ABSTRACT
As we learned in Chapter 1, layers—layers of cultural influences, layers of musical processes—seem to pervade Southeast Asia. Still another kind of layering characterizes some of the more highly organized, state- and kingdom-oriented Southeast Asian civilizations: layers of social classes. Although irrigated rice cultivation at first promotes egalitarian societies, as irrigation systems become larger and more complex, they require more centralized authority to run and maintain them. Stratification of societies begins to develop when some individuals acquire permanent “rights” (such as individual land ownership, for example) to control and authority, as well as the increased wealth and status that go along with such rights.
