| Abstract: |
DEBORAH TOOKER interrogates models of premodern Southeast Asian political systems, specifically mandala and other spatialized concepts associated with the `cosmic polity,' by arguing that they are constructed from the viewpoint of elite sources and the center. Consequently, they "reaffirm existing power structures." By drawing on present-day ethnographic fieldwork-namely, her work on the Akha, a tribal upland ethnic minority living along the Thai-Burmese border-she demonstrates that `cosmic polity' approaches are constructed on an "encompassment model of hierarchy" and therefore overlook the possibility of contestations occurring within that hierarchy. Indeed, her study of the Akha and their specific notions of a supralocal political unit (myan), village polity, and household, shows that spatial codes are deployed differently in different contexts. As well as highlighting the links between spatial relations and power relations, her fieldwork leads her to emphasize the importance of understanding the "interrelationships between societies as parts of larger political-economic systems." Thus, she argues for a more practice-based approach to the understanding of spatiopolitical models.
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