Iranun and Balangingi

Book excerpt: The aim of this book is to explore ethnic, cultural and material changes in the transformative history(s) of oceans and seas, commodities and populations, mariners and ships, and raiders and refugees in Southeast Asia, with particular reference to the Sulu-Mindanao region, or the "Sulu Zone". Examining the profound changes that were taking place in the Sulu-Mindanao region and elsewhere at the end of the eighteenth century, this book, the companion volume to The Sulu Zone published in 1981, establishes an ethnohistorical framework for understanding the emerging inter-connected patterns of global commerce, long distance maritime trading and the formation and maintenance of ethnic identity. It also provides a new conceptual framework for understanding the problem of ethnic self-definition and political processes and conflicts in the recent history of the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia. Iranun and Balangingi seeks to probe these themes through an inter-disciplinary approach, using archival sources and literature, as well as period testimony, interviews, diaries, and fieldwork observations from sites primarily located in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.