See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333999093 Regional Economics and the Dissipation of Angkor - June 2019 SPAFACON Presentation V8 - D Kyle Latinis Presentation · June 2019 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33389.64488 CITATIONS READS 0 50 1 author: David Kyle Latinis ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute 74 PUBLICATIONS 399 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Evolution and Anthropology View project Angkorian Hospitals - Tonle Snguot View project All content following this page was uploaded by David Kyle Latinis on 25 June 2019. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
REGIONAL ECONOMICS AND THE DISSIPATION OF ANGKOR D. Kyle La8nis June 2019: SPAFA Conference, Bangkok david.kyle.la8nis@gmail.com +65 9075 4072 (WA) researchgate.net: hYps://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_La8nis
Historical Ecology and Economics: So What? (RELEVANCE) I frequently give a similar lecture to CEOs and high level government officials at the Lee • Kuan Yew School of Public Policy ExecuLve EducaLon Programme, NaLonal University of Singapore, Singapore. Several concepts to consider. • For example, how many managers, craRsmen, service personnel, laborers, soldiers, etc. always • had “one foot on the farm [and fisheries]” as a safety net through their extended families – much as garments factory workers, brick makers, teachers, poZery manufacturers, civil servants, etc. do today? Did an economic deficit and collapse simply result in most people basically returning to the family farm? What major commodiLes trade would leave no to limited archaeological footprints (i.e., we • know Cambodia likely traded a considerable amount of foodstuffs)? Thus, is our use of ceramics and other durable archaeological evidence necessarily a complete and representaLve proxy variable. How does the historic data compare with the archaeological (e.g., historic evidence of major • warfare, but very limited weapons and armor in archaeological record compared to South, Central and East Asia: i.e., are the bas reliefs and few inscripLons coupled with oral tradiLons even remotely accurate to the size, nature and types of armies and actual engagements that occur [e.g., Chou Ta Kuan even menLons army of farmers] Did the Khmer elite entrepreneurs and related workforce simply move to or reside in AyuZhaya • (most of early AyuZhaya is Khmer); while the central Angkor “conservaLve” capital remain in Siem Reap? Was there tension that led to conflict?
Personal Interests and Research: Historical Ecology and Economics: - Ethnographic data + Environment: List of things and condiLons... - Economic data (geographic, physical, biological, and social scales/boundaries) - Historic data + Ecology: RelaLons... - Archaeological data + Historical: Varying temporal scales of analysis - Environmental data (short-, medium-, long-, very long-term trends) • Fitness • Things that work, s8ck * Evolu8onary • Effec8veness • Long-term experimenta8on * Economic • Efficiency (MAX/MIN) • Culturally encoded Assess long-term socio-economic relaLons between humans (social groups) and their environments and resources: different trends at different social, physical and temporal scales. Trajectories: Understand the past and present; beYer decisions and prepara8on for the future! Note: Behavioral Economics (humans not always ra8onal... similari8es with evolu8onary theory and muta8on); Species-Genera Ra8o Modifica8ons; Environmental/Ecological Transforma8ons
Historical Ecology and Economics: So What? (RELEVANCE) Provides an informaLve but fun background; historic and cultural (also dealing with • urbanizaLon, urbanism, ciLes, networks of ciLes and kingdoms, infrastructure, industries, various scales of value chains – local to inter-regional trans-Asian). Assess long-term socio-economic relaLons between humans (social groups) and their • environments and resources Different trends at different social, physical and temporal scales • Short-term, medium-term, and long-term paZerns are different; paZerns within paZerns • Successful and sustainable ideas, beliefs, iniLaLves, pracLces, industries (manufacturing, • services, etc.) endure; bad ones fail... However, each have different life spans... condiLons change... • Lessons learned oRen culturally encoded in “rules of thumb” (heurisLcs), beliefs, tradiLons, • supersLLons, religions, official/unofficial cultural rules... someLmes lessons are not learned or are un-learnable through tradiLonal analyses... ExperimentaLon, tesLng, science is oRen at the core (but not expressed in scienLfic terms) • UlLmately: Assessing and understanding trajectories: Understand the past and present; • know which direc8on we are going; make beYer decisions and prepara8on for the future!
Trends and Socio-Temporal Scales of Analysis: 1. Bronze/Iron Age – Funan: Increasing regional and inter-regional engagement (interacLon), networks, and value chains 2. Chenla (pre-Ankgor): Decreasing socio-economic regionalism and extra- regionalism; increased insularity and heavier investment in domesLc economy; sophisLcated industries, technologies, services, management, engineering, etc. 3. Angkor: Highly reduced socio-economic regionalism and extra- Short-term: quarterly, annual, 3-5 year... regionalism. Heavy insularity; massive domesLc producLon, distribuLon, consumpLon; but, significant regional trade deficit by terminal dissipaLon of Angkor (shipwreck data; regional archaeological data; historic data...) ca. mid to terminal 13 th century and 14 th century. Nothing being massively pushed out (exported) except maybe some food products... These are factors correlated to the decline of Angkor as a regionally “dominant appearing” power. They are not inter-regionally or extra-domesLcally engaged Mid-term: decades, 1-2 generaLons, 5-25 years... (entrepreneurs may have gravitated to Ayuythhya, but apparently not elsewhere (no migrant/trans-migrant Rise and Demise of Civiliza8ons: communiLes, etc.) Economic & Socio-Poli8cal Lacked regional and extra-regional entrepreneurship Founda8ons 3. (products, networks, business culture, etc.); and/or out- 8. competed or simply surpassed by various neighboring poliLes. 2. 7. CementaLon of various cultural traits: conservaLsm, insular 6. 1 . 4. focus, etc. (sLll prevalent; cultural heurisLcs; posiLve, neutral, 5. negaLve...) Long-term: mulLple generaLons, centuries, millennia... 4. Decline/Collapse of Angkor: (many models – combo)
KEY POINTS: Since Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages.... Increasing: Surplus and storable/exchangeable food • produc8on (e.g., starch, vegetables, fruits, palm sugar, agroforestry, fish, livestock, etc.) Water, land, resource control, technology and • management Popula8on sizes • Surplus 8me and labor poten8al • Specializa8on in crans, goods, commodi8es, etc. • produc8on and economic efficiency (increased technologies in metals, ceramics, etc.) Socio-poli8cal and socio-economic complexity and • system efficiency Socio-economic network and engagement • complexity (nested and overlapping: local, domes8c, inter-regional and extra-regional) ... And so on and so forth • There are points of diminishing returns, plateaus • and even decreasing efficiency in several cases... O'Reilly, D., Shewan, L., A report on the 2011–2012 excava8on of Lovea: An Iron Age, moated seYlement in Cambodia, Archaeological Research in Asia (2015), hYp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2015.02.001
Since Funan, Chenla, Angkor... Increasing expansion and focus on domes8c economy and external • import. Compara8ve decreasing interest in intra-regional and extra-regional • export (i.e., nothing Angkorian being pushed out to inter-regional and extra-regional economies). Massive regional and extra-regional trade deficit - unlike many • neighbors, regional powers, networks, etc. from 12 th -15 th centuries onwards (AyuYhaya, Vietnamese, Cham, Chinese, several others). The industrial, technological, and produc8on capacity and poten8al • was there; culture of entrepreneurship was not. Unsustainable. Not regionally or extra-regionally compe88ve (socio- • poli8cal-economic... networks included...). No collapse per se, but no compara8ve growth. • Eventually surpassed and len behind. • Other factors involved in seeming dissolu8on, dissipa8on and/or • downsizing of Angkorian economies and power (environmental factors: mega-droughts, mega-floods, degrada8on; ‘big-system’ hydraulic failures, poli8cal factors including war, corrup8on, bureaucra8c overload, fac8onalism/split; state religion factors; Jayavarman VII finally “blew the bank” [burst the bubble... perhaps with added help from predecessors], others). The massive scale construc8on, infrastructure, maintenance and • service industries as well as networks dissolved aner Jayavarman VII: appeared as a collapse.
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