Southeast Asian Studies

The Southeast Asian Studies deal with the languages, cultures, literatures and the history of Southeast Asia . They belong to the regional sciences (area studies) and, like all these, are shaped in their design by their development and the cultural area in which they were created.

Although some of today's states in Southeast Asia also use European languages ​​as official or lingua franca (e.g. Portuguese in East Timor ), only native languages ​​are the subject of research. Southeast Asian Studies are classified as a minor subject in German university policy . Subareas include Austronesian , Malaiologie / Indonesistik, Thai Studies , Vietnamese Studies .

history

Southeast Asian studies developed in Western countries from anthropology , ethnology , oriental studies and Indology (from a European perspective, Southeast Asia was viewed as part of the Orient or India in the broader sense, as shown in the older names Rear India and East India ). A missionary or colonial interest was often decisive. At the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- and Folklore , founded in 1851, research was carried out mainly on the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia); at the École française d'Extrême-Orient , founded in 1901, mainly on French Indochina . The task of the School of Oriental Studies in London, founded in 1916, was explicitly to train British colonial officials. Southeast Asian studies began in the USA after the annexation of the Philippines in 1899. However, this colonial perspective often obstructed the view of Southeast Asia as a whole and delayed a comparative examination of cross-border similarities between Southeast Asian cultures and societies and linguistic affinities. These were more often discovered by researchers from countries without colonial property in the region, such as the German Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) or the Austrians Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1945) and Robert von Heine-Geldern (1885–1968).

Heine-Geldern emigrated to the USA and in a memorandum from 1941 described Southeast Asia as the “Eldorado of cultural scientists”. He is considered the founder of Southeast Asian Studies in the sense of modern regional studies (area studies) . The Second World War and the ensuing struggles for independence made Southeast Asia a focal point of world politics and aroused increased interest in the region in the West. In the 1950s and 60s there was an increasing number of Southeast Asia centers and institutes, as well as an abundance of scientific papers. For example, the American ethnologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) carried out numerous field studies in Southeast Asia.

Degree programs and institutes

In Germany you can study Southeast Asian Studies a. a. study at the Humboldt University of Berlin , the University of Bonn , the Goethe University Frankfurt , the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg and the University of Passau . The titles of the courses are different (e.g. Southeast Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, Languages ​​and Cultures of Southeast Asia).

Internationally, there are the École française d'Extrême-Orient and the Institut national des langues et civilizations orientales in Paris, the SOAS University of London , the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Southeast Asia Institute of the Australian National University , the Southeast Asia Program of the American Cornell University and the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) in Singapore are important centers of Southeast Asian studies .

professional association

• Society for Southeast Asian Studies / Society for South-East Asian Studies, Austria

Trade journals

• Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies (ASEAS)
• Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs , formerly Southeast Asia Current
• Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Web links

• Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Bernhard Dahm: Cultural Identity and Modernization in Southeast Asia. Klaus P. Hansen: Concept of culture and method. The silent paradigm shift in the humanities. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen 1993, pp. 27-39, on pp. 29-31.
2. ^ Seminar for Southeast Asian Studies, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University in Berlin.
3. ^ Department for Southeast Asian Studies, Institute for Orient and Asian Studies at the University of Bonn.
4. ^ Southeast Asian Studies , Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.
5. ^ Department for Languages ​​and Cultures of Southeast Asia , Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg.
6. ^ Department of Southeast Asian Studies , University of Passau.