CONFERENCE PAPERS

A symposium entitled, Social Perspectives on East and Southeast Asian Prehistory was organized by Elisabeth A. Bacus and chaired by Yun Lee and Karen Mudar for the Society of American Archaeology 58th Annual Meetings held in April, 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri. The following abstracts are from the Southeast Asian archaeology papers and are published in Society for American Archaeology, Abstracts of the 58th Annual Meeting. Washington, D.C.: SAA.

ELISABETH A. BACUS The Context of Interaction Among Late Prehistoric Chiefdom in the Central Philippines.

Current models of chiefly political economy point to inter-polity interactions as important to the development and support of elite political power. Research at late prehistoric chiefly centers in the central Philippines indicates that their political economies evidenced internal intensification and increased involvement in inter-polity competition for foreign prestige goods. Earthenware data from these sites, and from a recently excavated chiefly center in SE Negros, allow investigation of the types and contexts of interactions among these polities. This paper presents results from stylistic and technological analyses of the decorated earthenwares, and discusses the implications for understanding the dynamic context of inter-chiefly interactions (SAA 1993:17).

LAURA JUNKER The Development of Centralized Craft Production Systems in A.D. 0-1500 Philippines Chiefdoms.

Brumfiel and Earle have distinguished two types of full-time specialists in complex societies: "attached specialists", who produce luxury goods at regional centers for the elite political economy, and "independent specialists", who concentrate at regional centers due to production efficiencies associated with "high volume" product demand. Archeological and ethnohistoric evidence is used to examine the development of these two distinct forms of centralized production in coastal Philippine complex societies from A.D. 0-1500. Analyses of pottery "standardization" and regional distribution pattern document changing production systems in the Tanjay chiefdom of Negros Oriental (SAA 1993:73).

KAREN MUDAR Secondary state formation on the Central Plain Thailand.

The concept of secondary state formation is examined with respect to the development of complex societies on the Central Plain of Thailand. Evidence form locational analysis of moated sites and historical records are used to examine the development of the Dvaravati Kingdom, which is dated to the 6th - 10th c. A.D. Locational analysis of moated sites demonstrate the presence of four or more levels of settlement hierarchy; historical records suggest long-distance trade relations. This data from Southeast Asia is used to address the utility of the concept of secondary states as distinctively different in form and evolution from primary states (SAA 1993:102).

DAVID WELCH Moated Sites and Late Prehistoric Social Change in Northeast Thailand.

The walled and moated sites of northeast Thailand are a prime indicator of late prehistoric changes in social and political organization. These sites provide evidence of increased political complexity, competition, regional integration, agricultural intensification, and social stratification during the period preceding state formation. A study of moated sites in the Phimai region includes the first effort to date directly the construction of the earthworks, an examination of the labor effort required to build them, analysis of their place within a hierarchical settlement system, and interpretation of their possible role in late prehistoric exchange systems (SAA 1993:146).

Four other papers on Southeast Asian archaeology were presented in other symposia and general sessions at the Society for American Archaeology Meetings, and the published abstracts are reprinted below.

LISA KEALHOFER
-- Holocene Environments and Early Agriculture in Central Thailand. Presented in the general session entitled, Archaeology of the Pacific and East Asia.
In order to lay the foundation for studying the origins of rice agriculture in Thailand, a regional paleoenvironmental study was recently initiated in central Thailand. The project sampled from modern, geological, and archaeological soil sequences for both phytolith and pollen analysis. A series of four Holocene sequences have been analyzed and dated, providing a history of Holocene human impact on vegetation in this area. The identification of rice phytolith, and a broad range of ecospecific phytolith forms, suggest that a larger scale project should potentially address many issues in discussions of agricultural origins in Southeast Asia (SAA 1993:74).

-- Phytoliths in Southeast Asian Flora. Presented in the symposium entitled, Frontiers in Phytolith Research, organized and chaired by Irwin Rovner and Elizabeth Lawlor.
As part of an investigation of the development of agriculture in Thailand, 360 species from over 80 families of Southeast Asian plants or domesticates were analyzed for phytoliths. The distribution of phytoliths by species, genus, and family is presented. Previously unreported diagnostic phytolith are also shown. These results provide one facet of the necessary background for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. In conjunction with the analysis of modern and paleo soils, changing patterns of agricultural, and other economic, activities in the region can be studied. Preliminary soil analysis results from central Thailand provide a larger context for compiling a phytolith type collection (SAA 1993:74).

WILLIAM LONGACRE, MIRIAM STARK AND KENNETH KVAMME -- You've Seen One, You've Seen 'Em All: Alternative Statistical Techniques to Measure Ceramic Standardization Applied to Four Philippine Examples. Presented in the general session entitled, Archaeology of the Pacific and East Asia.

Archaeologists assume that standardized pottery reflects production by specialists. To test this assumption, data sets from several contemporary pottery making communities in the Philippines are assessed. The pottery includes samples from nonspecialized production (Kalinga, Luzon), full-time specialists with a technology identical to Kalinga (Carcar, Cebu), and full-time producers using Kalinga technology with the addition of the slow wheel or tournette (Gubat, Luzon). The relative utility of several statistical techniques for measuring the degree of morphological standardization is examined. New and more appropriate statistical techniques for analyzing prehistoric ceramic assemblages are discussed and pitfalls are identified (SAA 1993:87).

JOYCE C. WHITE -- Indigenous Landscape Classificatiion and the Development of Early Rice Agriculture in Thailand. Presented in the symposium entitled, The Ethnoarchaeology of Settlement Pattern: Agricultural Societies, organized and chaired by Jacqueline Rossignol.

Archaeologists working in Thailand expected the settlement pattern of early agricultural villages to be oriented toward soils appropriate for either swidden or wet rice cultivation. However, these sites dating to the 2nd and 3rd millennium B.C. are not found near soils considered most suitable for either dry or wet rice cultivation. Ethnoecological research revealed an indigenous landscape classification system that is more differentiated than scientific schemes. The indigenous system refines our understanding of the distribution of the early farming settlements relative to natural resources, and provides a basis for a new model for the development of early rice agriculture (SAA 1993:148).

YOSHIAKI ISHIZAWA -- 1992 Excerpt from "Action by Sophia University of Tokyo" (Based on a paper presented in the symposium entitled, Cambodia: A Future for the Past, organized by the Asia Society in New York, June 5-7, 1992). Unesco Bulletin No.2 (Save Angkor):15-16.

"Yoshiaki Ishizawa pointed out that Cambodia's culture and monumental heritage should be protected above all by the Cambodian themselves, thereby calling at the present juncture for a major educational input at both university level and that of practical training at archaeological sites. Such a view of things also implied that the findings foreign experts should be translated into Khmer.

"Research work in preparation for the future should comprise several features. To begin with, it should be of a middle or term nature, in other words planned to extend over a period of 50 or 100 years, with methods and equipment appropriate to one or other duration in time. Research should also be interdisciplinary, affording maximum attention to social, economic and historic matters, while opening the door to extensive international co-operation.

"The international mission of Sophia University is at present focusing its activities on the Banteay Kdei site. Three week long digs are organized there twice yearly, i.e. during the rainy season (in March) and the dry season (in August). The team consists of some twenty experts from a wide variety of disciplines including history, archaeology, architecture, geology, hydrology, plant ecology, economy and sociology, as well as legal protection of the cultural heritage. Each campaign is followed by the publication of report in English, Japanese and Khmer.

"In the time to come, Sophia University intends to carry out a thorough multidisciplinary study of Bayon, and experts from different countries will be welcome to join the Japanese experts on the job. It also hopes to assist in organizing a system of international co-operation in order to rationalize the mammoth enterprise of protection and preservation that is required, and to improve the organization of the training of Cambodians in the fields."

AMARA SRISUCHAT -- 1993 A New Viewpoint on the Early Contact Period in Thailand Based on Archaeological Data. Paper presented at the International Workshop on Current Developments in Southeast Asian Archaeology. SPAFA, Bangkok, Thailand. March 8-14, 1993.

HA VAN TAN -- 1991 New Researches on the Stone Age Sites Previously Excavated by French Archaeologists in Viet Nam. Paper presented in Deuxieme Symposium Franco-Thai, Recentes Recherches en Archeologie en Thailande. December 9-11, 1991, Silpakorn University, Thailand.