Conceptualizing The Malay World

Conceptualizing the Malay World explores the interrelations between the indigenization of "colonial knowledge" and the quest for pan-Malay identity in Malaya. In what way, to what extent, and for what purpose did the colonized accept, modify, and adapt the colonizer's worldview? To answer these questions, this study examines textbooks produced by British and Malay authors for teaching Malay history and geography to the local populace in teacher training colleges, then conducts a case study of one of these students who would go on to become a prominent nationalist activist. It shows that while the colonizers brought new concepts of Malayness to Malaya, the indigenization of colonial knowledge entailed significant reinterpretation, transformation, and appropriation.

This simulating new reading of constructions of ethnicity in Malaysia and Singapore is an important contribution to understanding the powerful linkages between ethnicity, religious reform, identity and nationalism in multi-ethnic Southeast Asia.

This innovative book is a pioneering study of political debate in an important Southeast Asian society. Now available in paperback it re-examines the formative period in Malay nationalism and argues against using nationalism as the paradigm of analysis.'This magnificent book is certainly essential reading for Malaysianists and Malaysians interested in the intrigues and mystique of Malay politics, in the past and at present.' Shamsul, A.B., Asian Studies Review'The Invention of Politics in Colonial Malaya is a model of its kind and will undoubtedly become a landmark in Malaysian studies and an example to those in other fields. It is a stylish and highly readable essay in cultural history.' William R Roff, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

Just who are ‘the Malays’? This provocative study posesthe question and considers how and why the answers have changedover time, and from one region to another. Anthony Milner developsa sustained argument about ethnicity and identity in an historical,‘Malay’ context. The Malays is a comprehensiveexamination of the origins and development of Malay identity,ethnicity, and consciousness over the past five centuries. Covers the political, economic, and cultural development of theMalays Explores the Malay presence in Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia,Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa, as well as themodern Malay show-state of Malaysia Offers diplomatic speculation about ways Malay ethnicity willdevelop and be challenged in the future

This lively survey of the peoples, cultures, and societies of Southeast Asia introduces a region of tremendous geographic, linguistic, historical, and religious diversity. Encompassing both mainland and island countries, these engaging essays describe personhood and identity, family and household organization, nation-states, religion, popular culture and the arts, the legacies of war and recovery, globalization, and the environment. Throughout, the focus is on the daily lives and experiences of ordinary people. Most of the essays are original to this volume, while a few are widely taught classics. All were chosen for their timeliness and interest, and are ideally suited for the classroom.

Now available in this paperback In this the parallel volume to The Boundaries of 'the Japanese': Volume 1: Okinawa 1818-1972 (2014), renowned historical sociologist Eiji Oguma further explores the fluctuating political, geographical, ethnic, and sociocultural borders of Japan and the Japanese from the latter years of the Tokugawa shogunate to the mid-20th century. Focus is placed first upon the northern island of Hokkaido with its indigenous Ainu inhabitants, and then upon the mainstays of Japan's colonial empire-Taiwan and Korea. In continuing to elaborate on the theme of inclusion and exclusion, the author comprehensively recounts and analyzes the events, actions, campaigns, and attitudes of both the rulers and the ruled as Japan endeavoured both to be seen as a strong, civilized nation by the wider world, and to 'civilize' its disparate subjects on its own terms. (Series: Japanese Society Series) Subject: Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Asian Studies, Japanese Studies, Cultural Studies, History]

A new edition of this classic study of mandala Southeast Asia. The revised book includes a substantial, retrospective postscript examining contemporary scholarship that has contributed to the understanding of Southeast Asian history since 1982.