Southeast Asia in the 1980s and 1990s

The 1980s and early 1990s, when the Nelsons did the majority of their collecting and which represent the latest possible time of production of the objects in their collection, were a period of considerable economic, political and social dynamism in Southeast Asia. Across the region, central governments turned to internal consolidation after the long conflicts of the mid twentieth century. Formerly outlying areas became increasingly integrated into national bodies by authoritarian states, while the region as a whole moved towards the economic and political consolidation which had been prevented by colonialism and war. Of the countries visited or lived in by the Nelsons, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia experienced rapid economic growth due in part to greater integration in the Asian export economy, while the more isolated Burma resisted the economic trends of the rest of the region while continuing aggressive attempts to integrate minority populations and outlying territories into the majority culture and polity.

As a result of both central government policies and global economic and political trends, the 1980s and 90s saw populations which had previously been little directly troubled by state policy and world market forces confronting radical social and environmental transformations. Ethnic minorities from the Shan in Burma to the Maloh in Borneo experienced an unprecedented level of intervention by both central governments and the forces of global capitalism—this had the effect both of making it substantially more difficult for minorities to maintain the cultural, social and economic structures that distinguished them from national majorities and, perhaps ironically, of commodifying the objects that had been the signs of their difference. Over the course of the 80s and 90s, the increasing economic development and social and political stabilization of the area also produced a surge in tourism, which further contributed to the creation of a market for Southeast Asian objects.