Water in the Study of Southeast Asia

This paper advocates the use of a water perspective in the study of SoutheastAsia. Such a perspective, it is argued, is multidimensional and complex, and incorporatesan understanding of the physical characteristics of water, the transformations it undergoesthrough human intervention, and the sociocultural meaning that is applied to it by individualhuman communities. Moreover, water is a generic term that refers to a variety of types (salt,fresh, brackish, land-water) and forms (oceans, seas, straits, estuaries, rivers, lakes, ponds,reservoirs, canals). By citing examples across the world, this paper proposes the study ofthe differing combinations of types and forms of water in order to gain a greater precisionof its role in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the water approach is the understandingthat a body water should be studied as an equal partner to the human community. Byexamining the dynamic interaction of these two elements, important connectivities andnew spatialisations based on water could greatly enhance our understanding of society.The seas, oceans, the littoral, and other forms and types of water are all understudiedand deserve renewed attention if we are to find new ways of thinking and learning aboutSoutheast Asia’s past, present and even its future.