This volume engages with the work of E. Douglas Lewis, who has made major contributions to the understanding of Eastern Indonesia, ethnography, culture, and religion, as well as a neurobiologically informed anthropology. Lewis’ work on the Ata Tana ‘Ai (People of the Forest) of Flores has long been regarded as a seminal work on culture and society in Eastern Indonesia. His ‘precedence theory’ became highly influential among anthropologists in their interpretations of other social groups in the region. In this volume, however, a group of scholars influenced by his work undertake diverse and thought-provoking excursions from Lewis’ work, shedding light on his insights on subjects ranging from Eastern Indonesian ethnography, to theorizing culture change, to development, and to the nascent field of ‘neuroanthropology’. Of particular note, this book also features an extended contribution by Lewis that is, as Professor James J. Fox notes in this book’s foreword, ‘the kind of serious contemplation of an intellectual trajectory that every senior anthropologist should be urged to write’.
Table of Contents:
James J. Fox: Foreword – Acknowledgments – Julian C. H. Lee/John M. Prior: Introduction – Oscar Pareira Mandalangi: Prologue: ‘The Adroit Hunter’—Memories of a Friend, Tribute by a Close Collaborator – Greg Acciaioli: The Place of Non-Place in Bugis Ritual: Ethnographically Interrogating the Distinction of Modernity and Supermodernity – Paulus Budi Kleden: The Ambivalence of the Ancestors: Interpreting the Rite of Tu Dhe’u in Palu’e Based on the Scapegoat Theory of René Girard – Michael P. Vischer: A Look at Early Austronesian Society in the Light of the Ko’a Social Order – Olaf H. Smedal: Ngadha House Society Origins: The Miniature Evidence – John M. Prior: ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’: Genres, Themes, Patterns: Teasing out a Possible Macro-Structure in The Stranger-Kings of Sikka – Thomas A. Reuter: The Disappearing of a World Religion: Reflections on Ancestor Religion, Dualism, and the Deeper Significance of the Austronesian Approach to Life – David Butterworth: Identity and Precedence in Transformations of Sikkanese Societies: The Case of the Ata Krowé – Justin L. Wejak: Myths of Origins of Rice in Flores, Eastern Indonesia – Edgar Myer: Aspiration, Opportunity, Sufficiency: Applying Anthropology to Aid and Development in Sikka – Ivo Strecker: From Ethnography to Rhetoric Culture Theory – Sylvia Seldon/Julian C. H. Lee: On the Origins of Culture and Change: Stochastic Processes in Malaysia and South Africa – Julian C. H. Lee: The Great Confabulation: Bearing the Brain in Mind when Considering the Formation of Narratives – Juan F. Domínguez D.: Cultural Reason and Discovery – E. Douglas Lewis: An Ecology of Steps to a Mind – Contributors.
About the Author :
Julian C. H. Lee is Senior Lecturer in Global Studies at RMIT University and an Executive member of The Centre for Global Research. He is the author of Second Thoughts: On Malaysia, Globalisation, Society and Self (2015) and Policing Sexuality: Sex, Society, and the State (2011) and editor of Narratives of Globalization: Reflections on the Global Human Condition (2016).
John M. Prior is Senior Lecturer in the post-graduate programme at St. Paul’s Institute of Philosophy (STFK), Ledalero where he is also editor of the Institute’s journal. He has written over 200 articles and book chapters and authored and co-edited some 40 books, including Menjebol Jeruji Prasangka: Membaca Alkitab dengan Jiwa [Breaking Through Barriers of Prejudice: Reading the Bible with Soul] (2010) and Church and Marriage in an Indonesian Village (1988).
Thomas A. Reuter is Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council, located at the Asia Institute of The University of Melbourne. He was President of the Australian Anthropological Association (2002–2005) and served as Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations. He is the Senior Vice-President of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and on the advisory board of Future Earth (Asia). He is the author and editor of numerous books including Averting a Global Environmental Collapse: The Role of Anthropology and Local Knowledge (2015), Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and Territory in the Austronesian World (2006), and The House of Our Ancestors: Precedence and Dualism in Highland Balinese Society (2002).
Review :
"Over a career now spanning more than forty years, E. Douglas Lewis has become one of the most respected anthropologists in the field of eastern Indonesian studies. This volume brings together thirteen essays by friends, colleagues, collaborators, and former students all inspired by various empirical and theoretical aspects of Lewis's work, from ethnography, history, myth, ritual, and language through to aid and development and the emergent field of neuroanthropology. Together with a closing essay by Lewis himself that traces the path of his own intellectual development, the volume is a fitting tribute to an outstanding scholar and teacher, and one that is notable not only for the quality and originality of its individual contributions, but also for their collective breadth." Roger Just, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Kent "This well-edited volume highlights the value of ethnographic field research and its contribution to the role of anthropology in an increasingly interdisciplinary environment. Due homage is paid to the long-term engagement of E. Douglas Lewis with his students and with Melbourne University." Leontine Visser, Professor of Rural Development Sociology, Wageningen University "This fine collection of essays forms the perfect tribute to the wide-ranging work of E. Douglas Lewis. In the best tradition of Lewis's own work, most contributions are based on solid ethnographic fieldwork, which gives the volume a lasting quality. The collection is concluded by an essay in which Lewis gives his own ideas for new research that could cover another lifespan." Freek Colombijn, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Editor of "Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde"
