ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of ethnic diversity and change in Southeast Asia and the basic features of the region, including a brief account of the ethnic dimension in each country. It offers a broad historical account of ethnic dynamics in the region over the last few centuries, organized into the crude categories of the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial eras. The chapter outlines the broad features and dynamics of Southeast Asian ethnic relations and provides a preliminary interpretation of the patterns and their implications for a theory of ethnicity. The ecological setting of Southeast Asia was favorable to the development of ethnic diversity. In the pre-colonial world, ethnic differences were real and societies often were structured by ethnic divisions, but there were also important political and economic incentives to bridge and minimize these differences. Sociological theories of race and ethnicity are heavily influenced by the American experience, especially the historical circumstances that faced African-Americans and European immigrant ethnics.
