Having made a case for the region, a more practical issue has to be addressed, that is, the internal divisions between scholars of Southeast Asia themselves. This fragmentation among researchers is partly a consequence of the nature of the object of study, and also reflection of the general a organizational format of universities and research Area studies centers. Area studies presuppose an intimate knowledge of the region that can only be reached by acquiring a view-from-within. This, in turn, requires acquiring a good command of one or more local languages and cultures, including gaining familiarity with the situation on the ground through regular and possibly extended field visits. Both requirements automatically lead scholars to concentrate their work on one or at most a few regions within Southeast Asia. A more institutional reason is that, despite advocating multi-disciplinary and comparative research, most scientific knowledge is produced along the lines of disciplines that have emerged during the nineteenth century and which are still controlling institutions of higher learning.