Can the Geo Speak? The Emergence of Southeast Asia Through Geological Assemblages
Abstract
The engagement delves into the relationship between the emergence of economic geology as a modern science, geological materials, and their entanglements with Southeast Asia as an area. It asks if the geo can speak by foregrounding the role of geological materials and the geological knowledge of the British, Dutch, and American Empires in assembling the region. During the nineteenth century, the Dutch and British Empire assembled Borneo Island and other islands into a geo-colonial assemblage. In the course of World War II and the period of decolonization, the Japanese Empire and national movements challenged this geo-colonial assemblage. As the new Empire of the twentieth century, the US competed with the Japanese Empire in a geological War, while facing challenges from the new nation-states in the Cold War era. Eventually, the American Empire re-assembled Borneo’s geo-colonial formation into the new entanglement of Southeast Asian geological assemblage. This engagement provides insights into the geological development of the British, Dutch, and American Empires in Southeast Asia and how geological materials and knowledge, i.e., economic geology, are essential elements in rethinking the future of Southeast Asian studies.
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