Paper short abstract:

Sea nomadism is a characteristic subsistence strategy in island SE Asia today but we have little idea of the antiquity of these societies. The paper discusses the evidence for very early maritime movement in SE Asia, but concludes that modern sea-nomads co-evolved with the rise of trading states.

Paper long abstract:

The ethnographic evidence for sea nomads in island SE Asia is reasonably well-documented, although the focus has been on the Samal, with other groups less well-known, especially those on the sea-coast of China. The paper begins with and overview of sea nomadism today and then moves to a consideration of the time-depth we can attribute to this subsistence strategy. There is now evidence for extensive movement up and down the Ryukyus as much as 35kya, and we know that the Talaud islands were the focus of intensive maritime activity up to 20kya. Obviously it is extremely difficult to reconstruct the motivations of such movements at these early dates. However, the paper argues that they are best understood as early seagoing populations seeking out resources in a period of extremely low population densities, where trade and interaction with settled residents was probably non-existent. The type of sea-nomads present in SE Asia today are almost certainly linked with the rise of trading states, which probably do not go further back than two millennia. Sea-nomads depend on such states as buyers for fish and other aquatic resources as well as carrying their trade goods from one region to another. In this way the nomads are able to acquire key technologies, including iron tools and improved boatbuilding techniques to extend the range and diversity of their commercial activities. We can refine techniques for seeking direct archaeological traces of sea-nomads but it is also crucial to build their input into models of the rise of complex polities.

Paper short abstract:

Indonesians played an important role in the colonization of Madagascar. To test for a genetic link between Malagasy and linguistically related Indonesian populations, we studied them using uniparental markers. Settlement of Madagascar may have been mediated by ancient Indonesian sea nomad movements.

Paper long abstract:

Genetic, cultural, and linguistic characteristics of the Malagasy suggest that people from both Africa and Island Southeast Asia were involved in the colonization of Madagascar. Populations from the Indonesian archipelago played an important role; linguistic evidence suggests that the Malagasy language branches from the Southeast Barito language family of southern Borneo, Indonesia, and is closest to the Ma'anyan language that is spoken in the present-day. There is also evidence of word borrowings from a small number of Austronesian languages spoken on other Indonesian islands, including Proto South Sulawesi, Buginese, Macassarese and Old Javanese.

To test for a genetic link between the Malagasy and these linguistically related Indonesian populations, we studied these populations, well-defined from their historical/linguistic contexts, together with new samples from the Ma'anyan and the sea nomad Bajo from Southeast Sulawesi. The sample size of ~2900 individuals represents the largest known Indonesian dataset investigated to date. Analysis was made using uniparental markers: the mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome.

Phylogeography analysis of maternal and paternal DNA lineages suggested that the Malagasy was derived from multiple regional sources in Indonesia, with a focus on eastern Borneo, southern Sulawesi and the Lesser Sunda islands. Settlement may have been mediated by ancient sea nomad movements because the linguistically closest population, Ma'anyan, has only subtle genetic connections to the Malagasy, whereas genetic links with other sea nomads are more strongly supported. Our data hint at a more complex scenario for the Indonesian settlement of Madagascar than has previously been recognized.

Paper short abstract:

In Island Southeast Asia, the ancient foundations of its "Nusantao" boat people is clear from pre-Neolithic material cultural exchange and westward gene dispersal. Neolithic Austronesian dispersal linked to sailing technology was a quantum step in the formation of Southeast Asia's sea nomads.

Paper long abstract:

In Island Southeast Asia, the Neolithic was associated with new lifeways, such as settled hamlets, as well as the enhanced expression of earlier established lifeways. Chief among the latter is the capacity for maritime transport and exchange, particularly a feature of the islands of Wallacea with their long coastlines. Westward gene dispersal from Wallacea with the flooding of Sundaland and pre-Neolithic material cultural exchange across Wallacea identify its "Nusantao" (boat people) foundations as ancient. However, advanced sailing technology evidently associated with the dispersal of Malayo-Polynesian languages across Island Southeast Asia during the Neolithic represented a quantum step in the early formation of Southeast Asia's sea nomads.

Paper short abstract:

The potential influence of sea people in the development of trade oriented coastal societies is here discussed. Based on recent fieldwork in the Suai area of East-Timor we address the question of antiquity of coastal groups in the region, their origin and influence on socio-economic transformations.

Paper long abstract:

In this session we are trying to address the complex question of sea-nomadism as a valuable socio-cultural entity in a mostly archaeologically invisible territory, the sea, and the nature of its interactions with the islands world.  

 We would like, in this paper centered on Timor, to highlight, some of the possible influences and interactions of sea nomads on the coastal margins. We will further use this example to discuss the complex situation of sea-nomadism in the wider subject of trade, migrations and cultural interactions, in order to highlight some ways of recognizing and integrating archaeologically this sea-people dimension in the settlement pattern of insular Southeast Asia.  

 Our talk will be based on an archaeo-geographical survey in the Tetum Teric linguistic area, around Suai on the southwestern coast of Timor-Leste where contemporary cultural proximity between austronesian Tetum-Terik and non-Austronesian Bunak, possibly originating in the ancient sandalwood trade in the political realm of the Wehali kingdom, attest of complex interactions in historical times with a possible influence from former sea-nomads. We  will discuss the archeo-geographic visibility of such interactions and question a potential archaeological signature for similar processes.

Paper short abstract:

The nomad oral tradition allow us to discover places of regrouping, forgotten history of lost people, places of exchange whith merchants and their stories, rituals and social practices tell us something about the edification of nations.

Paper long abstract:

Sea-Gypsies of the Mergui Archipelago have a millenary knowledge which could help archeologists. Anthropologists and linguists can trace their origins up to the Riau Archipelago, an original center and a mixture of social choices. Langkawi had been a second step for an assembly. The last meeting place, still active, is in Phuket, Thailand where Moken, Moklen, Urak Lawoi mixed. Thus exists local « powerful » places for nomads where they rediscover a common origin. And they are a good source of information for archeologists.

Nomads know the historical exchange places, shipwrecks, the forgotten wars, slavery. Even if it is difficult to date those events, it suffices to cross-check their oral literature with the history of the « others ». For instance Moken splitted in two groups, Moken and Moklen, the last ones being temple slaves (Nakhon Sri Thammarat). They have a lot to tell and could be infomants. Coming back on the west coast they stay in the mangrove littoral while the Moken colonized the Mergui Archipelago.

And it is not by chance if the Sea Nomads call themselves Kalah, name of Golden Peninsula, and nor it is by chance that they often live near what archeologists call "port-entrepôts". But to decode this knowledge one must know them, their language and understand the historical metaphor in order to contextualize the historical events. They represent history of the interstices.