CSEAS: Weekly Announcement

India-Myanmar Relations, 1886-1948
By Swapna Bhattacharya

Decentralization, Forests and Rural Communities: Policy Outcomes in South and Southeast Asia
By Edward Webb

Pillaging Cambodia: The Illicit Traffic in Khmer Art
By McFarland Jefferson

book The illicit traffic of art is an important problem that affects modern life all over the world. This work addresses the issue using the showcase of Cambodia, where looter systematically destroy cultural heritage. It deals with the impact of illicit trafficking on the legal, political, and economic systems of Cambodia, as well as its effect on archaeological, historical, and religious values and the cultural identity of the nation. The work also analyzes the current long-term and short-term policies proposed by the Cambodian government and suggest policy alternatives that may be implemented by the Cambodian authorities. An appendix includes the description of all cases of the restitution of objects of Khmer art.

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The Inclusive City: Infrastructure and Public Services for the Urban Poor in Asia
By Aprodicio Laquian et al. (editors)

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Getting basic services - housing, transportation, trash disposal, water and sanitation - poses almost unimaginable challenges to the urban poor of Asia. This book provides case studies of how government programs attempt to meet these challenges by directly involving the poor themselves in improving their access to urban services through collaborative efforts. Case studies are drawn from the largest cities in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China (including Hong Kong), Indonesia and the Philippines.

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A Brief History of Lan Na: Civilizations of North Thailand
By Hans Penth

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This small book is meant to be of help to readers who would like concise information on main events, situations, and development trends of what is now northern Thailand, from the beginnings to the present.

Clash of Spirits: The history of power and sugar planter hegemony on a Visayan Island.
By Filomono Aguilar

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In this enlightening and highly original work, the author examines the social relations, cultural meanings and political struggles surrounding the rise of sugar on Negros during the late Spanish colonial period and their subsequent transformation under the aegis of the American colonial state.

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Vietnam: Explaining America's Lost War
By Garry Hess.
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In this book the author describes and evaluates the main arguments of scholars, participants, and journalists, both revisionists and orthodox in their approach, as they try to answer fundamental questions of the Vietnam War.

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Taking Southeast Asia to Market: Commodities, Nature and People in the Neolibral Age
By Joseph Nevins and Nancy Lee Peluso (Editors)

book Using insights from political economy and commodity studies, the essays in this volume trace the myriad ways recent alignments among producers, distributors, and consumers are affecting people and nature through the region. In case studies ranging from coffee and hardwood products to mushroom pickers and Vietnamese factory workers, he authors detail the Southeast Asian articulations of these processes while also discussing the broader implications of these shifts. Taken together, the cases show how commodities illuminate the convergence of changing social forces in Southeast Asia today, as they transform the terms, practices, and experiences of everyday life and politics in the global economy.

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A Merry Senhor in the Malay World. Four texts of the Syair Sinyor Kosta
By A. Teeuw et al. (Editors)

Around a century ago, a Malay poem was written which tells of a foreigner in Southeast Asia, always indicated as Sinyor, who elopes with Lela Mayang, the wife of a wealthy Chinese man. The Syair Sinyor Kosta, as the poem in known, presents us with fascinating pictures and glimpses of Malay society, in this case a nineteenth-century society in transition.

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For ordering information, contact asiabook@gil.com.au