did their trading almost exclusively with China and not with
foreigners.
When trade routes by sea were established between In-
dia and Asia in the second century b.c.e., there was possi-
bly even less interaction with foreigners. For example, there
was the trading polity of Funan, a kingdom at the tip of the
Mekong Delta around the third century c.e. that reached as
far as Malaysia and Burma. Artifacts from China, India, and
Rome have been found in the remains of the Funan Empire,
but foreigners were geographically limited by mountains
close to the shore that inhibited travel. Unlike lands that were
openly available to traders, the lands of Asia and the Pacifi c
were not physically open to exploration. Although traders did
not travel freely from India, Indian culture did have strong
infl uences on Funan that spread across Asia. By 400 c.e. In-
dian writing systems, Sanskrit vocabulary, and Hindu beliefs
had been adapted across China.
One social aspect that did promote positive interaction
with foreigners was the spread of religion. Religious conver-
sion generally followed routes of trade. Java and Sumatra
show signs of the presence of Hinduism as early as the second
century b.c.e., and from there its infl uence grew through-
out Asia and the Pacifi c. Followers of Mahayana Buddhism,
which also had its roots in India, made a concerted eff ort
around 100 c.e. to spread its teachings eastward and quickly
overtook the Asian continent, moving in a relatively short
time through Southeast Asia to Korea, China, and Japan.
Th ere has been speculation that the spread of Hinduism
and Buddhism from India into Southeast Asia might have
been related in part at least to the fact that native rulers might
have welcomed missionaries from India, making them par-
ticipants in their courts in order to strengthen their hold. Th e
Hindu concept of kingship is captured in the word devaraja,
which comes from Sanskrit and translates as “god who is a
king.” Rulers who welcomed the arrival of Hinduism to their
lands were inviting their subjects to see them as incarnations
of the Hindu gods.
In general, the countries that had means of self-suffi -
ciency, including China, Th ailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and
Korea, were naturally more insular and less open to interac-
tion with people from other countries, while island nations,
of which there are dozens scattered throughout the South
Pacifi c, tended to be more familiar with the idea of trading
with outsiders over the course of hundreds of years and were
therefore more comfortable with the idea of associating with
westerners when they began arriving.
Although they were more open to trading with foreign-
ers, many cultures of the Pacifi c Islands retained a spiritual
distance from outsiders, including those who lived in villages
that were in close geographica l proximit y to their own. Head-
hunting was a common practice in many cultures throughout
Southeast Asia by the second century c.e., and it was to re-
main an important practice for centuries to come. Th e prac-
tice entailed planned, unprovoked, surprise attacks against
others. Victims were decapitated as they were killed, and
their heads were taken by the aggressors back to their vil-
lages, where the skulls were cleaned and oft en painted with
ceremonial designs.
Th ere are several theories about the beliefs that compelled
headhunting. Most interpretations reject the simple idea that
such ritualized violence could have been motivated purely
for the sake of intimidating one’s neighbors for military and
political gain. Th ere was almost universally a religious moti-
vation behind it. In many cultures beheading a stranger and
keeping the head was considered a way of making them a part
of one’s own ancestral lineage. Th ere were also cultures that
refused to see strangers as humans and viewed them instead
as demons in human form. Taking the head from such a non-
human entity and bringing it to one’s village, the headhunter
could humanize the spirit that dwelled within it. In this case,
the heads were oft en given names and spoken to in a friendly
fashion. Headhunting was practiced for diff erent reasons in
diff erent societies, and its meaning is not entirely clear; still,
it is apparent that the practice was widespread and that rather
than being motivated by violence, it oft en refl ected the tribe’s
complex view of outsiders.EUROPE
BY PETER S. WELLS
Human communities have always come into contact with
other communities. From earliest historical times (those
from which we have written texts as sources of informa-
tion) literary evidence informs us about how members of one
group thought about other peoples—peoples they considered
to be “foreigners” or “barbarians.” By the latter part of the
Early Stone Age, from about 40,000 years ago, archaeologi-
cal evidence shows that people were acquiring materials not
available to them locally, such as high-quality fl int for mak-
ing tools and shells from the seashores, which they used as or-
naments. To procure these items, they needed either to trade
with other groups who lived near the resources or to travel to
those resources, which would have brought them into con-
tact with other groups. From these earliest prehistoric times
we do not have direct evidence about what people thought
about others with whom they came into contact, but ideas
about “others” must have developed through these contacts.
In later periods, such as the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, and
the Iron Age (taken together and representing all of Europe,
7000 b.c.e.–500 c.e.), archaeological evidence for interaction
between communities is increasingly abundant. People were
coming into contact with others through trade, migration,
war, and other kinds of travel, such as trips to visit relatives
and religious pilgrimages.
In the archaeological evidence we can recognize the de-
velopment of distinctive types of personal ornaments and
styles of dress that probably served to mark the identities of
diff erent communities. From the distributions of such ob-
jects in diff erent regions, we can discern “borderlands” where
groups came into contact. We can gain some insight into atti-foreigners and barbarians: Europe 487