Southeast Asian Societies Research Articles

The Threat of Radical Thinking and Extremism in the Nusantara (Malay Archipelago)

The world has witnessed the emergence of radical and extremist ideology which poses a threat to international security by influencing society towards excessive acts. Radical and extremist ideology is not only limited to certain territories but covers the entire Islamic world including South-east Asia. The evolution of ideologies from the West based on a doctrine of violence leads to conflict or clash of cultures and civilization, especially for societies in South-east Asia. Hence, the purpose of this article is to identify the forms of radical and extremist threat which apply specifically in South-east Asia. In addition, this writing aims to identify methods or measures in handling the issue of radicalism and extremism which occurs in South-east Asian states. Writing methodology is qualitative with a historical and current phenomena approach based on data findings through literature review and document analysis. Research findings conclude that radical and extremist ideology poses a threat to society and state so as to challenge multiculturism policy of a state. The push and pull factor also plays a role in spreading this ideology within society Therefore, this article attempts to bring a reply narrative based on pro-active methods and measures in the prevention of and dealing with this complex global issue.

Contributions from Japan to gastrointestinal endoscopy training and development: Special report.

Contributions from Japan to gastrointestinal endoscopy training and development: Special report.

斎藤照子．『18–19世紀ビルマ借金証文の研究―東南アジアの一つの近世』京都大学学術出版会，2019，xi+367p.

斎藤照子．『18–19世紀ビルマ借金証文の研究―東南アジアの一つの近世』京都大学学術出版会，2019，xi+367p.

Anthropology of Civilization: Personal Reflections on Anthropological Approach in the Study of Muslim Societies in Southeast Asia

After pursuing a long academic career as an anthropologist, this article provides my (Mitsuo Nakamura’s) personal academic reflection of how my anthropological approach differs from Geertzian paradigm, why anthropology and Islamic studies should be bridged, and what implications of the conversation between Islamic studies, anthropology, and other social sciences are. By answering the above questions, this reflective article sheds a new light on the relationship between anthropology and Islam and Muslim studies in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. The anthropological studies of Muslims in Southeast Asia that have been heavily influenced by Clifford Geertz through his work, The Religion of Java (1960), are engaged critically in this article. If Geertz and his students pay a more attention to Little Tradition (local culture and practices) and avoid Great Tradition (e.g. religious concepts and teachings), my anthropological approach argues for the importance of incorporating Great Tradition, which is Islamic Studies in the case of Muslim studies in Southeast Asia, in the study of anthropology and vice versa.

SAITO Teruko, <i>Debt-Slave and Land Mortgage Contracts in the 18th-19th Centuries Burma: Another Interpretation of Early Modern Southeast Asian Societies,</i> Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2019.

SAITO Teruko, <i>Debt-Slave and Land Mortgage Contracts in the 18th-19th Centuries Burma: Another Interpretation of Early Modern Southeast Asian Societies,</i> Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2019.

Right to Life

In this chapter, I survey the right to life as a constitutional right in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. I begin with an account of the history of the right to life. I argue that the right to life before WWII is typically formulated in the “due process model”, such as in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. After WWII, the second generation of the right to life has been reframed to be a freestanding right with heightened substantive and procedural safeguards. In recent decades, the right to life has been absolutized to the extent that it cannot be subject to any balancing except when it conflicts with itself, such as self-defense, necessity, and other occasions where taking a life is strictly necessary to preserve another life in an imminent timeframe. The direct effect of this development is the decline of the death penalty. The right to life in Asia mainly reflects the first generation understanding. Only along with the Third-wave Democratization did the spirit of the second-generation begin to infiltrate into some Asian constitutions. Most of the apex courts in this region, whether liberal democracies or hybrid regimes, delivered decisions upholding the death penalty per se. On the right to life of the unborn, this region is divided roughly along cultural or religious lines. East Asian societies are generally permissive of abortion. In contrast, Southeast Asian societies with dominant monotheistic religions, such as the Philippines(Catholicism), Indonesia, and Malaysia (Islam) are more restrictive of abortion, with the Philippines having the most restrictive law in this region.

Beyond Buddhism and animism: A psychometric test of the structure of Burmese Theravada Buddhism.

Anthropologists and religious scholars have long debated the relationship between doctrinal Theravada Buddhism, so-called ‘animism’, and other folk practices in southeast Asian societies. A variety of models of this relationship have been proposed on the basis of ethnographic evidence. We provide the first psychometric and quantitative evaluation of these competing models, using a new scale developed for this purpose, the Burmese Buddhist Religiosity Scale. Having tested existing hypotheses in our first study (n = 2285) we formulated an alternative model, which was then tested in our second study (n = 3377). We argue that this model provides support for a two-dimensional distinction between great and little traditions, shedding light on decades-old theoretical debates. Far from being in conflict, the transnational religious tradition of the literati and the variegated religious practices of locals appear to be reflected in two complementary dimensions of religiosity. This distinction has been heretofore neglected in psychometric research, but arguably merits attention beyond Buddhism, in the psychology of religion more generally. Our findings suggest that, insofar as research on religiosity relies on doctrinal pronouncements denigrating little traditions as mere superstition, it may be blinded to a crucial dimension of religious life.

Digital Literacy Through Digital Citizenship: Online Civic Participation and Public Opinion Evaluation of Youth Minorities in Southeast Asia

The field of critical digital literacy studies has burgeoned in recent years as a result of the increased cultural consumption of digital media as well as the turn to the production of digital media forms. This article extends extant digital literacy studies by focusing on its subfield of digital citizenship. Proposing that digital citizenship is not another dimension or axis of citizenship, but a practice through which civic activities in the various dimensions of citizenship are conducted, this article critically considers how the concept of digital citizenship can furnish further insight into the quality of online civic participation that results in claims to and acts of citizenship. Through interdisciplinary scholarship, drawing from critical media and cultural theory, and media psychology, and deriving new empirical data from qualitative digital ethnography and quantitative focus group and survey studies, it presents original case studies with young people in Southeast Asia, including young Muslim women’s groups in Indonesia and youth public opinion on LGBTs in Singapore. It argues that Southeast Asian youth digital citizenship foregrounds civic participation as emergent acts that not only serve to make society a better place, but also enacts alternative publics that characterise new modes of civic-making in more conservative, collectivistic Southeast Asian societies.

Структурные и институциональные аспекты карьерных возможностей японских добровольных экспатриантов в странах Восточной и Юго-Восточной Азии

Структурные и институциональные аспекты карьерных возможностей японских добровольных экспатриантов в странах Восточной и Юго-Восточной Азии

Sistem Pendidikan Islam Berwawasan Multikultural Di Negara Negara Asean (Malaysia, Filipina, Singapura Dan Brunei Darussalam)

In the world of education, multicultural discourse is a relatively new phenomenon. Multicultural education began to be known after World War II. In other words multicultural education is a new symptom in the association of humanity who longs for equal rights, including he right to get the same education, for all people (education for all). Southeast Asia has its own history that is rich in diversity and participation. Some Western researchers describe the West as a carrier of pluralist world tolerance, Western Imperialism will have a direct influence on the four Southeast Asian societies, namely the deterioration and rigidity of ethnoreligious differences such as those in West Colonial.

Mobility, familiarity and prejudice: living together in a multiethnic town in southern Laos

ABSTRACTResearch on coexistence and urban diversity (notably in the United Kingdom, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore) has demonstrated the ways individuals of diverse backgrounds routinely manage differences and interact meaningfully in multicultural societies, drawing on shared cultural knowledge and habits. This paper argues for a deeper exploration of societies where intercultural know-how is more limited and the capacity to negotiate difference has not been inculcated. This description fits several Southeast Asian societies wherein the politics of majority-minority is a dominant feature. This article investigates the possibilities of familiarity and friendship in a multiethnic town in southern Laos where the predominant ideology towards cultural diversity has been one of assimilation. In doing so, the paper reveals ways of creating a sense of belonging and community other than the practices of cultural accommodation. These processes draw on competences and dispositions which individuals have acquired through their mobility, producing a sense of togetherness, albeit contingent and fragmented.

Third Sector Governance in Asia: Tracing Hybridity

Starting with the premise that modern western notions of good governance may be misdirected within a context of traditional Asian civil societies, this article investigates third sector governance practices in Southeast Asia. Case studies from different data sources are presented to suggest that there is no one ideal form of governance or accountability in Southeast Asian third sector organisations. Applying a western lens can serve to deflect attention away from the ways in which contextual factors affect the thinking and practices of accountability of local actors. The paper concludes that a process of hybridisation in governance models is taking place in Southeast Asian societies.

Social responses to climate change in Iron Age north-east Thailand: new archaeobotanical evidence

New evidence from archaeological investigations in north-east Thailand shows a transition in rice farming towards wetland cultivation that would have facilitated greater yields and surpluses. This evidence, combined with new dates and palaeoclimatic data, suggests that this transition took place in the Iron Age, at a time of increasingly arid climate, and when a number of broader societal changes become apparent in the archaeological record. For the first time, it is possible to relate changes in subsistence economy to shifts in regional climate and water-management strategies, and to the emergence of state societies in Southeast Asia.

PENGEMBANGAN ASEAN WE FEELING DI SMA DIPONEGORO TUMPANG KABUPATEN MALANG

ASEAN Community has been officially implemented since early 2016. Although there is a long time between the idea of ASEAN Community agreed and accepted in 2003 and its implementation in 2015, the understanding of society about ASEAN Community still low. Even though, ASEAN Community is ready to integrate Southeast Asian society through political-security, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions. Therefore, it takes a lot of efforts to develop awareness and ASEAN we feeling, one of them through community service program. This paper describes activities of community service program to develop ASEAN we feeling in Senior High School Diponegoro Tumpang in Malang Regency, East Java. These activities include socialization of ASEAN Community and ASEAN socio-cultural, decor classes competition with ASEAN-themed, ASEAN Corner initiation, and development of ASEAN-oriented schools. These activities are to increase students knowledge about ASEAN and ASEAN Community and developed ASEAN we feeling as an ASEAN society.

Malays and eating disorders in Singapore: A potential ethnic risk in a Southeast Asian society

Malays and eating disorders in Singapore: A potential ethnic risk in a Southeast Asian society

Al-Raniri’s Contributions in Hukm of Zakah in Malay Worlds

Nur al-Din al-Raniri is among the prominent scholar in the field Islamic jurisprudence in the Malay world. He pioneered the continuation of the legacy of school al-Shafi'i in the Malay societies in South-east Asia. His famous work in the field of Islamic jurisprudence is the al-Sirat al-Mustaqim’, a brief discussion on certain issues regarding hygiene, prayer, zakah, fasting, pilgrimage, hunting and slaughtering, as well as issues pertaining to food consumption. Therefore, this article tends to discuss the contribution of Nur Al-Din al-Raniri especially in his perspective on the issue of zakah. By using content analysis methodology this study shows that al-Raniri discussed this particular subject of zakah in his book al-Sirat al-Mustaqim by including some local values.

Urbanization, Jobs, and the Family in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

In the rural Mekong Delta in Vietnam, social transformations, particularly rapid urbanization in the area, taking place in the last fifteen years have profound effects on rural family life. For the Vietnamese people in the Delta, family is not only at the core of their daily lives, but it also constitutes the social, economic, and spiritual world that is centered on agriculture. However, today a growing number of people have jobs in urban areas. How does working outside of family farming shape lives of the people in the rural Mekong Delta in Vietnam and how does that affect their family values? The article analyzes how working people’s income is spent, how consumer culture is entering the rural family life, and how new social relationships outside of family is being shaped. A number of studies have been conducted on working children, especially daughters, and their families in East and Southeast Asian societies since the end of the twentieth century. However, people in the Delta live in a peculiar social situation where the economic system was shifted from socialist one to a free market system, and development, industrialization and urbanization are happening not only rapidly, but also suddenly. This article offers new insights into the shifting social world of Asian families by adding a particular case of the people in the Mekong Delta, who maintain strong connections to their families under Vietnam’s social transformations.

Japan's Responses to China's Economic Incentives and Initiatives towards ASEAN

Official socio-economic cooperation towards peace, stability, development and prosperity between ASEAN-Japan started with the Synthetic Rubber Forum in 1973. Facing various geopolitical challenges in 43 years, ASEAN-Japan cooperation has left a positive impact on the development of the Southeast Asian economy and society. Stimulated by projected trade growth and strong economic ties, ASEAN and Japan continue to enjoy a close relationship built on the principle of 'heart to heart' through the Fukuda Doctrine of 1997. Although ASEAN and Japan remain, key partners, the relationship has faced various challenges in the 21st century. Among the major challenges that affect relations between Japan and ASEAN is the rise of China as a major power in the East Asian region. Economic cooperation is a major aspect in the interaction of China and ASEAN has created economic competition between China and Japan in Southeast Asia. This research examines Japan's responses to China's economic incentives and initiatives towards ASEAN. Research shows that Japan's responses include the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), development of infrastructure connectivity, and strategic partnership.

What Are Bucrania Doing in Tombs? Art and Agency in Neolithic Sardinia and Traditional South-East Asia

The interior of Neolithic tombs in Europe is frequently decorated with carved and painted motifs. In Sardinia (Italy), 116 rock-cut tombs have their walls covered with bucrania (schematic depictions of cattle head and horns), which have long been interpreted as representations of a bull-like divinity. This article reviews similar examples of bucranium ‘art’ in the tombs of three traditional societies in South-East Asia, focusing on the agency of the motifs and their roles within social relationships between the living, the dead, and the spiritual world. From these ethnographic examples and the archaeological evidence in Sardinia, it is suggested that bucrania in Neolithic tombs were a specialized form of material culture that had multiple, cumulative effects and functions associated with social display, memory, reproduction, death, and protection.

Perceptions of Quality-of-life Advocates in a Southeast Asian Society

In family-centric societies, maintenance of hope amongst ill family members is a pivotal duty of the family. Meeting this duty often takes the form of continuing treatment even when such options may be futile. This makes efforts to maximize quality-of-life options challenging. We explore Singaporean perceptions surrounding quality-of-life advocates who advice quality-of-life measures over potentially life-prolonging treatment in terminal illness using a novel video vignette based semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that quality-oflife advocates are viewed as failing in their filial obligations and perceived as ‘selfish’, ‘money-minded’ and ‘immoral’. These findings highlight the need to educate patients and caregivers about quality-of-life approaches.