Afterword: Meditation on Regions
Abstract
This afterword meditates on the idea of Southeast Asia as a “region” which, despite its fuzziness and its lack of geographical unity and cultural identity, has been with us for decades. Despite valiant efforts, no justifications and qualifications of a regional identity has succeeded more than partially, and no solution has been without problems and limitations. Even so, as these engagements with “entangled areas” vividly show, Southeast Asia remains a useful intellectual device that defies essentialism (with the possible exception of durian!)
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