Introduction: Frictions and Fictions—Intercultural Encounters and Frontier Imaginaries in Upland Southeast Asia

Abstract

The culturally heterogeneous uplands of Southeast Asia constitute a zone of encounters and relations across cultural difference. The Introduction to this Special Issue lays out key themes that encompass the questions addressed by the individual essays. Moreover, it discusses concepts—such as frontier and friction—that inform some of the case studies presented in this issue. The combination of historical and anthropological approaches is aimed at exploring the complex social, political and cultural configurations in upland Southeast Asia.

Keywords:

• Southeast Asia
• Zomia
• Vietnam
• Laos
• History
• Anthropology

Acknowledgements

This Special Issue is based on papers from the workshop ‘Frontier Frictions—Cultural Encounters, Exchange, and Emergence in Asian Uplands’ at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle, Germany) on 14–15 November 2013. I would like to thank all participants for the inspiring discussions (in particular Pierre Petit for suggesting the title of this Special Issue). Special thanks go to MPI director Chris Hann for giving me the opportunity to organise such an event, and MPI staff for their unfailing support. The Global South Studies Center at the University of Cologne (Germany) provided an excellent working environment for editing this collection. I would also like to express my gratitude to Philip Taylor and Diana Glazebrook (TAPJA) for their invaluable support and advice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.