Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and territory in the Austronesian world(Comparative Austronesian Series)

This collection of papers is the fifth in a series of volumes on the work of the Comparative Austronesian Project. Reflecting the unique experience of fourteen ethnographers in as many different societies, the papers in this volume explore how people in the Austronesian-speaking societies of the Asia-Pacific have traditionally constructed their relationship to land and specific territories. Focused on the nexus of local and global processes, the volume offers fresh perspectives to current debate in social theory on the conflicting human tendencies of mobility and emplacement.

Table of Contents:
  Preliminary Pages Acknowledgments   Land and Territory in the Austronesian World – Thomas Reuter The Origin Structure of Kute Among the Gumai: An Analysis of an Indigenous Territorial Institution in the Highlands of South Sumatra – Minako Sakai Ritual Domains and Communal Land in the Highlands of Bali – Thomas Reuter Banua or Negara? The Culture of Land in South Bali – Graeme MacRae Tanah Berkat (Blessed Land): The Source of the Local in the Banda Islands, Central Maluku – Phillip Winn Mapping Buru: The Politics of Territory and Settlement on an Eastern Indonesian Island – Barbara Dix Grimes Traditional Territorial Categories and Constituent Institutions in West Seram: The Nili Ela of 'WELE Telu Batai and the Alune Hena of Ma'saman Uwei – Christine Boulan-Smit From Domains to Rajadom: Notes on the History of Territorial Categories and Institutions in the Rajadom of Sikka – E.D. Lewis We Are Children Of The Land: A Keo Perspective – Philipus Tule Contending for Ritual Control of Land and Polity: Comparisons from the Timor Area of Eastern Indonesia – James J. Fox Fataluku Forest Tenures and the Conis Santana National Park in East Timor – Andrew McWilliam Self-Scaling the Earth: Relations of Land, Society and Body Among North Mekeo, Papua New Guinea – Mark Mosko The Ways of the Land-Tree: Mapping the North Pentecost Social Landscape – John P. Taylor Finishing the Land: Identity and Land Use in Pre- and Post-Colonial North Ambrym – Mary Patterson People and Place in Tonga: The Social Construction of Fonua in Oceania – Steve Francis   Postscript — Spatial Categories in Social Context: Tracing a Comparative Understanding of Austronesian Ideas of Ritual Location – James J. Fox Contributors Index