Colloquium with CSEAS Director Stephen Acabado
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
11:00 AM (Pacific Time)
Fowler Building A222
The category of prehistory continues to shape archaeological interpretation in Southeast Asia, yet it often obscures rather than clarifies regional histories. Colonial-era chronological frameworks, including the Three Age System and related civilizational narratives, impose developmental sequences that do not align with inscriptional, environmental, bioarchaeological, and material evidence from the region. These models place non-literate societies earlier in time, masking historical continuities expressed through landscape engineering, ritual practice, agricultural scheduling, and maritime exchange.
Drawing on case studies from Ban Chiang, Angkor, Ifugao, and Bicol, this paper examines how recent datasets challenge these assumptions. Metallurgical and bioarchaeological analyses from Ban Chiang, post–fourteenth-century inscriptions and settlement evidence from Angkor, radiocarbon chronologies from Ifugao, and early modern tradeware and archaeobotanical data from Bicol demonstrate that Southeast Asian communities participated in historically contingent processes unfolding alongside global early modern transformations.
The paper proposes deep history as a framework that treats oral, material, ecological, and inscriptional records as coexisting forms of historical knowledge, dissolving the rigid boundary between history and archaeology.
Stephen B. Acabado is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies. He is recognized for his community-oriented work in the Philippines and has dedicated his career to the study of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, a site of significant historical and cultural importance that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Dr. Acabado places community engagement at its core of his practice. He staunchly advocates for the involvement of local communities in archaeological endeavors, ensuring that their histories, perspectives, and insights are incorporated into the larger narrative.
Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology