Society and Exchange in Nias

Society and Exchange in Nias PDF Author: Andrew Beatty
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The island of Nias in Indonesia is renowned for its 'feasts of merit'. In pursuit of prestige and a noble title, a Nias chief must slaughter scores of pigs and give away a lifetime's wealth. Based on two years' field research, this book gives an account of kinship and ceremonial exchange in a village of the interior. The first part introduces a unique form of marriage alliance which represents, arguably, a link between elementary and complex social systems and has important implications for kinship theory. The second part contains perhaps the fullest account to date of the feast of merit, a widely-occurring Southeast Asian institution. Andrew Beatty's analysis sheds new light on the relation between gift exchange, status, and power, and he gives equal attention to the pragmatic and ideological concerns of the participants. Through case histories and ethnographic description he shows how exchange is involved in all that is most fundamental to life in Nias: the acquisition of prosperity, the creation of alliances and networks of support, the promotion of rank and prestige, and the assurance of salvation.

Society and Exchange in Nias

Society and Exchange in Nias PDF Author: Andrew Beatty
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
The island of Nias in Indonesia is renowned for its 'feasts of merit'. In pursuit of prestige and a noble title, a Nias chief must slaughter scores of pigs and give away a lifetime's wealth. Based on two years' field research, this book gives an account of kinship and ceremonial exchange in a village of the interior. The first part introduces a unique form of marriage alliance which represents, arguably, a link between elementary and complex social systems and has important implications for kinship theory. The second part contains perhaps the fullest account to date of the feast of merit, a widely-occurring Southeast Asian institution. Andrew Beatty's analysis sheds new light on the relation between gift exchange, status, and power, and he gives equal attention to the pragmatic and ideological concerns of the participants. Through case histories and ethnographic description he shows how exchange is involved in all that is most fundamental to life in Nias: the acquisition of prosperity, the creation of alliances and networks of support, the promotion of rank and prestige, and the assurance of salvation.

Trade and Society in the Straits of Melaka

Trade and Society in the Straits of Melaka PDF Author: Nordin Hussin
Publisher: NUS Press
ISBN: 9789971693541
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
This study compares Melaka and Penang in the context of overall trends - policy, geographical position, nature and direction of trade, and morphology and sociology - and how these factors were influenced by trade and policies. Conclusions are drawn concerning where and how Melaka and Penang fit in the urban traditions of Southeast Asia and the significance of the fact that the period under study coincided with the shift from the height of the "Age of Commerce" towards a period of heightened imperialist activities.

Perspectives on Traditional Settlements and Communities

Perspectives on Traditional Settlements and Communities PDF Author: Bagoes Wiryomartono
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 981458505X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book covers the relationship between societies and their culture in the context of traditional settlement in Indonesia. The focus of the study is on the search for meanings of local concepts. This study reveals and analyzes the concepts concerning home and their sociocultural strategies for maintaining a sense of community and identity. In this study, identifying local concepts becomes the hallmark and the hub of analyses that explore, verify and establish relations between ideas and phenomena. Based on these relations, this study attempts to capture the reality of the local world that upholds and sustains the communities’ values, norms and principles for what they may call a homeland. The book is organized into two parts. Part I describes a cross-regional habitation in Indonesia, while Part II presents four ethnic regions of Indonesia - Sa’dan Toraja, Bali, Naga and Minangkabau. Their unique traditions, customs, beliefs and attitudes serve to provide diversity in terms of their backgrounds and lifestyles, though they share the challenge of sustaining their sense of home in the face of modernity as characterized by changes and developments toward a technologically industrialized society. The central research questions are - What is development in terms of culture and environmental sustainability? How do these communities respond to modernity?

Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society

Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society PDF Author: M Schouten
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004486895
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Warfare and wealth were the major means for acquiring status in precolonial Minahasa (North Sulawesi). The author argues that the quest for power and prestige is an ongoing concern among Minahasans. Based on extensive anthropological and historical research, this book focuses on patterns and processes of social mobility. The character of leadership in tribal society, then under the colonial bureaucracy, and later in modern Indonesia are discussed. Besides political changes, changes in economic conditions and in religion have had a considerable influence on mobility. These processes are illustrated by a case study of a local community.

How Kinship Systems Change

How Kinship Systems Change PDF Author: Robert Parkin
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1800731671
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Using some of his landmark publications on kinship, along with a new introduction, chapter and conclusion, Robert Parkin discusses here the changes in kinship terminologies and marriage practices, as well as the dialectics between them. The chapters also focus on a suggested trajectory, linking South Asia and Europe and the specific question of the status of Crow-Omaha systems. The collection culminates in the argument that, whereas marriage systems and practices seem infinitely varied when examined from a very close perspective, the terminologies that accompany them are much more restricted.

Engaging Evil

Engaging Evil PDF Author: William C. Olsen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1789202140
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Anthropologists have expressed wariness about the concept of evil even in discussions of morality and ethics, in part because the concept carries its own cultural baggage and theological implications in Euro-American societies. Addressing the problem of evil as a distinctly human phenomenon and a category of ethnographic analysis, this volume shows the usefulness of engaging evil as a descriptor of empirical reality where concepts such as violence, criminality, and hatred fall short of capturing the darkest side of human existence.

Twenty-Seven Bones

Twenty-Seven Bones PDF Author: Jonathan Nasaw
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847397417
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 446

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Book Description
The most terrifying novel you will read this year... There are twenty-seven bones in the human hand. And there are three dead bodies on the island of St. Luke - each victim missing a hand. It's the strangest, most disturbing series of murders the Caribbean has ever known - and one of the few crimes that could pull FBI Special Agent E.L. Pender out of retirement. In all of his years, he's never faced such a diabolical underworld drenched in superstition. At the heart of this darkness is a husband-and-wife team with a perverse plan so powerfully consuming, so brilliantly evil, that Pender can only watch and wait...as the grisly hand of fate reaches out for its next victim. ‘Explosive’ San Francisco Chronicle ‘Move over, Hannibal Lecter’ Scottish Daily Record ‘A first-rate thriller’ Boston Globe

Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia

Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004288058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
In Environment, Trade and Society in Southeast Asia: A Longue Durée Perspective, eleven historians bring their knowledge and insights to bear on the long Braudelian sweep of Southeast Asian history. In doing so they seek both to debunk simplistic assumptions about fragile traditions and transformational modernities, and to identify real repeating patterns in Southeast Asia's past: clientelistic political structures, periodic tectonic and climatic disasters, ethnic occupational specializations, long cycles of economic globalization and deglobalization. Their contributions range across many centuries: from the Austronesian expansion to the Aceh tsunami, and from the Sanskrit cosmopolis to the Asian financial crisis. The book is inspired by, and dedicated to, Peter Boomgaard, a scholar whose work has embodied the Braudelian spirit in Southeast Asian historiography. This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access.

Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations

Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations PDF Author: James B. Minahan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610699548
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
This book addresses the numerous national movements of ethnic groups around the world seeking independence, more self-rule, or autonomy—movements that have proliferated exponentially in the 21st century. In the last 15 years, globalization, religious radicalization, economic changes, endangered cultures and languages, cultural suppression, racial tensions, and many other factors have stimulated the emergence of autonomy and independence movements in every corner of the world—even in areas formerly considered immune to self-government demands such as South America. Researching the numerous ethnic groups seeking autonomy or independence worldwide previously required referencing many specialized publications. This book makes this difficult-to-find information available in a single volume, presented in a simple format accessible to everyone, from high school readers to scholars in advanced studies programs. The book provides an extensive update to Greenwood's Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups around the World that was published more than a decade earlier. Each ethnic group receives an alphabetically organized entry containing information such as alternate names, population figures, flag or flags, geography, history, culture, and languages. All the information readers need to understand the motivating factors behind each movement and the current situation of each ethnic group is presented in a compact summary. Fact boxes at the beginning of each entry enable students to quickly access key information, and consistent entry structure makes for easy cross-cultural comparisons.

Traditions and Transformations of Habitation in Indonesia

Traditions and Transformations of Habitation in Indonesia PDF Author: Bagoes Wiryomartono
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811534055
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
This book raises the issue of the practice of patrimonial power with a focus on habitations, particularly in the urban areas of Indonesia. An assemblage of interdisciplinary studies within the framework of environmental humanities, covering the arts, architecture, urban studies, geography, cultural anthropology, and sociology, this multifaceted framework divulges the interactive connectivity between Indonesia’s patrimonial culture and the socio-culturally constructed system of habitation. The interdisciplinary study of the pertinent practices of patrimonial power that have been represented and been manifested by various political and traditional regimes in terms of the built environment and habitation in Indonesia contributes to a new understanding of Indonesian urban spatial development, from the pre-colonial era to the present. The book poses that in order to understand the politics of Indonesia, one must understand the culture and tradition of the political leadership of the country. The author presents such an understanding in exploring and unpacking the relationship between people and place that constructs, develops, sustains, and conserves Indonesian culture and traditions of habitation. This book is of interest to graduate scholars and researchers in Asian Studies in numerous disciplines, including urban studies, urban planning and design, political science, architecture, anthropology of space, public administration, and political philosophy.