Papers

• Rethinking Southeast Asia as an Archipelagic Space Joefe B. Santarita University of the Philippines

  This paper seeks to reframe Southeast Asia not as a collection of discrete nation-states or as a region defined by geopolitical or continental boundaries, but as an archipelagic space: a region shaped by fluidity, movement, and connection across seas and islands. Drawing inspiration from island studies, maritime history, and transnational approaches, this paper foregrounds the historical and cultural entanglements that emerge when Southeast Asia is viewed through its oceanic geographies rather than terrestrial borders.
  An archipelagic lens allows us to unsettle dominant mainland-centric narratives and reconsider how power, identity, and knowledge have circulated across this fragmented yet deeply interconnected region. From early Austronesian migrations and maritime trade networks to colonial port cities, diaspora communities, and contemporary border disputes, Southeast Asia’s histories are inextricably linked to its waters and the mobility they enable.
  This paper advances a critical, interdisciplinary rethinking of Southeast Asia as an entangled archipelago, emphasizing the role of mobility, hybridity, and shared space in shaping the region’s past and present.

• The Sea as a Relationship: The Human-Environmental connection in the Maritime Navigation Practices of the Sama-Bajau Fishermen in Indonesia Makibi Nakano Konan Women's University

  This presentation discusses the lifeworld as a human-environment relationship through an anthropological approach to the mobility practices of maritime peoples in Southeast Asia. In the maritime world of Southeast Asia, there are maritime peoples who have inhabited the boundary between sea and land as an ecological niche. The Sama/Bajau people, who are scattered across Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, are one such group. The presenter has been conducting intermittent field research since 2016 on their fishing techniques in the Banggai Islands of eastern Indonesia. As a strategic maritime hub and a crossroads of sea trade, the Banggai Islands feature an archipelagic landscape with scattered small islands and rocks—a rare characteristic for a Sama settlement—and relatively small coral reefs. In handline fishing—the most common practice here—fishermen have embodied skills for interpreting information from various environments—not only the sea itself but also the sky, wind, land, and underwater—to identify and reach fishing grounds. This is also a process of mastering how to pay “attention” toward the environment, centered on vision but also involving listening to the sounds of the sea and feel of the seabed through the fishing line. This way of experiencing the sea—which might be described as the “sea as a relationship”—naturally varies not only from individual to individual but also depending on the type of fishing. Historically, the introduction of motorized boats has significantly transformed the maritime navigation. Furthermore, in recent years, increased demand in global markets has led to a rise in octopus fishing, resulting in more traditional hand-line fishermen switching to this new method and an influx of new entrants. This presentation offers a preliminary examination of how the relationship between humans and the environment has been reshaped through maritime navigation amid these socio-ecological changes in the Banggai Islands.

• Collective Identity Formation and Its Drivers among Riparian Countries in Lancang–Mekong River Water Governance Yuanyuan Shen Yunnan University

Abstract

Keywords

• Archipelagic
• Indigenous spatiality
• Indonesia
• Orang Rimba
• Sama Bajau
• Southeast Asia
• border
• coconut
• ecology of power
• embodied skills
• fishing
• forestscapes
• human-environment
• maritime
• melangun
• mobility
• navigation
• network theory
• nomadic ontology
• riverscapes
• seascapes
• social technology
• state territoriality
• trade
• transcultural heritage
• transnational hinterlands
• transnationalism