Konflikte – Mächte – Identitäten

The articles in this edited volume analyse current conflicts, asymmetries of power and (contested) identities in today´s postcolonial Southeast Asia. The special qualifications of Social Anthropology – such as detailed empirical studies and its long tradition of research on ethnicity/identity – are particularly valuable when considering those parts of Southeast Asia, especially peripheral regions and border zones, that are afflicted by violent conflicts. Such hostilities, which in the case of Indonesia reached their peak shortly before and during the years just following the forced resignation of President Suharto in 1998, have been accompanied by an aggressive (re)emergence of ethnic and religious identities. While a number of articles in this volume focus on these recent conflicts, others concentrate on Southeast Asian concepts of power in general. They do not only examine symbolic constructions of domination but also ask how concepts of power are enacted, used and undermined in everyday life, especially within gender relations. The articles dealing with Southeast Asian identity constructions also focus on the topic of power asymmetries. They encounter phenomena of increasingly hardened religious and ethnic identities resulting in rigid social boundaries and conflicts between different groups. Yet they also point to cosmopolitan options and strategies conforming to local conditions.