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The prehistory of a Friction Zone: first farmers and hunters-gatherers in Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

C.F.W. Higham ,
Xie Guangmao  and
Lin Qiang
C.F.W. Higham
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand (Email: charles.higham@otago.ac.nz)
Xie Guangmao
Affiliation:
Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 34 Minzu Ave., Nanning 530022, Guangxi, China
Lin Qiang
Affiliation:
Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, 34 Minzu Ave., Nanning 530022, Guangxi, China
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Extract

The prime-mover for the arrival of the Neolithic in Island Southeast Asia is thought to be the expansion of rice farmers speaking an Austronesian language and coming from the north (see Spriggs, above). Much less is known of the indigenous hunter-gatherers and their interaction with the new farming communities. The mutually occupied area, in the definition of Peter Bellwood, was a ‘Friction Zone’, where two radically different cultures met. This paper emphasises how much land, and information, was lost when the rising sea drowned Sundaland, an area the size of India, and brings to bear archaeological and DNA evidence to emphasise the continuing role of hunter-gatherers in the later prehistory of Southeast Asia.

Keywords

Southeast AsiaThailandSundalandNeolithichunter-gatherersrice domesticationAustroasiatic languages
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 328 , June 2011 , pp. 529 - 543
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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