ABSTRACT
Over the past several years, globalization has become one of the central concerns of anthropology, and, recently, scholars have debated its origin and social implications (e.g. Al-Rodhan and Stoudman 2006; Chase-Dunn 2000; Frank 1998; Hall et al. 2011). Some contend that it is a process associated with modern times, others that the rst long-lived networks involving regular, trans-regional trade emerged between East Asia and the Mediterranean around 1000 ce, and yet others argue that there is evidence of globalization millennia ago (Frank and Gills 1992; O’Rourke and Williamson 2002; Stearns 2010; Wallerstein 2000; Feinman this volume; cf. Robertson this volume). It has become increasingly evident, based on a growing corpus of data, that long-distance economic and social interactions were very important in the ancient world in many dierent regions. For example, these signicant extra-regional linkages are used by a number of scholars (e.g. Blanton and Fargher 2012; Hodos 2010) to investigate trends associated with globalization and how these trends are manifested in dierent societies at dierent times (e.g. Iron Age Sicily, prehispanic Mesoamerica, and the Huari of the Andean Wari civilization). According to Jennings (2011, this volume), two general features of globalization include an upsurge in long-distance connections and the emergence of a global culture. During the late rst and early second millennium ce, Southeast and East Asia appear to have undergone these two major transformations.
