What are the limits of national belonging? Focusing on Biak--a
set of islands off the coast of western New Guinea, in the
Indonesian province of Irian Jaya--Danilyn Rutherford's analysis
calls for a rethinking of the nature of national identity.
With the resurgence of separatism in the province, Irian Jaya
has become the focus of fears that the Indonesian nation is falling
apart. Yet in the early 1990s, the fieldwork for this book was made
possible by the government's belief that Biaks were finally
beginning to see themselves as Indonesians. Taking in the dynamics
of Biak social life and the islands' long history of millennial
unrest, Rutherford shows how practices that indicated Biaks'
submission to national authority actually reproduced antinational
understandings of space, time, and self. Approaching the foreign as
a focus of longing in cultural arenas ranging from kinship to
Christianity, Biaks participated in Indonesian national
institutions without accepting the identities they promoted. Their
remarkable response to the Indonesian government (and earlier
polities laying claim to western New Guinea) suggests the limits of
national identity and modernity, writ large.
This is one of the few books reporting on the volatile province
of Irian Jaya. It offers a new way of thinking about the nation and
its limits--one that moves beyond the conventions of both
scholarship and recent journalism. It shows how people can "belong"
to a nation yet maintain commitments that fall both short of and
beyond the nation state.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
