A Preliminary Study On The Slavery In Southeast Asia

Slavery existed for centuries in the history of Southeast Asia. It was one of the forms of labor possession and had great influence over countries and ethnical groups in Southeast Asia. Owing to the unique natural environment, social hierarchy and cultural background, slavery in Southeast Asia had its distinctive features and were remarkably different from that in other countries or regions. In most Southeast Asian regions, there were neither major differences between slaves and freemen, nor violent contradictions against the ruling class. Slavery in Southeast Asia was merely one of the presentations of labor possession and hierarchical bonding. Slaves had never been the sole laborers, and slave production relationship was just one form of production relations. Slavery had always been coexisting with other ways of labor possession and relationships in production. Slaves and their social functions indicated the political diversity in Southeast Asia, and had become a clue to explore the social and economical development in this area. Slavery in Southeast Asia was indigenous. However, it had been affected by the slavery systems from Islam, India, China and modern Europe. Regions in Southeast Asia had become a perfect place for the study of hybrid and interaction of different slavery systems. Significance of doing researches on the slavery in Southeast Asia is practical. It provides us not only a clue to explore the entire Southeast Asian history, and a key to delve into the slavery in other countries and regions. Taking historical and social background into consideration, the paper traces the origin and development of the slavery in Southeast Asia and presents the role that slavery had played in the societies. The paper also categorizes the varieties of slavery and analyzes the influences brought by Islamic religions and the European colonization. Life of the slaves and reasons for the decline of slavery in Southeast Asia are discussed as well. At last, based on the study of slavery, the paper probes the morphology and development pattern in the Southeast Asian regions.