Asian Perspectives, 2022 - Volume 61, Number 1 (Spring)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/108168
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Item type: Item , Errata(2022-06-28)Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Coastal Shrines and Transnational Maritime Networks Across India and Southeast Asia. Himanshu Prabha Ray. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 255 pp., 24 illustrations, bibliography, index. Hardback US $160, ISBN 978-1-138-36567-4; eBook US $34, ISBN 978-0-429-28523-3.(2022-06-28) Manguin, Pierre-YvesItem type: Item , “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee”: New Insights on the Defensive, Economic, and Ritual Functions of a Fortified Pā on Ua Huka, Marquesas Islands(2022-06-28) Molle, Guillaume; Marolleau, VincentIn Central-East Polynesia (CEP), development of warfare remains poorly documented except for the fortified villages of Rapa iti. In the Marquesas islands, previous research briefly reported the existence of defensive structures, especially some fortified pā, in areas usually qualified as ‘marginal’. However, no site has yet been investigated in depth. In 2015, within the context of the larger Ua Huka project, we documented the pā of Mahaki, located between 700 and 800 m in altitude, and known in local oral traditions as a fortified refuge site for the Hokatu community during periods of conflicts.We recorded various categories of archaeological remains, the interpretations of which revealed a complex occupation of this area combining economic, defensive, and ritual functions. We argue that increasing inter-community violence and environmental pressure drove the progressive occupation of the high plateau. This study sheds new light on the Marquesan pā and their integration into the territories of the ‘enata chiefdoms.Item type: Item , Hirten im Himalaya – Prähistorische Mumien im Höhlengrab Mebrak 63 (Mustang/Nepal). Angela Simons, ed., Michaela Butler, trans. Heidelberg: Propylaeum, 2020. Archäologische sp. Berichte vol. 31. Open-access eBook, https://doi.org/ 10.11588/propylaeum.596, ISBN 978-3-948465-12-4.(2022-06-28) Aldenderfer, MarkItem type: Item , Patterns of Mortuary Practice over Millennia in Southern Vanuatu, South Melanesia(2022-06-28) Valentin, Roderique; Zinger, Wanda; Fenwick, Alison; Bedford, Stuart; Flexner, James; Willie, Edson; Kuautonga, TakarongaBurial practices provide a window into cultural practices, beliefs, and cross-cultural contacts through time. Southern Vanuatu’s history begins with an initial Lapita colonization 3000 B.P., followed by Polynesian contacts after roughly 1000 years ago, and European encounters starting almost 250 years ago. Using a combination of re-analyzed legacy data from archaeological excavations in the 1960s and recent excavations, this article provides a synthesis of southern Vanuatu mortuary practices using an anthropologie de terrain (field anthropology) approach and new 14C dates. The earliest preserved burials from the region date to 1270 B.P., with subsequent transformations and continuities through the nineteenth century. Burials are present in sub-surface and surface contexts, in flexed and extended positions, with some showing evidence of having been wrapped in perishable flexible containers and others of post-depositional manipulation. Many of the burials feature ornaments of shell and stone. Transformations and continuities of burial practice in southern Vanuatu reflect complex histories of interaction within and beyond the region.Item type: Item , Early Metal Age Settlement at the Site of Palemba, Kalumpang, Karama Valley, West Sulawesi(2022-06-28) AnggraeniThis article is about the Early Metal Age in Sulawesi, a little known period for this region. The research is based on the 2013 excavations undertaken at Palemba, a site rediscovered after being neglected for 80 years. A well-preserved occupation layer dominated by distinctive pottery sherds with ribbed patterns produced by carved paddle impressions is dated to the Early Metal Age (ca. cal. A.D. 300). With the sherds were imported beads, fragments of iron, fiber or cloth production tools, and a stone pavement which was cut by later placement of jar burials. One of these jars contained a flexed burial of a child, a type of burial never previously found in the Karama valley. Contemporary sites closer to the river mouth are badly disturbed, so Palemba provides important evidence for inland Karama valley occupation after the decline of early Neolithic settlements.Item type: Item , The Circulation of Bronze Mirrors in Late Prehistoric Xinjiang (2000–200 B.C.)(2022-06-28) Guo, YanlongDecades of archaeological excavations have yielded a large number of bronze mirrors from late prehistoric sites in Xinjiang. Scholarly attention has been invested in fitting these specular discs into a singular origin story of the Chinese mirror. Repositioning them within the context of the eastern Eurasian steppe, this article instead takes Xingjiang mirrors as artifacts indexing both diverse local developments and transregional patterns of circulation. A typological framework is proposed based on shape and structure: knob mirror with a flat rim, knob mirror with a flanged rim, grip mirror with a long handle, tanged mirror with a short protrusion, and knobless and handleless mirror. The presence or absence of zoomorphic décor enables even finer distinctions. ArcGIS mapping is employed to investigate the geo-cultural distributions of the different mirror types across Xinjiang. As a result, this article argues that the circulation of bronze mirrors in late prehistoric Xinjiang entailed four aspects of creative processes of cultural exchange, including diversity, fluidity, connectivity, and adaptability. Diversity is manifest in the richness and variety of Xinjiang mirror types. Fluidity challenges the knob-versus-grip dichotomy long held in academia. Connectivity captures frequent and multiple exchanges across all parts of the steppe that generated pan-regional styles and facilitated transfer of mirror casting techniques and designs. Adaptability foregrounds the agency of local invention and adaptation. The combined local-global perspective brings into focus the intricacies of mirror circulation centered in Xinjiang, a pivotal geographic and cultural hub of East-West exchange long before the Han empire’s opening of the Silk Road in the second century B.C.Item type: Item , Lakheen-Jo-Daro, an Indus Civilization Settlement at Sukkur in Upper Sindh (Pakistan): A Scrap Copper Hoard and Human Figurine from a Dated Context(2022-06-28) Biagi, Paolo; Vidale, MassimoThe Bronze Age settlement of Lakheen-Jo-Daro is located in the northern outskirts of the city of Sukkur, ca. 2.5 km north of the present course of the Indus, where the river narrows to flow across the northernmost limestone fringes of the Rohri Hills. The site was accidentally discovered in 1985, though the first trial trenches were opened in 1994. During the cleaning of the profile of one of the trenches excavated in 1996, one copper anthropomorphic figurine was found very close to a small charcoal lens that was radiocarbon dated to 3960 ± 140 B.P. (GrN-23123). The result attributes the deposit to a period of development of the Mature Indus Civilization. Other finds from the same trench consist of important, unique specimens among which are a group of white “steatite” micro-beads and a probable small hoard of copper items that are the main subject of this article.Item type: Item , The Hamin Mangha Site: Mass Deaths and Abandonment of a Late Neolithic Settlement in Northeastern China(2022-06-28) Zhou, Yawei; Niu, Xiaohui; Ji, Ping; Zhu, Yonggang; Zhu, Hong; Zhang, MengThe massive numbers of human skeletons within quickly abandoned Late Neolithic pithouses at the Hamin Mangha site in Northeast China seems to imply an event of prehistoric tragedy. Based on the results of bioarchaeological investigation, this article aims to explain the causes of abandonment of the settlement after several houses were burned and reasons for the large numbers of human skeletons found in several houses. Depositional, contextual, and bioarchaeological data are provided to test several hypotheses on the cause of mass human death at this site.Item type: Item , Table of Contents(2022-06-28)Item type: Item , Editor's Note(2022-06-28) Allard, Francis; Bellina-Price, Berenice; Field, Julie; Demandt, MicheleItem type: Item , Covers 1-4(2022-06-28)