Scientific Periodicals, Numerical Inscriptions, and Indigenous Lifeworlds in Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia

Abstract:

Focusing on scientific periodicals produced in nineteenth-century Southeast Asia, this article considers the representational significance of numerical inscriptions in ethnographic accounts of the Orang Asli of Malaysia: first, in fostering comparative analyses of Indigenous peoples across various transcolonial sites; second, in schematizing raw data into diagrams, tables, and other immutable mobiles that could move between regional and metropolitan centres; and third, in shaping a bifurcation between modern subjects inhabiting meaningful lifeworlds and premodern subjects who could be objectified, abstracted, or reduced to numerical demonstration. In each case, the article considers the important intermedial role of periodicals in circulating numerical inscriptions and, thus, enabling a turn from context-driven accounts of Indigenous peoples to an emphasis on numerical stand-ins detached from particular locations and material conditions.