Forager-Traders in South and Southeast Asia
Long-Term Histories

A unique re-assessment of forager-trader groups within the complex historical worlds of South and Southeast Asia.

Kathleen D. Morrison (Edited by), Laura L. Junker (Edited by)

9780521016360, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 December 2002

312 pages, 16 b/w illus. 10 maps 9 tables
24.7 x 17.5 x 2.1 cm, 0.62 kg

"An excellent overview of the prehistory of South and Southeast Asia and the long history of contact between foragers and agriculturalists in these areas...the general themes of long-term histories and changing adaptations in this volume are very relevant from a global perspective including North american Prehistory." Canadian Journal of Archaeology

In both South and Southeast Asia, many upland groups make a living - in whole or part - through gathering and hunting, producing not only subsistence goods but commodities destined for regional and even world markets. These forager-traders have had an ambiguous position in ethnographic analysis, variously represented as relics, degraded hunter-gatherers, or recent upstarts. Forager-Traders in South and Southeast Asia adopts a multidisciplinary approach to these groups, presenting a series of comparative case-studies that analyse the long-term histories of hunting, gathering, trading, power relations, and regional social and biological interactions in this critical region. This book is a fascinating and important addition to the current 'revisionist' debate, and a unique attempt to re-conceptualize our knowledge of forager-traders within the surrounding context of complex polities, populations and economies in South and Southeast Asia.

1. Historicizing adaptation, adapting to history: forager-traders in South and Southeast Asia Kathleen D. Morrison
2. Introduction Kathleen D. Morrison
3. Hunting and gathering strategies in prehistoric India: a bio-cultural perspective on trade and subsistence John R. Lukacs
4. Harappans and hunters: economic interaction and specialization in prehistoric India Gregory L. Possehl
5. Gender and social organization in the reliefs of the Nilgiri Hills Allen Zagarell
6. Pepper in the hills: upland-lowland exchange and the intensification of the spice trade Kathleen D. Morrison
7. Introduction Laura L. Junker
8. Hunters and traders in Northern Australia Sandra Bowdler
9. Foragers, farmers, and traders in the Malaysian Peninsula Alan Fix
10. Economic specialization and inter-ethnic trade between foragers and farmers in the Prehispanic Philippines Laura L. Junker.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Archaeology [HD], Regional studies [GTB]