People and Places examines the interaction between the peoples of Southeast Asia and their various environments across time and space.

Highland, lowland, and coastal communities lived in distinct environments, which produced shared experiences despite differences in nationality, borders language, religion, and ethnicity.

Southeast Asian populations have customized elements of global worldviews (other Asian and Western civilizations, religious-philosophical cultures) to fit their local needs and priorities, hereby producing a pattern of shared experiences across the mainland and island worlds.