James Fox
2022
Fox, James
Marshall D. Sahlins 27 December 1930–5 April 2021 A MEMOIRE Journal Article
In: The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 23, iss. 2, pp. 1-6, 2022.
@article{Fox2022,
title = {Marshall D. Sahlins 27 December 1930–5 April 2021 A MEMOIRE},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1080/14442213.2022.2061589},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-05-04},
urldate = {2022-05-04},
journal = {The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology},
volume = {23},
issue = {2},
pages = {1-6},
abstract = {Marshall D. Sahlins was one of the leading anthropologists of his generation: prodigiously productive, incisive, provocative, and relentless in his intellectual pursuits. His writings span a period of over 65 years and trace an intellectual development that charts many of the principal concerns of his era. His writings also represent a dialogue with many of the leading anthropologists of this time and an ongoing debate over current social issues.
In the course of his long career, Sahlins came to use his considerable reading of the world’s ethnographic record to engage critically with fundamental issues in Western thought. Tracing a trajectory through his diverse corpus of writing to identify his contributions to anthropology and beyond is a daunting challenge. This effort offers a personal perspective.
Born in Chicago, Sahlins first studied anthropology under Leslie White at the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and then went on to do his doctorate at Columbia University in 1954 with Morton Fried as his supervisor and in company with a cohort of contemporaries including Stanley Diamond, Marvin Harris, Sydney Mintz, Robert Murphy, Elman Service and Eric Wolf. Sahlins was the only one of this group to commit himself to research in the Pacific and became thoroughly engaged in a life-long exploration of culture in its relationship to society in varying contexts.},
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In the course of his long career, Sahlins came to use his considerable reading of the world’s ethnographic record to engage critically with fundamental issues in Western thought. Tracing a trajectory through his diverse corpus of writing to identify his contributions to anthropology and beyond is a daunting challenge. This effort offers a personal perspective.
Born in Chicago, Sahlins first studied anthropology under Leslie White at the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and then went on to do his doctorate at Columbia University in 1954 with Morton Fried as his supervisor and in company with a cohort of contemporaries including Stanley Diamond, Marvin Harris, Sydney Mintz, Robert Murphy, Elman Service and Eric Wolf. Sahlins was the only one of this group to commit himself to research in the Pacific and became thoroughly engaged in a life-long exploration of culture in its relationship to society in varying contexts.
2021
Fox, James
A Research Note on Laterality and Lineality in Austronesian Relationship Terminologies Journal Article
In: Oceania, vol. 91, 2021.
@article{Fox2021,
title = {A Research Note on Laterality and Lineality in Austronesian Relationship Terminologies},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1002/ocea.5317},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-10-25},
urldate = {2021-10-25},
journal = {Oceania},
volume = {91},
abstract = {This research note identifies seven patterns of laterality and/or lineality that occur in the 1st ascending generation of Austronesian relationship terminologies. It lists, in relation to these patterns, some of the main Austronesian societies that possess each of these patterns. This brief note forms part of a larger ongoing comparative research analysis of Austronesian kinship.
},
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Fox, James; Prihandiani, Adlinanur; Bella, Dea Rifia; Chairani, Nadira Reza; Winarto, Yunita Triwardani
The Tsunami of Pesticide Use for Rice Production on Java and Its Consequences Journal Article
In: The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 22, iss. 1, pp. 1-22, 2021.
@article{Fox2021b,
title = {The Tsunami of Pesticide Use for Rice Production on Java and Its Consequences},
author = {James Fox and Adlinanur Prihandiani and Dea Rifia Bella and Nadira Reza Chairani and Yunita Triwardani Winarto},
doi = {10.1080/14442213.2021.1942970},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-07-20},
urldate = {2021-07-20},
journal = {The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology},
volume = {22},
issue = {1},
pages = {1-22},
abstract = {The consequences of the ‘Green Revolution’ persist in Indonesia and are most evident in the continuing high use of pesticides. After 1986, Indonesia made dramatic reductions in its use of pesticides for rice by adopting methods of integrated pest management, but these reductions were significantly reversed after 2002, producing a ‘tsunami’ in a costly and deleterious promotion of a wide range of pesticides. By destroying natural predators, this deleterious increase enabled the brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens Stal.), a major pest on rice, to become endemic, causing substantial crop losses. This paper provides an ethnographic examination of this excessive pesticide use focusing on usage in two villages in major rice producing areas, one in West Java and the other in Central Java. Faced with uncertainty and the risk of crop loss, farmers are prompted to ever greater spraying and even resort to ‘cocktails’ of multiple pesticides. Yet both villages have suffered brown planthopper infestation and the viruses associated with infestation. The consequences of this pesticide tsunami are considered at both local and national levels.
},
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Fox, James
Austronesian Paths and Journeys Book
2021, ISBN: 9781760464325.
@book{Fox2021c,
title = {Austronesian Paths and Journeys},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.22459/APJ.2021},
isbn = {9781760464325},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-05-18},
urldate = {2021-05-18},
abstract = {This is the eighth volume in the Comparative Austronesian series. The papers in this volume examine metaphors of path and journey among specific Austronesian societies located on islands from Taiwan to Timor and from Madagascar to Micronesia. These diverse local expressions define common cultural conceptions found throughout the Austronesian-speaking world.},
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Fox, James
Towards a comparative ethnography of Austronesian ‘paths’ and ‘journeys’ Book Chapter
In: pp. 1-28, 2021, ISBN: 9781760464325.
@inbook{Fox2021d,
title = {Towards a comparative ethnography of Austronesian ‘paths’ and ‘journeys’},
author = {James Fox},
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year = {2021},
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2020
Fox, James
Interpreting the historical significance of tombs and chronicles in contemporary Java Book Chapter
In: pp. 160-172, Routledge, 2020, ISBN: 9781003118176.
@inbook{Fox2020,
title = {Interpreting the historical significance of tombs and chronicles in contemporary Java},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.4324/9781003118176-11},
isbn = {9781003118176},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-07-31},
urldate = {2020-07-31},
pages = {160-172},
publisher = {Routledge},
abstract = {This chapter argues that juru kunci throughout Java play an extraordinarily important—though often overlooked—role in interpreting and disseminating views of Java’s past. Individuals on Java visit tombs with their special intentions, often at times of personal crisis, in order to place themselves in relationship to a personage of the past. It is the custodian who assists in this relationship: he offers access, prepares the visitor, guides the visit and then interprets the outcome. The juru kunci of Trowulan’s revelation belongs to a long tradition of accounts of Brawijaya. In the Javanese babad tradition, Brawijaya serves as a ‘source figure’ from whom subsequent historical figures derive their royal genealogical link. The document describes an encounter between Ki Ageng Pamanahan and Arya Jayaprana. Pamanahan speaks to Jayaprana with high forms of address as ‘Sang Tapa’, whereas Jayaprana addresses Pamanahan as a child.},
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2019
Fox, James
A Research Note Regarding Trobriand Tabu and Its Comparative Significance Journal Article
In: vol. 89, iss. 3, pp. 336-342, 2019.
@article{Fox2019,
title = {A Research Note Regarding Trobriand Tabu and Its Comparative Significance},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1002/ocea.5230},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-11-01},
urldate = {2019-11-01},
volume = { 89},
issue = {3},
pages = {336-342},
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2018
Fox, James
Needham, Rodney (1923–2006) Bachelor Thesis
2018.
@bachelorthesis{Fox2018,
title = {Needham, Rodney (1923–2006)},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2294},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-09-05},
urldate = {2018-09-05},
pages = {1-4},
abstract = {Rodney Needham was a formidable figure among a distinguished generation of British social anthropologists. As an ethnographer of Southeast Asia; an assiduous author, translator and editor; and a lecturer then professor in social anthropology at Oxford University, Needham offered his own distinctive cast to anthropology, focusing on the comparative analysis of social categories. For him, the most significant of these social categories were “relationship terminologies”—the categories by which societies distinguish individuals intimately and specifically.},
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Fox, James
Lévi‐Strauss, Claude (1908–2009) Bachelor Thesis
2018.
@bachelorthesis{Fox2018b,
title = {Lévi‐Strauss, Claude (1908–2009)},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2007},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-09-05},
urldate = {2018-09-05},
pages = {1-7},
abstract = {Claude Lévi‐Strauss was a major figure in anthropology. After a formative period in Brazil and the United States, he was appointed, in 1959, to the chair of social anthropology at the Collège de France, a position he held for twenty‐three years. In 1973, he was elected to the Académie Française and eventually became its dean. He propounded a form of analysis known as structuralism. The influence of his structural analysis, while centered on anthropology, extended widely to other fields of inquiry. In a lifetime of over a century, he remained remarkably productive. His publications include major works on elementary forms of kinship, systems of complex social classification, and the logic of myth.
},
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Fox, James
Alliance Theory (Marriage Systems) Bachelor Thesis
2018.
@bachelorthesis{Fox2018c,
title = {Alliance Theory (Marriage Systems)},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1598},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-09-05},
urldate = {2018-09-05},
pages = {1 - 9},
abstract = {Alliance theory refers to a body of theoretical investigations on fundamental issues relating to marriage and exchange that date from the beginnings of anthropology. The present designation of these issues as “alliance theory” is a development of the 1960s, when “alliance theory” was conceived as a complement to “descent theory.” An understanding of the earliest development of ideas of alliance and their significance is essential to an appreciation of later developments in this field. These developments occurred in a succession of distinguishable efforts by key figures in anthropology over a period of almost a hundred years.
},
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Fox, James
The body of thinking and of emotions among the Rotenese Book Chapter
In: Chapter 5, pp. 129-148, 2018, ISBN: 9781760461911.
@inbook{Fox2018d,
title = { The body of thinking and of emotions among the Rotenese},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.22459/EATE.04.2018.05},
isbn = {9781760461911},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-04-17},
urldate = {2018-04-17},
pages = {129-148},
chapter = {5},
abstract = {his chapter examines the language of thinking and feeling among the Rotenese of eastern Indonesia. It is divided into two complementary parts. Initially, I focus on the specific terms, idioms and ritual expressions that constitute the linguistic basis for the articulation of thinking and for the social expression of emotions. Among the Rotenese, thinking and the emotions are intimately located within an ‘inner person’. This ‘inner person’ is distinguished from the social semblance that the person presents to the world. Both the inner self and the semblance it presents are associated with specific parts of the body. One of the chief purposes in this section of the chapter is to explore, in some detail, the use of bodily metaphors in the expression of emotions and of thinking. In this analysis, I combine an examination of ordinary language usage with ritual language usage. Ritual language as a formal register highlights key modes of thought and emotion. Although these thoughts and emotions are those spoken of in ordinary language, ritual language gives emphasis to their particular qualities and, because of its formal dyadic structure, it pairs specific forms of thinking and feeling, often grounding them in metaphoric imagery. This is particularly the case in the ritual admonitions that encourage moral behaviour and insist on proper modes of action. In the second part of this chapter, I endeavour to locate the use of such metaphors in their social context. Social context is essential to understanding such linguistic usage. This discussion requires the grounding of thought and emotions in notions of the person and in the ideals and values that are given emphasis in Rotenese society. It also requires consideration of the historical development of Rotenese society, where such ideals and values have served as a motivating force for action.
Underlying the expression of the emotions and of thinking among the Rotenese is a specific cultural conception of the person. This conception credits maternal relatives with responsibility for a person’s physical being. Through the gift of a woman, wife-givers become life-givers. In the Rotenese botanic idiom, they are regarded as ‘planting’ (sele) progeny among their wife-takers. These children are explicitly described as ‘plants’ (sele-dadi). A specific ritual relationship is established between the ‘mother’s brother of origin’ (or ‘trunk mother’s brother’: to’o-huk) and the ‘plants’, his sister’s children, whom he tends throughout their life. All the rituals of the life cycle, which he directs, are concerned with promoting the vitality of the physical person and eventually conclude with the rituals of burial and the dispatch of that person. The mother’s brother of origin is duly acknowledged and compensated for his ministration to the physical person to the extent that, were a person to accidentally injure himself by drawing blood, the ‘mother’s brother of origin’ would demand compensation for the injury. This relationship continues for another generation. The ‘grandfather of origin’ (ba’i-huk) retains specific ritual rights over the children of his sister’s children.},
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Underlying the expression of the emotions and of thinking among the Rotenese is a specific cultural conception of the person. This conception credits maternal relatives with responsibility for a person’s physical being. Through the gift of a woman, wife-givers become life-givers. In the Rotenese botanic idiom, they are regarded as ‘planting’ (sele) progeny among their wife-takers. These children are explicitly described as ‘plants’ (sele-dadi). A specific ritual relationship is established between the ‘mother’s brother of origin’ (or ‘trunk mother’s brother’: to’o-huk) and the ‘plants’, his sister’s children, whom he tends throughout their life. All the rituals of the life cycle, which he directs, are concerned with promoting the vitality of the physical person and eventually conclude with the rituals of burial and the dispatch of that person. The mother’s brother of origin is duly acknowledged and compensated for his ministration to the physical person to the extent that, were a person to accidentally injure himself by drawing blood, the ‘mother’s brother of origin’ would demand compensation for the injury. This relationship continues for another generation. The ‘grandfather of origin’ (ba’i-huk) retains specific ritual rights over the children of his sister’s children.
2017
Fox, James
Remembering and Recreating Origins: The Transformation of a Tradition of Canonical Parallelism among the Rotenese of Eastern Indonesia Bachelor Thesis
2017.
@bachelorthesis{Fox2017,
title = {Remembering and Recreating Origins: The Transformation of a Tradition of Canonical Parallelism among the Rotenese of Eastern Indonesia},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1353/ort.2017.0009},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-05-01},
urldate = {2017-05-01},
journal = {Oral Tradition},
volume = {31},
issue = {2},
abstract = {I have been studying an oral tradition of strict canonical parallelism intermittently for nearly half a century. I began my research on this oral tradition based on the island of Rote in eastern Indonesia in 1965, and have continued these efforts, now with greater urgency, to the present. I have also been investigating issues in comparative parallelism for roughly the same period of time. In 2014 I published Explorations in Semantic Parallelism, which marked an important stage in this research. This volume is a collection of papers both new and old. For example, I reprinted my first survey of the field in 1977 published in honor of Roman Jakobson together with a longer paper on the "trajectory" of subsequent and continuing developments in the study of parallelism.
Explorations in Semantic Parallelism also reprints several of my papers on the study of the Rotenese tradition of canonical parallelism together with various papers that continue to extend my study of this tradition. My personal understanding of the Rotenese tradition of canonical composition has grown over several decades, while the tradition itself has been undergoing change. My perceptions of this change are intimately linked to my increasing comprehension of the tradition as a whole.
In this paper I take stock of the work on that tradition to date and to put it into perspective. I also describe the changes that have occurred in the tradition over the course of my research as I gradually gained new perceptions of its fundamental underpinnings. Much of my general research on Rote has been historically oriented. The island has its own extensive oral historical traditions as well as Dutch archival records that date to the mid-seventeenth century. Some of the changes in Rote's traditions of parallelism that I perceive as most significant were, on good historical evidence, begun a century earlier and have now taken over as ever more influential.},
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Explorations in Semantic Parallelism also reprints several of my papers on the study of the Rotenese tradition of canonical parallelism together with various papers that continue to extend my study of this tradition. My personal understanding of the Rotenese tradition of canonical composition has grown over several decades, while the tradition itself has been undergoing change. My perceptions of this change are intimately linked to my increasing comprehension of the tradition as a whole.
In this paper I take stock of the work on that tradition to date and to put it into perspective. I also describe the changes that have occurred in the tradition over the course of my research as I gradually gained new perceptions of its fundamental underpinnings. Much of my general research on Rote has been historically oriented. The island has its own extensive oral historical traditions as well as Dutch archival records that date to the mid-seventeenth century. Some of the changes in Rote's traditions of parallelism that I perceive as most significant were, on good historical evidence, begun a century earlier and have now taken over as ever more influential.
2016
Fox, James; Winarto, Yunita Triwardani
Fox Farmers' Use of Pesticides in Indramayu Book Chapter
In: pp. 63-97, 2016.
@inbook{Fox2016,
title = {Fox Farmers' Use of Pesticides in Indramayu},
author = {James Fox and Yunita Triwardani Winarto},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-06-01},
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pages = {63-97},
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2015
Fox, James
Eastern Indonesia in Austronesian Perspective: The Evidence of Relational Terminologies Journal Article
In: Archipel, vol. 90, iss. 90, pp. 189-216, 2015.
@article{Fox2015,
title = {Eastern Indonesia in Austronesian Perspective: The Evidence of Relational Terminologies},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.4000/archipel.381},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-10-15},
urldate = {2015-10-15},
journal = {Archipel},
volume = {90},
issue = {90},
pages = {189-216},
abstract = {This paper considers eastern Indonesia from two directions: from the direction of western Austronesia (including Taiwan) and from the direction of Oceania. The paper is concerned with regional variation in terminological relations: what terminological patterns have carried through to eastern Indonesia from the western Austronesian region; what patterns have been transformed; what patterns are distinctive of the region; and what relational patterns continue on into Oceania. Eastern Indonesia is a transition zone and is by no means uniform: hence the paper is also concerned to identify patterns of local variation within eastern Indonesia.
},
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2014
Fox, James
Explorations in Semantic Parallelism Book
Australian National University Press, 2014, ISBN: 9781925021066.
@book{Fox2014,
title = {Explorations in Semantic Parallelism},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.22459/ESP.07.2014},
isbn = {9781925021066},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-07-28},
urldate = {2014-07-28},
publisher = {Australian National University Press},
abstract = {This collection of eighteen papers explores issues in the study of semantic parallelism — a world-wide tradition in the composition of oral poetry. It is concerned with both comparative issues and the intensive study of a single living poetic tradition of composition in strict canonical parallelism. The papers in the volume were written at intervals from 1971 to 2014 — a period of over forty years. They are a summation of a career-long research effort that continues to take shape. The concluding essay reflects on possible directions for future research.
},
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Fox, James
Tracing Genealogies: Toward an International Multicultural Anthropology 1 Journal Article
In: Antropologi Indonesia, 2014.
@article{Fox2014b,
title = {Tracing Genealogies: Toward an International Multicultural Anthropology 1},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.7454/ai.v0i69.3450},
year = {2014},
date = {2014-07-22},
urldate = {2014-07-22},
journal = {Antropologi Indonesia},
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2013
Fox, James
Sister's child as plant: Metaphors in an idiom of consanguinity Journal Article
In: Rethinking Kinship and Marriage, pp. 219 - 252, 2013, ISBN: 9781315017501.
@article{Fox2013,
title = {Sister's child as plant: Metaphors in an idiom of consanguinity},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.4324/9781315017501},
isbn = {9781315017501},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
urldate = {2013-01-01},
journal = {Rethinking Kinship and Marriage},
pages = {219 - 252},
abstract = {This volume is concerned with two of the fundamental topics of social anthropology, kinship and marriage, approached from a variety of viewpoints by an international group of contributors of diverse experience and background. The wide range of subjects examined includes: Incest, epistemology, linguistics, prescriptive alliance and methodology. Fieldwork from the following countries is drawn on: Burma, Sri Lanka, New Guinea, Australia, Africa and South America.},
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Fox, James; Adams, Marie Jeanne; Barnes, Robert H.; Clamagirand, Brigitte; Forman, Shepard; Francillon, Gérard; Friedberg, Claudine; Gordon, John L.; de Josselin de Jong, P. E.; Kana, N. L.; Needham, Rodney; Onvlee, L.; Nordholt, H. G. Schulte; Traube, Elizabeth; Valeri, Valerio
The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia Book
Harvard University Press, 2013, ISBN: 9780674331907.
@book{Fox2013b,
title = {The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia},
author = {James Fox and Marie Jeanne Adams and Robert H. Barnes and Brigitte Clamagirand and Shepard Forman and Gérard Francillon and Claudine Friedberg and John L. Gordon and P. E. de Josselin de Jong and N. L. Kana and Rodney Needham and L. Onvlee and H. G. Schulte Nordholt and Elizabeth Traube and Valerio Valeri},
doi = {10.4159/harvard.9780674331907},
isbn = {9780674331907},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
urldate = {2013-01-01},
volume = {2},
publisher = {Harvard University Press},
abstract = {Indonesia east of Bali is perhaps the least known of all major cultural areas of Southeast Asia. Yet the anthropology of the region has long held a prominent place in the development of structuralist theories of marital exchange and symbolic classification. Falling in a distinguished lineage running from van Wouden to Lévi-Strauss to Rodney Needham, The Flow of Life presents a comprehensive set of essays by a distinguished group of international scholars, which provides both a full picture of this culturally rich area and an important extension of earlier structuralist theory. This volume is bound to become the standard source on the social anthropology of eastern Indonesia. But it is a work of more than regional significance, providing a variety of empirical resources to address the questions which lie at the bottom of much structuralist thought about mind and society: what is the nature of symbolic thought? how does consciousness intertwine with society and ecology? what is the difference between “primitive” and “modern” society?},
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2011
Fox, James
The Articulation of Tradition in Timor-Leste Book Chapter
In: pp. 241 - 257, 2011, ISBN: 9781921862595.
@inbook{Fox2011,
title = {The Articulation of Tradition in Timor-Leste},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.22459/LLTL.12.2011.11},
isbn = {9781921862595},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-12-01},
urldate = {2011-12-01},
pages = {241 - 257},
abstract = {When The Flow of Life was published in 1980, it was intended to identify some of the distinctive features of eastern Indonesia and to shift perspectives on how the region was viewed. In that volume, Timor figured prominently. Six out of 14 comparative essays—seven, if one counts Rote within this area—were focused on Timor. Previous comparative efforts had been limited and were largely confined to the influential study by the Dutch anthropologist F. A. E. van Wouden. His work, Sociale Structuurtypen in de Groote Oost, in 1935—translated as Types of Social Structure in Eastern Indonesia in 1968—was based largely on fragmentary materials reported by travellers, missionaries and government officers. While certainly perceptive in many of its particular analyses, the work advanced a single formal model that purported to provide the original underlying basis for
societies in eastern Indonesia.
The Flow of Life challenged this model by presenting a diversity of social forms in eastern Indonesia and by convincingly representing the diverse conceptual bases of societies of the region. The Flow of Life was the first study of its kind to be based on substantial fieldwork. As the book claimed, it shifted focus from the study of models to the study of metaphors—the often highly poetic articulation of metaphors of life.
This book, Life and Land in Timor-Leste, follows a trajectory set out in The Flow of Life. Like The Flow of Life, all the papers in this volume are based on considerable fieldwork. This work is, however, more specifically focused and critically formulated to consider local polities in Timor-Leste and the way in which they have survived and adapted to the Indonesian occupation, the United Nations’ presence and the present-day national development demands of an independent Timor-Leste.
Despite the great attention given to Timor-Leste over the past decade, few studies have sought to examine traditional social life as framed within particular traditional polities and in different rural areas. This book should therefore have
a double impact—both theoretical and practical. It opens a new window on what is occurring in Timor-Leste. The initial question to ask of this volume is what comparative insights it provides and where do these insights lead. },
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societies in eastern Indonesia.
The Flow of Life challenged this model by presenting a diversity of social forms in eastern Indonesia and by convincingly representing the diverse conceptual bases of societies of the region. The Flow of Life was the first study of its kind to be based on substantial fieldwork. As the book claimed, it shifted focus from the study of models to the study of metaphors—the often highly poetic articulation of metaphors of life.
This book, Life and Land in Timor-Leste, follows a trajectory set out in The Flow of Life. Like The Flow of Life, all the papers in this volume are based on considerable fieldwork. This work is, however, more specifically focused and critically formulated to consider local polities in Timor-Leste and the way in which they have survived and adapted to the Indonesian occupation, the United Nations’ presence and the present-day national development demands of an independent Timor-Leste.
Despite the great attention given to Timor-Leste over the past decade, few studies have sought to examine traditional social life as framed within particular traditional polities and in different rural areas. This book should therefore have
a double impact—both theoretical and practical. It opens a new window on what is occurring in Timor-Leste. The initial question to ask of this volume is what comparative insights it provides and where do these insights lead.
Fox, James
Meaning and Power in a Southeast Asian Realm. By Shelly Errington. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1989. xvi, 322 pp. $35.00. Journal Article
In: The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 50, iss. 04, pp. 988-989, 2011.
@article{Fox2011b,
title = {Meaning and Power in a Southeast Asian Realm. By Shelly Errington. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 1989. xvi, 322 pp. $35.00.},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1017/S0021911800044296},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-11-01},
urldate = {2011-11-01},
journal = {The Journal of Asian Studies},
volume = {50},
issue = {04},
pages = {988-989},
abstract = {This is an extraordinary book. It is, first of all, a study of and commentary on traditional concepts of Luwu Buginese as expounded by members of a high-ranking core group. In this regard, the book constitutes a clearly situated ethnography with a finely focused concentration on the ideas and social practices of a single extended family. At the same time, the book is a personal account of the process by which Errington came to understand these concepts. Errington is injured, and she is given comfort by the reading of a sacred text; she is confused and provided illumination; insects plop from the ceiling to her journal pages as she tries to write her notes. Thus, the narrative has all the flavor of "being there" which Clifford Geertz has characterized as a stylistic device of anthropological persuasion. Finally, and perhaps most difficult to characterize, the book consists of a series of shifting comparisons. Frequently, in her exegesis of Luwu concepts, Errington interrupts her discussion to point to the ideas of other populations she regards as similar. Often, she simply expands her focus to include all the various populations of South Sulawesi. Her most frequent comparisons, however, are to Java and Bali, both of which she characterizes as "hierarchical centralist states," like Luwu. Occasionally, her comparisons are to other centralist states in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand or Burma, or, for other purposes, to the specific nonhierarchical populations such as the Iban of Sarawak or the Ilongot of the Philippines. Errington uses this device of selective comparative exemplification with considerable skill; indeed, with as much literary skill as Sir James Frazer, who pioneered this methodology.
All of these forms of argument are sec within a central thesis that argues that the Luwu of Sulawesi constitute a centralist state of Indic origin whose closest congenitors are Bali and Java. The "parent" of this remarkable perception and of the book itself is, as Errington readily acknowledges, Benedict Anderson's essay, "The Idea of Power in Javanese Society." On this perception, Errington builds an even more remarkable dichotomy that divides most of island Southeast Asia between a "Centrist Archipelago" that extends from Java to Luzon, embracing the Malay Peninsula in the west and Halmahera in the east, and "Eastern Indonesia," which stretches from Lombok to Aru.
It is difficult to relate this division to any other categorization of the region. It ignores the comparative linguistic research of the past twenty years that has endeavored to develop systematic subgroupings among Austronesian languages; it leaves out Sumatra, which was the center of some of the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms; and it curiously separates related societies on adjacent islands: thus Lombok belongs to eastern Indonesia while Bali is in the centralist archipelago; the island of Buru is included in the centrist archipelago, whereas the neighboring island of Scram is part of Eastern Indonesia. All of the Philippines, Borneo, and Sulawesi are within the centrist archipelago.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
All of these forms of argument are sec within a central thesis that argues that the Luwu of Sulawesi constitute a centralist state of Indic origin whose closest congenitors are Bali and Java. The "parent" of this remarkable perception and of the book itself is, as Errington readily acknowledges, Benedict Anderson's essay, "The Idea of Power in Javanese Society." On this perception, Errington builds an even more remarkable dichotomy that divides most of island Southeast Asia between a "Centrist Archipelago" that extends from Java to Luzon, embracing the Malay Peninsula in the west and Halmahera in the east, and "Eastern Indonesia," which stretches from Lombok to Aru.
It is difficult to relate this division to any other categorization of the region. It ignores the comparative linguistic research of the past twenty years that has endeavored to develop systematic subgroupings among Austronesian languages; it leaves out Sumatra, which was the center of some of the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms; and it curiously separates related societies on adjacent islands: thus Lombok belongs to eastern Indonesia while Bali is in the centralist archipelago; the island of Buru is included in the centrist archipelago, whereas the neighboring island of Scram is part of Eastern Indonesia. All of the Philippines, Borneo, and Sulawesi are within the centrist archipelago.
Fox, James
Re-Considering Eastern Indonesia Bachelor Thesis
2011.
@bachelorthesis{Fox2011c,
title = {Re-Considering Eastern Indonesia},
author = {James Fox},
doi = {10.1163/156853111X565850},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
urldate = {2011-01-01},
journal = {Asian Journal of Social Science},
volume = {2},
issue = {39},
pages = {131-149},
abstract = {Eastern Indonesia has been a region of international interest since its identification as a source of spices and rare woods. This paper considers ideas of sovereignty held by both Portuguese and Dutch at the time of European contact. It traces the consequence of the application of these ideas to the development of forms of governance in eastern Indonesia: in particular, the concept of indirect rule that began with contracts of trade fostered by the Dutch East India Company. Such contacts with local rulers or community representatives provided the basis for later colonial rule and contributed to specific social identities that remain prominent to the present. These historically established social identities continue to underpin various efforts at establishing local autonomy.
},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {bachelorthesis}
}