Women in Southeast Asian Archaeology: Discoveries, Accomplishments, and Challenges

Southeast Asians have venerated their past for centuries, but modern Southeast Asian archaeology is less than a century old. Academics and local heritage management help shape the current archaeology scene today as heritage management competes with research-driven projects. What was, in the mid-twentieth century, a largely Euroamerican male profession is changing by the decade as more Southeast Asia-based archaeologists enter the field. As Southeast Asian women have increasingly pursued higher education across the region in recent decades, more Southeast Asian women have entered archaeology. However, few archaeologists have previously considered the impact of women in Southeast Asian archaeology, even though women archaeologists direct several of the longest-running research programs across the region. Our chapter reviews women archaeologists’ contributions to Southeast Asian archaeology historically and holistically, balancing the work of both foreign and Southeast Asian practitioners and tacking between key discoveries and career-long contributions. We place these developments within historical and cultural contexts of Southeast Asian archaeology to understand women’s roles, the diversity of perspectives they offer, the barriers that they face, and their remarkable contributions to Southeast Asian archaeology both nationally and internationally.