【2026 Austronesian Studies Lecture Series | Session 2】Gender Studies and Deep History in Maritime Southeast Asia
Date :
2026-07-16
Department :
Office of Fellowships for Austronesian Studies
【Article by Office of Fellowships for Austronesian Studies 】
The second session of the 2026 Austronesian Studies Lecture Series, organized by the Office of Fellowships for Austronesian Studies at National Chengchi University (NCCU), was held on May 26. The event was hosted by Professor Da-Wei Kuan, Chair of the Department of Ethnology and Convener of the Austronesian Research Center. He gave a brief introduction to the event and welcomed Professor Emerita Barbara Watson Andaya, one of the world's leading scholars of Southeast Asian history. Professor Andaya is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and former Director of its Center for Southeast Asian Studies. She has made significant contributions to the study of Maritime Southeast Asia.
Professor Kuan then invited Dean Wan-Ying Yang of the College of Social Sciences to deliver the opening remarks. Dean Yang noted that NCCU's Department of Ethnology, the first and only department of its kind in Taiwan, has long promoted interdisciplinary research on peoples, cultures, history, geography, and ethnic relations. She added that Professor Andaya's visit reflected the department's commitment to interdisciplinary dialogue. Dean Yang also noted that her own research on gender politics shares common ground with Professor Andaya's scholarship on gender.
Following the opening remarks, Professor Andaya delivered her lecture, emphasizing that gender should not be treated as a secondary topic in history but as a central dimension of human experience.
She noted that although gender studies only emerged as an academic field in the second half of the 20th century during the female liberation in the United States, questions surrounding gender roles, identity, and social relationships have always shaped the ways societies function and remember themselves.
One of the lecture’s central themes was the idea of “deep history,” which seeks to expand historical inquiry beyond written documentation by drawing on archaeology, genetics, paleoanthropology, linguistics, and environmental evidence. Professor Andaya argued that island Southeast Asia has often been overlooked in discussions of deep history compared to mainland Southeast Asia, largely because archaeological research in the region developed later. However, recent discoveries across the Malay Archipelago have increasingly challenged this assumption and opened new possibilities for understanding the distant human past.
Using examples from Java, Sulawesi, Borneo, the Philippines, and eastern Indonesia, Professor Andaya demonstrated how material culture can reveal complex understandings of gender and spirituality. She discussed prehistoric cave paintings of pigs found in Sulawesi, explaining that animals in many maritime Southeast Asian societies were not simply part of the natural environment, but were deeply connected to ritual practices, cosmology, and ancestor worship.
The lecture also introduced several important archaeological discoveries, including human remains from Niah Cave in Sarawak, the Homo Floresiensis (Flores Man) findings on Flores Island, and the female burial known as Bessé was discovered in Sulawesi. Through burial analysis and DNA research, scholars have begun to reconsider assumptions about the important roles women may have played in early societies, including hunting, fishing, and ritual activities. Professor Andaya pointed out that archaeology has long tended to interpret early societies through a male-centered lens, but newer approaches increasingly challenge these earlier assumptions and encourage more nuanced readings of the past.
Beyond archaeology, Professor Andaya examined textiles, weapons, and ritual objects as important forms of historical evidence. In many Southeast Asian societies, weaving was traditionally associated with women, yet textiles themselves carried meanings related to ancestry, prestige, and social authority. She also discussed the Kris (Keris in Malay) dagger in the Malay world, describing how its blade and sheath symbolically represented masculine and feminine forces. By reading objects not merely as artifacts but as cultural expressions, she argued, historians are able to reconstruct deeper understandings of gender, power, and belief in maritime Southeast Asia.
The lecture was followed by a discussion session featuring Professor Courtney Work and Professor Yayut Yi‑Shiuan Chen from the Department of Ethnology at NCCU. Reflecting on Professor Andaya’s presentation, Professor Work highlighted the importance of challenging rigid boundaries and categories in historical interpretation. Drawing on examples such as pigs and tigers in Southeast Asian ritual traditions, she noted that animals in many Austronesian societies occupy symbolic and spiritual roles that cannot easily be understood through modern scientific classifications alone.
Professor Yayut responded by connecting the lecture to her fieldwork in Palau. Using the example of taro cultivation, she noted that although changing labor patterns may suggest a decline in women's roles, ethnographic research shows that women continue to hold significant authority in Palauan society. She emphasized that researchers should avoid imposing modern assumptions about gender and labor on local societies.
Audience members also raised questions concerning colonialism, religion, and language politics. Concluding the lecture, Professor Andaya remarked that many questions surrounding gender and deep history remain unresolved, but this kind of uncertainty is precisely what keeps Southeast Asian studies intellectually dynamic. She emphasized that future research will increasingly rely on collaboration across disciplines, particularly between historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists, in order to better understand the complexity of human societies across time.
The second session of the 2026 Austronesian Studies Lecture Series, organized by the Office of Fellowships for Austronesian Studies at National Chengchi University (NCCU), was held on May 26. The event was hosted by Professor Da-Wei Kuan, Chair of the Department of Ethnology and Convener of the Austronesian Research Center. He gave a brief introduction to the event and welcomed Professor Emerita Barbara Watson Andaya, one of the world's leading scholars of Southeast Asian history. Professor Andaya is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and former Director of its Center for Southeast Asian Studies. She has made significant contributions to the study of Maritime Southeast Asia.
Professor Kuan then invited Dean Wan-Ying Yang of the College of Social Sciences to deliver the opening remarks. Dean Yang noted that NCCU's Department of Ethnology, the first and only department of its kind in Taiwan, has long promoted interdisciplinary research on peoples, cultures, history, geography, and ethnic relations. She added that Professor Andaya's visit reflected the department's commitment to interdisciplinary dialogue. Dean Yang also noted that her own research on gender politics shares common ground with Professor Andaya's scholarship on gender.
Following the opening remarks, Professor Andaya delivered her lecture, emphasizing that gender should not be treated as a secondary topic in history but as a central dimension of human experience.
She noted that although gender studies only emerged as an academic field in the second half of the 20th century during the female liberation in the United States, questions surrounding gender roles, identity, and social relationships have always shaped the ways societies function and remember themselves.
One of the lecture’s central themes was the idea of “deep history,” which seeks to expand historical inquiry beyond written documentation by drawing on archaeology, genetics, paleoanthropology, linguistics, and environmental evidence. Professor Andaya argued that island Southeast Asia has often been overlooked in discussions of deep history compared to mainland Southeast Asia, largely because archaeological research in the region developed later. However, recent discoveries across the Malay Archipelago have increasingly challenged this assumption and opened new possibilities for understanding the distant human past.
Using examples from Java, Sulawesi, Borneo, the Philippines, and eastern Indonesia, Professor Andaya demonstrated how material culture can reveal complex understandings of gender and spirituality. She discussed prehistoric cave paintings of pigs found in Sulawesi, explaining that animals in many maritime Southeast Asian societies were not simply part of the natural environment, but were deeply connected to ritual practices, cosmology, and ancestor worship.
The lecture also introduced several important archaeological discoveries, including human remains from Niah Cave in Sarawak, the Homo Floresiensis (Flores Man) findings on Flores Island, and the female burial known as Bessé was discovered in Sulawesi. Through burial analysis and DNA research, scholars have begun to reconsider assumptions about the important roles women may have played in early societies, including hunting, fishing, and ritual activities. Professor Andaya pointed out that archaeology has long tended to interpret early societies through a male-centered lens, but newer approaches increasingly challenge these earlier assumptions and encourage more nuanced readings of the past.
Beyond archaeology, Professor Andaya examined textiles, weapons, and ritual objects as important forms of historical evidence. In many Southeast Asian societies, weaving was traditionally associated with women, yet textiles themselves carried meanings related to ancestry, prestige, and social authority. She also discussed the Kris (Keris in Malay) dagger in the Malay world, describing how its blade and sheath symbolically represented masculine and feminine forces. By reading objects not merely as artifacts but as cultural expressions, she argued, historians are able to reconstruct deeper understandings of gender, power, and belief in maritime Southeast Asia.
The lecture was followed by a discussion session featuring Professor Courtney Work and Professor Yayut Yi‑Shiuan Chen from the Department of Ethnology at NCCU. Reflecting on Professor Andaya’s presentation, Professor Work highlighted the importance of challenging rigid boundaries and categories in historical interpretation. Drawing on examples such as pigs and tigers in Southeast Asian ritual traditions, she noted that animals in many Austronesian societies occupy symbolic and spiritual roles that cannot easily be understood through modern scientific classifications alone.
Professor Yayut responded by connecting the lecture to her fieldwork in Palau. Using the example of taro cultivation, she noted that although changing labor patterns may suggest a decline in women's roles, ethnographic research shows that women continue to hold significant authority in Palauan society. She emphasized that researchers should avoid imposing modern assumptions about gender and labor on local societies.
Audience members also raised questions concerning colonialism, religion, and language politics. Concluding the lecture, Professor Andaya remarked that many questions surrounding gender and deep history remain unresolved, but this kind of uncertainty is precisely what keeps Southeast Asian studies intellectually dynamic. She emphasized that future research will increasingly rely on collaboration across disciplines, particularly between historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and linguists, in order to better understand the complexity of human societies across time.