Indo-Arabia: A Lost Region?

Abstract This article examines the definition of regions employed by Middle East and South Asian studies in contrast with those of oceanic studies, world systems analysis, archaeology, and geography. It approaches the subject by drawing from the vast body of secondary literature on the myriad levels of interaction between the Bronze Age urban societies of Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (2500–1800 BCE), focusing on which of the variety of theoretical approaches renders these exchanges and contacts to be inter- or intra-regional. Middle East and South Asian studies are shown to necessarily construct the connections observed as interregional, largely due to their problematic roots in older notions of civilizational land-regions and present affiliations. The other theoretical approaches collectively, though in a variety of manners, suggest that these interactions are better represented as intra-regional, approaching regions as temporally floating entities demarcated by the extent of exchanges and interactions. This article proposes that the latter theories of regionalism not only imply that area studies’ definitions ought not to be uncritically adopted across time and space but also, when considered in light of the example provided, potentially expose “lost” regions such as Bronze Age “Indo-Arabia.”