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Working Session: Austronesian Linkages In recent years, the debates on the homeland of Austronesians have been assessed from archaeological, linguistic and DNA/genetic approaches (the latest ones being in Science [January 2009] and Current Anthropology [April 2010] where Taiwan is featured again prominently in the debates). But how these grand theories fill the gap in knowledge about the social life world of individual societies is less apparent. Anthropologists are not absent in the discussion: founder ideology, principle of precedence, house society and social hierarchies, among others, are proposed to explain the rapid expansion of the Austronesians and their social characteristics. This session intends to re-assess and add to the current debates: we seek to identify the characteristics of Austronesian societies/cultures beyond their linguistic connections, and the possibility to identify less material similarities such as transformations of myth, symbolism and social ranking throughout the Austronesian area. Cross-border comparison (either among Austronesian societies or between Austronesian and non-Austronesian societies) is encouraged to further the agenda of Austronesian Linkages. While only a few of the intended participants were able to make it to the Alexandria meeting, the participants in this session have written working papers which lean heavily to the following three themes: Austronesian hierarchy, prehistorical connections, and symbolic forms. In future we will place more emphasis on linkages between papers within a more comparative framework. Current participants include: Toon van Meijl, Rich Scaglion, Nancy Pollock, Cato Berg, Lamont Lindstrom (our discussant), Glenn Peterson, Tom Gibson, Serge Dunis, David Blundell, Scarlett Chui, Kun-hui Ku and James Fox. Please contact Ku if you are interested in joining the session. Kun-hui Ku, Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing-Hua University, 101, Section 2, Kuang Fu Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan 30013. <kunhui.ku@gmail.com> |
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