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The Indonesian archipelago (Island Southeast Asia) now has the largest Muslim population in the world. How, when and why did Islam arrive? Archaeological investigations show that the conversion process was long and patchy with many forces at work. Keywords: Island Southeast Asia, Islam, conversion, pig bones, Introduction By the end of the seventeenth century, Islam had become an important part of people's lives in large portions of Island Southeast Asia. The social processes at work behind [...]

Island Southeast Asia has several distinctive elements of its archaeological and documentary record that make it a particularly fertile region in which to further explore and develop theories of culture contact and cross-cultural interaction. In contrast to the traditional view of other regions, such as pre-European contact North America, archaeologists have always seen Island Southeast Asia as a zone of cross-cultural interaction, or as a passageway for migrations to other areas. Despite this potential, the region remains relatively under-explored archaeologically, and problems of cross-cultural interaction have not been the orientation for most of the archaeological research that has been done. There are several possible explanations for this relative lack of focus: this paper will review several case studies that demonstrate how additional research can contribute to general theory about the interaction of human social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the use of historic maps and archaeology to understand the late precolonial settlement in the Banda Islands, Indonesia.