Ethnography of Southeast Asia

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to Southeast Asia as a region, discuss its characteristics and definitions, and question the widely held presuppositions.

By looking closely through the lens of ethnography, we will focus our attention on the concepts and theories emerging from these studies and from the region itself. Furthermore, we will discuss the politics of doing anthropological research in Southeast Asia.

The aim of the course is to introduce the students to Southeast Asia as a region, discuss its characteristics and definitions, and question the widely held presuppositions. The classes will focus on the most important themes emerging in Southeast Asian studies, in order to have a closer look at the processes happening in the region, historically and today.

By looking closely through the lens of ethnography, we will focus our attention on the concepts and theories emerging from these studies and from the region itself. Furthermore, we will discuss the politics of doing anthropological research in Southeast Asia.

1. Introductory meeting

2. What is Southeast Asia? Looking for a definition

Zialcita, Fernando Nakpil (2006): “Southeast Asia as a Collage”, in Authentic Though not Exotic. Essays on Filipino Identity, Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

3. Southeast Asia as a terrain of anthropological explorations – big names, large issues

Emmerson, Donald K. (1984): "Southeast Asia": What's in a Name?, “Journal of Southeast Asian Studies”, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1-21.

Anderson, Benedict (2016): A Life Beyond Boundaries. A Memoir, London and New York: Verso.

*Anderson, Benedict (1998): “Introduction. The Spectre of Comparisons”, in The Spectre of Comparisons. Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the World, London and New York: Verso.

4. Southeast Asia as a terrain of anthropological explorations - looking back and forward

Geertz, Clifford (1973): "Notes on the Balinese Cockfight", in The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books.

Lindquist, Jonathan (2006): “Deep Pockets. Notes on the Indonesian Cockfight in a Globalizing World”, IIAS Newsletter nr 42, Autumn 2006.

*Project Camelot

5. Peasant Resistance and Rebellion

Scott, James C. (2009): The Art of Not Being Governed. An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, Yale University Press. (Preface + Chapter 2)

*Scott, James C. (1977): The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, Yale University Press.

*Kerkvliet, Benedict J. Tria (2002, first published in 1990): Everyday Politics in the Philippines. Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

*Ileto, Reynaldo C. (2008, first published 1979): Pasyon and Revolution. Popular Movements in the Philippines, 1840-1910. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press.

6. Southeast Asia and the study of kinship – Janet Carsten “After Kinship”

Carsten, Janet (1995) “The Substance of Kinship and the Heat of the Hearth: Feeding, Personhood, and Relatedness among Malays in Pulau Langkawi”, American Ethnologist, Vol. 22, No. 2 (May, 1995), pp. 223-241.

*Carsten, Janet (2004) After Kinship, Cambridge University Press.

7. Religion in Southeast Asia - Fenella Canell – exploring power and intimacy in the everyday life of a Philippine provincial town

Cannell, Fenella (2001, first published in 1999): Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

8. Understanding and emotions in ethnography – Renato Rosaldo

Rosaldo, Renato (2014) The Day of Shelly’s Death. The Poetry and Ethnography of Grief, Duke University Press.

Rosaldo, Renato (2014, first published 1984) “Grief and a Headhunter’s Rage. On the Cultural Force of Emotions”, [in] The Day of Shelly’s Death. The Poetry and Ethnography of Grief, Duke University Press.

9. Colonialism and fighting for independence

Steedly, Mary Margaret (2013) Rifle Reports. A Story of Indonesian Independence, Los Angeles: University of California Press.

10. The Politics of Nationalism and Violence

Bowie, Katherine A. (1997): Rituals of National Loyalty. An Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand, New York: Columbia University Press. (Introduction + a chapter of your choice: 1, 6, or 7)

Film to watch: The Act of Killing (2012), dir. Joshua Oppenheimer

https://watchdocumentaries.com/the-act-of-killing/

*http://rozenbergquarterly.com/professional-blindness-and-missing-the-mark-the-anthropologists-blind-spots-clifford-geertz-on-class-killings-and-communists-in-indonesia/

11. Exploring Global Connections in Southeast Asia

Tsing, Anna (2005): Friction. An Ethnography of Global Connections, Princeton University Press.

12. Transnational Migration from Southeast Asia

Constable, Nicole (1997): Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Filipina Workers. Cornell University Press. (Chapter 4 & 5 + Introduction)

*Johan Lindquist The Elementary School Teacher, the Thug and his Grandmother: Informal Brokers and Transnational Migration from Indonesia, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 1, Opening the Black Box of Migration (MARCH 2012),pp. 69-89. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5509/201285169

13. The City as an Object of Exploration 1 - Michael Herzfeld “Siege of Spirits”

Herzfeld, Michael (2016): Siege of Spirits. Community and Polity in Bangkok, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

14. The City as an Object of Exploration 2 - Claudio Sopranzetti “Owners of the Map”

Sopranzetti, Claudio (2018): Owners of the Map. Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in Bangkok, Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

To pass the course you have to:

- actively take part in class discussions

This is a crucial part of the course work, and I ask you to always be prepared for class, so that we can discuss the readings together. These will be some group work in class and there might be additional homework tasks, which you will then be asked to present in class.

- prepare one presentation during the semester (in groups of 2 or 3)

The presentation is supposed to start the discussion in class – it takes the readings as a starting point, but I would ask you to widen the scope of the presentation by including your own reflections and examples. You can also use additional readings for the presentation. The presentation should last max. 15 minutes.

- write a ‘take-home exam’

You write the ‘take-home exam’ at home, but the time is limited. You have to answer 2-3 essay-like questions, which will be based on our course work. You will be asked to include specific examples from literature. Proper citations and a bibliography are a must (!). The time for this task is limited – you will have 2 weeks to submit it. Please keep to the deadline!

Length: 5-8 pages

*You can be absent 2 times during the semester.

Any additional absence requires you to make up for the missed class readings (in written or oral form).