British Museum curator Alexandra Green's book explores 6,000 years of Southeast Asian history through objects

Alexandra Green, the British Museum's Southeast Asia curator, has authored 'Southeast Asia: A history in objects,' published by Thames & Hudson in collaboration with the British Museum. The 300-page hardcover, priced at £32, examines over 6,000 years of the region's history using artifacts from the museum's collection, ranging from cave paintings to motorbikes and televisions. Green challenges the notion of Southeast Asia as a coherent cultural grouping, emphasizing its geographical and diverse linguistic, religious, and cultural makeup. She addresses colonial legacies, noting that many objects arrived in Britain during the late 19th century, with donors like H. Ridley, Adelaide Lister, and A.W. Franks raising provenance questions. The book highlights the impact of trade routes from Persia to China in the first century BCE and waves of religious influences, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. Green acknowledges the difficulty of using objects to tell full histories due to the tropical climate's effect on preservation, citing a 13th-century ritual water vessel from Java with unknown exact purpose. She contrasts her approach with historians like Sunil Amrith, who focus on natural forces like water, while also critiquing universal museum narratives that mask colonialism and inequality. The review, published in ArtReview, praises Green for capturing the region's complexity through storytelling forms like carving, weaving, architecture, and performance art.