Classical Civilizations of South East Asia: An Anthology of Articles Published in the Bulletin of SOAS.

• Author: McDaniel, Justin
• Position: Book Review

Classical Civilizations of South East Asia: An Anthology of Articles Published in the Bulletin of SOAS. Edited by VLADIMIR BRAGINSKY. London: ROUTLEDGECURZON, 2002. Pp. 524.

Vladimir Braginsky's introduction to this volume provides a thorough history of Southeast Asian Studies in the U.K., especially at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies), and offers pointed suggestions for restoring the health of Southeast Asian Studies in the future. However, he fails to acknowledge fully the persisting colonial heritage of SOAS and the greatest danger to the future of area studies in the U.K. and U.S.--governmental notions of "relevance." This book brings together important articles (mostly in the fields of historical linguistics, epigraphy, and paleography) composed mostly by scholars who taught at SOAS during the last century. There are articles on rare subjects, such as Arakanese Sanskrit inscriptions by E. H. Johnston and Achehnese manuscripts by P. Voorhoeve, as well as studies on Mon literature, Tangut linguistics, Old Khmer syntax, and Chinese sources on Tambralinga history found in precious few other sources. However, the real value of this anthology is Braginsky's comprehensive introduction, which provides little background to the collected articles (which I imagine are already in the personal libraries of the scholars who need them), but describes the demise of Southeast Asian Studies at the formerly dominant center of SOAS.

Braginsky divides his introduction into three sections: 1, The Significance of Southeast Asia: 2, The British Role in Southeast Asian Studies; 3, Prospects for the Future of Southeast Asian Studies. First, like Benedict Anderson, Anthony Reid, and Thongchai Winichakul, Braginsky repeats (unnecessarily to his audience of interested consumers of this scholarship) the apologetics for the very existence of the field. I hope that readers would not need to be convinced of the historical, economic, linguistic, musical, artistic, and strategic importance of the region, or be offered reasons why it should be considered a region of study at all. Reid has shown the geographic and economic links through waterways and trade relations, and Thongchai has provided a history of the invention of Southeast Asia as a region, in response to American, French, and British military ambitions during World War II and the Indochinese Wars of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. What would have been more useful is an examination of the place of...