Suchergebnisse

Drawing on ethnographic material from pilgrimages on West Java I argue that understandings of pilgrimage will benefit from including the return home in order to fully appreciate the meaning it holds for pilgrims. If we include into the study an extensive period after coming home, it facilitates situating the practice in a specific socio-cultural context and helps to understand how a pilgrimage partakes in these settings rather than being a ' "one off" transient and extraordinary' event (Reader 2005:249). The meaning of pilgrimage described in the paper is formed by deep seated cultural notions about ancestors and descent. In the paper this perspective is used to describe how a moral community founded upon shared experiences of pilgrimage and contact with ancestors emerged after the pilgrims returned home and how it sidestepped formal religious and political leadership.

On Java (Indonesia), sacred places (tempat keramat) are powerful and contested sites. Historically they have served as important pilgrimage sites and more recently have also become major tourist attractions. In this paper, I will explore three ways of 'past presencing' - the nationalist, the Islamic and the traditional - and how groups representing each of these challenge one another at different sites. Today, sacred places in Indonesia are caught between the political ambitions of some who wish to create national cultural heritage, the aspirations of religious revivalists who want to cleanse the sites of what they consider superstition, and the desires of others to perform local traditions of ancestor veneration. The sites are therefore subject to claims by politicians, tourists and pilgrims as well as by ancestor spirits. The main ethnographic material in this paper deals with a pilgrimage to Mount Sunda, a pilgrimage site at which people meet with ancestors to ask for help to improve their living conditions. The concluding discussion focuses on how the transformation of sacred places into either Islamic or national heritage sites deprives pilgrims of this opportunity to establish direct communication with ancestors. I argue that in order to avoid the public gaze that dominates Islamic and cultural heritage sites, where mundane political and religious powers have control, local pilgrims create a shared 'living room' with the ancestors. This keeps them beyond the reach of power holders and keeps the authority of the ancestors intact.

In sharp contrast to today's disorder was the apparent cohesion and stability of Indonesia during much of the New Order period (1965–98). While Suharto's authoritarian rule was significant, the regime's cultural policies also played their part. Ethnic, religious and regional sentiments were to be channelled into the field of art rather than being expressed in terms of class, religion or separatism. At the same time, culture was used to help develop a national Indonesian identity. This theme is explored by this study, which focuses on the efforts of a group of young art students based at the Bandung Academy of Performing Arts to revitalize traditional Longser theatre. The interaction between the artists and regime and their often-differing ideas about identity, the role of art and cultural traditions in Indonesia offers valuable insights into the underlying dynamics of the country's current condition.

It has long been recognised that poor, marginalised groups are the most vulnerable to hazards related to climate change. Several recent studies have suggested that such communities may be doubly vulnerable when interventions are carried out to make climate-change-related adaptations. Climate-change interventions may be "maladaptive" and may further "injure" vulnerable communities. Although such findings are troubling, little empirical research has been conducted to explore how and where climate change interventions and discourses are shaping and being shaped by social stratification, inclusion and exclusion. This article therefore aims to contribute to our understanding of the negative (side-)effects of climate change interventions for vulnerable social groups. We investigate this issue in the context of climate change and increased flood risk in Jakarta, Indonesia. Our analysis of two cases of intervention shows how these are "maladaptations". Flood policies in Jakarta are clearly failing to mitigate risk for the city's poorest populations and are instead compounding the risks they face with those of eviction and increased poverty. The data on which this paper is based were collected during a total of one-and-a-half years of anthropological fieldwork conducted by the authors between 2010 and 2015.

"Jakarta is being transformed in an unknown speed and manner by new types of urban authorities and drivers of transformation. These actors are moving in a field of opportunity that was created by recent and severe changes in the economic, socio-political and natural environment of Jakarta. Including chapters written by contributors who have lived and worked in Jakarta for years, this book shows how urban space in Jakarta is increasingly created by the entanglement of different layers that co-exist in political and socio-economic life, with actors criss-crossing between formal and informal spheres. In each case the authors explore who are the drivers of urban change, and what are the processes in shaping the current and future city of Jakarta. Not denying that former elites are still a critical force in shaping Jakarta, the book analyses to what extent former stakeholders are undermined, and what types of new authorities or social institutions are emerging. It examines how drivers of transformation claim their right to- and/or space in the city and how their actions and strategies reflect their vision on the future of Jakarta"--

In this e-book, we take a perspective 'from below' and focus on people's experiences of risk and disasters, as well as on people's interpretations of risk. Key questions to the contributors are: How do people themselves view the risks that they face and/or take in their everyday lives? How do they interpret and live with risks? How do people's perceptions and interpretations conflict or correspond to those of government officials and scientific advisors? In the end, what are the risk behaviour outcomes? Such questions crucially need to be raised in studies of the 'risky everyday'. Climate chan

The past few decades have seen growing interest in the study of the body. However, the increasing number of exciting and influential publications has primarily, if not exclusively, focused on the body in Western cultures. The various works produced by Asian scholars remain largely unknown to Western academic debates even though Asia is home to a host of rich body cultures and religions. The peoples of Asia have experienced colonization, decolonization, and now globalization, all of which make the 'body in Asia' a rewarding field of research. This unique volume brings together a number of scholars who work on East, Southeast and South Asia and presents original and cutting edge research on the body in various Asian cultures