Forager-Traders in South and Southeast Asia

A unique re-assessment of forager-trader groups within the complex historical worlds of South and Southeast Asia.

In both South and Southeast Asia, many upland groups make a living through various combinations of foraging and hunting. This book uses a series of detailed comparative case-studies to re-evaluate forager-trader groups and place them within the surrounding political, economic and social worlds of South and Southeast Asia.In both South and Southeast Asia, many upland groups make a living - in whole or part - through gathering and hunting, producing not only subsistence goods but commodities destined for regional and even world markets. These forager-traders have had an ambiguous position in ethnographic analysis, variously represented as relics, degraded hunter-gatherers, or recent upstarts. Forager-Traders in South and Southeast Asia adopts a multidisciplinary approach to these groups, presenting a series of comparative case-studies that analyse the long-term histories of hunting, gathering, trading, power relations, and regional social and biological interactions in this critical region. This book is a fascinating and important addition to the current 'revisionist' debate, and a unique attempt to re-conceptualize our knowledge of forager-traders within the surrounding context of complex polities, populations and economies in South and Southeast Asia.