South And East Asia - Environment And Society - Essay Example

The people belonging to the Austronesian family who originated from the southern part of China and Taiwan began to move into the islands of South and East Asia around four thousand years ago. The original inhabitants were either displaced or absorbed by the wave of migrations. Nearly all the languages that are being spoken in the insular South and East Asia belong to the Austronesian family group. Cultural variations began to affect the regions as a result of increased influences from the expansion of the South by the Chinese controlled regions leading to the colonization of Vietnam.

The Buddhism and Taoism arrived in the region of Vietnam from China resulting in a remarkable cultural influence. The expansion of trade across the Bay of Bengal resulted in increasing Indian influences that were well represented in large populations where the people were deeply involved in rice growing activities that were being supported by irrigation. These were seen in regions such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Java. The aspects of local societies were linked up with the various forms of Buddhism and Hinduism to form part of the laws that government leadership and court systems.

The variations in the environmental conditions greatly affected the political structures of the region. In cases where the people were mainly nomadic or semi-nomadic, it was a major challenge to be able to come up with a proper means of governance that were to be marked by reliable tax systems as well as stable bureaucratic approaches.