This Satellite Workshop focuses on the maritime area and people around Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.  As an early destination in the Age of Commerce, the Spermonde Archipelago along the western coast of South Sulawesi has experienced globalization and domestic political transition from the time of the spice trade era, when the area experienced dramatic economic growth.   More recently, inflows of Chinese networks and the advance of modern globalization have increasingly affected the dynamics of daily life.  Domestically, the transition to a democratic, decentralized nation state has sparked political revitalization.  The maritime population have started to manage their natural resources almost to the same extent as have inshore and inland populations.  Focussing on historical ecological, socio-cultural, and economic dynamics, this Satellite Workshop will describe and analyze notable transitions of the maritime population of the Spermonde Archipelago.

The Makassar Field Station (MFS) of Indonesia’s Hasanuddin University was established by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) Program, and has played an important role in field research in the Spermonde Archipelago.  The MFS provides field education for students of the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies at Kyoto University. Additionally, the MFS is establishing itself as a center for Sulawesi area studies through its active and consistent hosting of graduates and undergraduates from Hasanuddin University, CSEAS’s counterpart in the 21st Century COE Program.

This Satellite Workshop has ensued from collaborative research undertaken by the MFS and the Sulawesi Area Studies Project, financed by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from JSPS.   The research undertaken in this instance has examined the broad transformations that have taken place on Sulawesi Island and its offshore areas from three angles: natural resource management, socio-economic change, and population mobility.  The research team in charge of examining the offshore areas will lead this workshop, and report on how maritime peoples have experienced the transformations of late modernity.  In particular, the management and distribution of maritime and forest resources between Sulawesi Island and coastal areas of East Kalimantan offer a useful means of depicting the everyday life and dynamics of the maritime population.