Rather than explaining this absence, in this article we seek to raise questions about the current state of Southeast Asian studies, who is shaping global ideas about Southeast Asia, and who currently—and will in the future—constitute their “communities of assessment” (Appadurai 2000).

This essay is a preliminary study on the rise of human rights discourse in the Tagalog language from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth using a carefully designed textual corpus. The corpus is made up of original Tagalog texts as well as translations of political treatises from European languages into Tagalog. While it has been found that karapatan (rights) is indeed a central notion in the development of a specifically Tagalog revolutionary discourse, the matter of its “inherence” in the tao (human being) has followed a particularly convoluted path due to the existence of alternative interpretations revolving around the moral “worthiness” of individuals and classes.

The Marcos dictatorship remains a contested period in Philippine history. Children’s books on this period of martial law narrate how children confronted the violence that disrupted their families. Using Clémentine Beauvais’ concept of the “mighty child,” I analyze the depiction of politicized children in Augie Rivera’s Isang Harding Papel (A garden of flowers) (2014) and Si Jhun-Jhun, Noong Bago Ideklara ang Batas Militar (Jhun-Jhun before the declaration of martial law) (2001) and Sandra Nicole Roldan’s At the School Gate (2018). I interrogate how the child protagonists established normalcy and exercised their agency during the dictatorship. I also examine the adult-child relations that could affect such politicization. By defining normalcy and structuring their lives, these children from activist families maintained order despite the political chaos. However, in some of the texts the adult characters are passive and evade discussion of the causes of violence. Hence, the characters’ familial problems are not elevated to the country’s struggle. Rather than the characters confronting the structural defects that give rise to despotic governments, these familial problems are resolved with the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship, with the celebratory narrative of the 1986 People Power Revolution undermining both the characters’ and the people’s agency. This study is important since children’s books may mediate a remembrance of the past, especially for the generation with no memories of the period.

This paper investigates the palaeogeographic evolution of the Wonosobo Volcanic Area (WVA) of Central Java, Indonesia and its impact on ancient human life beginning from the Ancient Mataram era of the seventh-eighth centuries. Primary observations conducted across nine zones of three distinct volcano units were cross-referenced with existing geological and topographical maps and relevant secondary literature to create a chronology of landform evolution. Traces of past life were found spread throughout the WVA. In the Sundoro Stratovolcano area, which was still experiencing activity in the time of Ancient Mataram, volcanic eruptions were disastrous, with evidence of at least one settlement buried. But in the Sumbing and Dieng Volcanic Complex areas, which have been inactive for two-three centuries, the impact of volcanism on human life is not as apparent. Instead, the denudation process, exacerbated by the climate conditions, is more influential, as evidenced by various archaeological relics that are buried in alluvial material. This study provides alternative information about the contribution of natural factors in influencing the dynamics of life in Ancient Mataram. This study also offers new insights into the influence of palaeogeographic changes on human-environment interaction on a long temporal scale.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is often considered the main driver of the declining number of increasingly rare animals (including tigers, rhinos and pangolins), although there is little biomedical evidence supporting the usage of animal products from these species. What, then, are the underlying cultural and ontological factors driving demand for them? Based on published sources on Chinese (Han) and Vietnamese (Kinh) tiger lore and culture as well as anthropological fieldwork among the Katu and related Katuic-speaking groups, this paper analyzes how the tiger has been viewed over time in Vietnam and China, two core demand areas for animal-based traditional medicines, and compares “high-culture” and rural perceptions in the Sino-Vietnamese region. Tentatively, the paper reveals a transition from a view of the tiger as a divinity or powerful spirit towards a more material and instrumental (magical) perception in more recent iterations of the TCM complex. Heuristically using Descola’s typology of ontologies, the paper attempts a holistic analysis of this perceptional and conceptual transformation, interpreting it as a movement along an animism-analogism continuum.