Until recently, historians were content to acknowledge the sailing skills of the Austronesian speaking people of Southeast Asia, without granting them any agency in World history. Triggered by sustained progress in the archaeology of both coastal sites and shipwrecks in Southeast Asia, and by a reconsideration of textual sources of the past two millennia, a new paradigm is now emerging, where these same people play an active role as shipbuilders, shipmasters, and entrepreneurs in pan-Asian trade networks.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Pierre-Yves Manguin is emeritus professor of archaeology at the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO, French School of Asian Studies, Paris). His research focuses on early history and archaeology of coastal states and trade networks of Southeast Asia. Starting in the early 1980s, he has lead archaeological work in the South Sumatra and West Java in Indonesia, and in the Mekong Delta in Southern Vietnam, focussing on harbour-city sites situated along the main trade routes, and on shipwreck sites of Indonesia. He has published on themes related to the archaeology of the early states of Srivijaya (South Sumatra), Funan (Mekong Delta), Tarumanagara (West Java), and on trade and state formation processes in Southeast Asia.

Organized by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies; co-sponsored by the Center for South Asian Studies, Department of Anthropology, Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, and Doctoral Program in Anthropology and History.