Integrating Local Perspectives into Southeast Asian Archaeology.

Organizers: Rasmi Schoocondej (Silpakorn University) and Wesley Clarke (The Castle Museum) - rasmi13@hotmail.com; sakya52@hotmail.com
 

This panel seeks to explore issues related to the proposed inclusion of a broader range of viewpoints in the conceptualization and practice of archaeology in Southeast Asia.  Is the existing dominance of Western concepts and methods generally appropriate in supporting a “scientific” and “objective” discipline in the region, or has the observation and interpretation of Southeast Asian data been hampered by the lack of indigenous perspectives that may have a more direct comprehension of past communities and practices?  Are local viewpoints inevitably tied to modern nationalistic and ideological biases, or do Western concepts bring similar distortions that have tended to be ignored or glossed?  Is an approach that better integrates local and non-local viewpoints and cultural knowledge, perhaps also emphasizing more strictly empirical descriptions of the archaeological record, possible and desirable?  Or is such a proposal a call to a relativism in which any viewpoint and interpretation must be viewed as an equally reasonable depiction of the past?  This panel welcomes a multiplicity of views on these and related questions, in an effort to promote dialog and relevant change in the conceptualization and practice of archaeology in Southeast Asia.