ABSTRACT
The anthropology of South-East Asia has been concerned with issues of ethnicity and the formation and transformation of cultural identities. During the postwar period there is a noticeable shift away from the notion of pluralism, a notion tied particularly to the social structures created by the colonial powers and often associated with 'racial' categories, to the more all-embracing and versatile concept of ethnicity or ethnic identity. As with kinship, ethnicity commands primary loyalty; descent is claimed from common ancestors and frequently uses biological justification including shared 'blood' or other kinds of natural imagery such as common 'roots', 'soil' and 'branching' or 'spreading' 'plants' or 'trees'. Parallel processes can be seen at work in the Muslim world of South-East Asia where some formerly pagan populations have converted to Islam and over time changed their overall ethnic identity to 'become Malay'. Religious conversion and intermarriage are obviously two important mechanisms involved in changes of ethnic identity.
