Abstract
The passage of
History is determined by and is a manifestation of the struggle between Order
and Disorder (or Chaos). This is a materialist interpretation which discards
the Idealists' 'Cogito ergo Sum' (I think therefore I am: Descartes, Discours
sur la Methode 1637) in favour of the materialist perspective as summed up by
Neitzsche's 'Sum ergo Cogito' – (I am therefore I think). The Materialist
understanding is that a body must 'a priori' exist, matter is primary, and
resolution of the struggle between the forces of Order and Disorder determines
everything. This happens on a very grand scale at the birth of the universe
(the Big Bang), at formation of the galaxies, and at every other level. At
resolution a new equilibrium is established which in time develops into a new
struggle: the process is endless. Linked as they are in continuous opposition
to each other Order and Chaos form a pairing, a unity of opposites, interacting
and competing. Simply put, now one is dominant, now the other: this is the
theory which is known as Dialectical Materialism. I propose to examine
historical Southeast Asia, focussing especially on pre-colonial Burma (now
Myanmar) with the intention of ascertaining the dialectics of its situation,
specifically, to what extent material conditions have determined the
socio-political structure, and how the two interact. It should be possible then to correlate the
analysis to other periods of history and other parts of the world.
