Regional Analysis and Monumentality in Southeast Asia: Case Studies from Cambodia and Indonesia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Multi-sited regional analyses have generally been viewed as incompatible with studies of monumental architecture. A focus on style and iconography, combined with difficulties in collecting spatially dispersed and large amounts of architectural data, have traditionally resulted in political geography and architecture becoming two separate lines of inquiry in Southeast Asian archaeological research. In other study areas, regional analysis has been effectively used to answer anthropological questions regarding religious change, economic practices, processes of state formation and collapse, and adaptation to environmental change, among others. Monumental architecture, as a material manifestation of the above, can offer a valuable lens through which archaeologists can study cultural processes, particularly when used in conjunction with a regional approach.

In this paper, we exhibit potential applications of regional analysis using monumental architecture to answer questions regarding processes of Southeast Asian political organizations. Focusing on sites in Angkorian period Cambodia and Early Modern Period Indonesia, we look at religious architecture in relation to their political geography. Using GIS, emphasis is placed on spatial and diachronic analysis of site locations with regards to geographic variables. This approach allows for the integration of architectural analysis into broader regional-landscape studies to explore issues of statecraft and political economy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• The Current State of Archaeological Research across Southeast Asia

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 31990