I’m sorry but there is no leftist argument in favour of book piracy (even academic books: because in that case honestly a lot of academics will just send you the PDF if you ask, it might even be open access) while libraries exist. And using libraries is the way to keep them existing.

for example, ancient Java adapted an Indic state model and Sanskrit, and Vietnam a Chinese model. No linguistic family relationships exist in either case.

There are methodological problems with the article to which this refers. First, the definition of a 'state' is taken for granted, when in the real world it is highly complex and problematic. Secondly, the alignment of state relationships to language families is extremely questionable.

See my “History and Social Structure in Ancient Java; A Review Article.” Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 20,2 (1986): 156-83 on some of the theories in relation to Indonesia.

It's not a new thread, that's my point. It simplifies a very old set of threads, as a way of claiming the importance of quantitative methods. I'd be interested if it had something new to say.

🤔 ignores the literature over the last 40 years on the relationship between state formation and rice growing in SEAsia. Very simplistic attempt to apply statistics where they’re not needed.

Will continue to do so for the next month