| Abstract: |
This brief paper addresses some implications of ethnoarchaeological research on the contemporary fortified settlements of the Wa people, on the China-Burma frontier. It provides a summary introduction to the Wa fortifications and their social and historical context. These fortifications can provide information of considerable value for the archaeological study of ancient fortifications and warfare, especially regarding non-state or small-scale societies. I also note that the Wa fortifications can only be properly understood as coming into being within a specific regional-historical context, at the "edge of empire", and as a periphery which forms an integral and also active part of a larger system. Thus, their study also has important implications for archaeological and general anthropological studies of centre-periphery relations in China, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
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