Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

24
xxiv
over resources. Some chapters also look into conflicts
arising from competing claims over heritage and how
such conflicts are mediated. Some of the specific issues
addressed by the chapters in this section include:
•
•
•
•
What can heritage tell us about our past and in
what way can it enrich our present knowledge of
our past as we engage with globalization, change
and modernity?
In what way can discourses on heritage be a
source of mobilization and identity formation?
How can the struggle for history and identity
contribute towards pluralist understanding and
conflict resolution?
What is the nature of the conflicts involving competing
claims over natural heritage and resources and
in what way these conflicts are negotiated and
resolved?
In what way can awareness and conscientisation
over heritage be enhanced and how can such
heritage be preserved for future generations?
Four papers deal with these issues. Wilhelm Solheim
discusses the archaeological findings from his revisit
of the excavations in Gua Sirih, Sarawak, Malaysia, a
project that he and Tom Harrison began in 1959 but
was uncompleted due to the three-year Indonesian
Confrontation beginning in 1963. This is followed
by Khoo Su Nin on changing identities among the
Baba Chinese and Thai Muslims in Phuket, southern
Thailand while Patrick Flores discusses the issue and
significance of curation in Southeast Asia. The other
two papers deal with natural heritage—forestry and
water resources—analyzed from different perspectives.
Nyoman Nurjaya deals with policy and legislation in
community forestry and the question of indigenous
rights in community forestry development in Southeast
Asia with a focus on the Philippines, Malaysia and
Indonesia, while Kensuke Yamaguchi deals with the
issue of water scarcity and conflict over water between
the highlanders and lowlanders in the Chom Thong
District in Chiangmai, northern Thailand.
Engaging modernity: Religion, gender, and art
Engaging modernity and embarking on the modernist
project are experiments with change and innovation
to cope with the modern world that is fraught with
conflicts and challenges. This is essentially part of
the processes of interacting with the present and
stepping into the future that societies and groups,
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
such as religious and feminist movements, as well as
art groups, have to engage in. What is certain is that
with continuing technological revolution, there will be
deep-going changes in values, attitudes, techniques and
approaches of doing things, with actors ever prepared
to experiment and innovate. These efforts can be seen
in various fields including among religious groups, as
well as gender and art movements. For example, given
the rise of Islamist movements and the backwardness
of many Muslim nations, Muslim leaders and
followers have responded in various ways to the forces
of modernization and globalization, and attempted
to chart the future for Muslims. At the same time,
globalization and modernization have made inroads
into the domain of gender and sexuality, giving rise to
various new issues and challenges that merit a revisit of
the gender and sexuality debate. The growth of various
art genres and art technologies has been contributory
to new thinking, expressions and innovations, making
significant impacts on their publics. Artists have formed
networks across borders while animation has emerged
as a very important new form of artistic expression that
promises new creativity that differentiates itself from
the homogenizing tendencies of cultural globalization.
The six papers in Session II attempt to address several
important questions namely:
• Is the rise of political Islam a reflection of the dilemma
of Islam and Muslims due to their “failed” or
incomplete engagement with modernization and
modernity? Does the post-September 11 scenario give
new opportunities and hopes for modernization
among Muslims to take them into the future, and
if so, how? In what way can discourses on Islam
contribute towards inter-civilizational understanding
and improving the human condition?
• What is the impact of globalization on gender and
sexuality? In what way is the articulation of gender
and sexuality in our region different from that in
the developed West, and how can it contribute
towards the advancement of gender issues in our
region?
• What is the impact of globalization on the
community of artists in Southeast Asia,
particularly women artists? Can the various art
genres, including animation, project the Southeast
and East Asian identity, creativity and originality
in the wake of the homogenizing tendencies of
globalization, and how can they do so?
Two papers deal specifically with Islam and Muslims