This book provides an overview of the major theoretical issues and themes which have emerged from the engagement of anthropologists with South-East Asian communities.

1. Southeast Asia: A Field of Anthropological Enquiry? 2. Anthropology and the Colonial Impact (1900-1950) 3. Anthropology in the Period of Decolonization (1950-1970): The American Tradition 4. Anthropology in the Period of Decolonization (1950-1970): The European Tradition 5. Social and Economic Change: 'Peasants' as Part-Societies 6. Ethnicity, Identity and Nationalism 7. Religion 8. Ecology and Environmental Change 9. Gender and the Sexes 10. Urban Ways of Life 11. Summary, Conclusions and Trends

Victor King is Professor of South-East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds, and author of