The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engage... more The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
The Bandanese are a community with a distinct language and tradition which point to their origin ... more The Bandanese are a community with a distinct language and tradition which point to their origin in Banda, an early base of Dutch colonization in Indonesia. Presently focused in two villages in the Kei Islands, the community has been transforming into a regional, urban diaspora since the 1960s. Field research from March until August 2009 focused on the question of how this community distributes itself regionally and to what extent its ethnic relations are informed by its previous history of travel, migration and displacement. The study reveals that urbanized Bandanese occupy political and economic niches marked by a privileged access to fishing and trade, the backbones of the provincial economy. At the same time, their shared ancestry with local land-owning groups legitimizes their presence in new locations. Differential access to maritime wealth and land give new meaning to the classification of immigrant and autochthonous people, ubiquitous in each island society of Maluku, in which the Bandanese are placed in a mediating position.
This volume has gone through a long gestation. Many of the papers in the final version of this vo... more This volume has gone through a long gestation. Many of the papers in the final version of this volume were originally presented at a conference on Precedence held in Leiden, in 1996. That conference was sponsored by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden and was organized by Dr Michael Vischer during his period as Research Fellow. Appropriate thanks are due to Professor Wim Stokhof, the then Director of IIAS, and to his staff Drs Ilse Laarschuit, Mrs Kitty Yant, and particularly Drs Marijke ter Booij for their help in organizing the conference. Initial paper editing was done in Canberra by the late Mrs Norma Chin, who unexpectedly passed away in 1999. Those who had the opportunity to work with Norma Chin appreciated her dedication and meticulous work as an exceptional collaborator. Mrs Ria van de Zandt, formerly of the Department of Anthropology in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, thereafter took up work on the volume. She and Dr Barbara Holloway edited the first set of papers and as more papers were added and earlier papers revised and updated, Ria van de Zandt carried on this work to the completion of the volume. Her task has been a formidable one and her efforts are enormously appreciated.
Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, Apr 1, 2011
The seascapes and maritime societies of Southeast Asia offer a novel and sometimes privileged van... more The seascapes and maritime societies of Southeast Asia offer a novel and sometimes privileged vantage point from which to consider such classical issues as state formation, knowledge production, colonial history, and long-distance trade. Cynthia Chou's new book exemplifies the growing ethnographic and historical interest in people who live at the margins and frontiers of land-based polities. It focuses on the Orang Suku Laut, boat-dwelling people whose livelihoods depend on fishing and the trade of sea products across the Riau Archipelago. The setting of Chou's ethnography is just hours away from one of the world's busiest shipping routes, one that also serves Singapore and the Straits of Malacca. Owing to its position in the center of historical trading empires and colonial events, Riau is one of the many unbounded maritime regions of Southeast Asia1 that have supported hybrid, multi-ethnic, and mobile polities2 and remained, for a long time, outside the effective territorial control of modern states. The maritime mobility of the people described by Chou used to be the key to state formation in the Malacca Straits. At present, that mobile lifestyle is being undermined by the joint efforts of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia to turn Riau into an integrated economic zone, even as its fish stocks, minerals, and fresh water are increasingly contested by the three countries. Chou's book draws a contrast between these schemes of development and territorial control and the entirely different perception of territory among Orang Suku Laut, the "sea people" of the Riau Islands.
THE FINNISH LITERATURE SOCIETY (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engage... more THE FINNISH LITERATURE SOCIETY (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
The topic of this article is the reproduction of tradition among the Bandanese, an Eastern Indone... more The topic of this article is the reproduction of tradition among the Bandanese, an Eastern Indonesian people. I analyze the style and rhetoric of songs that tell about ancestral sea voyages. The question I address is what happens to the value of the songs as tradition when they turn from oral performances into circulating texts. I explore several contexts of performance and transmission and argue that the songs can be embedded in lived realities in different ways. By writing the songs down, the Bandanese reorganize their tradition into new genres of text and performance. Their metadiscourse of tradition affirms that these genres represent the exemplary, complete language of the ancestors. Although singers and writers affirm the artistic, textual, and cultural completeness of their arts, they are reluctant to pass on their knowledge in an already integrated form.
The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engage... more The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
The Bandanese are a community with a distinct language and tradition which point to their origin ... more The Bandanese are a community with a distinct language and tradition which point to their origin in Banda, an early base of Dutch colonization in Indonesia. Presently focused in two villages in the Kei Islands, the community has been transforming into a regional, urban diaspora since the 1960s. Field research from March until August 2009 focused on the question of how this community distributes itself regionally and to what extent its ethnic relations are informed by its previous history of travel, migration and displacement. The study reveals that urbanized Bandanese occupy political and economic niches marked by a privileged access to fishing and trade, the backbones of the provincial economy. At the same time, their shared ancestry with local land-owning groups legitimizes their presence in new locations. Differential access to maritime wealth and land give new meaning to the classification of immigrant and autochthonous people, ubiquitous in each island society of Maluku, in which the Bandanese are placed in a mediating position.
This volume has gone through a long gestation. Many of the papers in the final version of this vo... more This volume has gone through a long gestation. Many of the papers in the final version of this volume were originally presented at a conference on Precedence held in Leiden, in 1996. That conference was sponsored by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden and was organized by Dr Michael Vischer during his period as Research Fellow. Appropriate thanks are due to Professor Wim Stokhof, the then Director of IIAS, and to his staff Drs Ilse Laarschuit, Mrs Kitty Yant, and particularly Drs Marijke ter Booij for their help in organizing the conference. Initial paper editing was done in Canberra by the late Mrs Norma Chin, who unexpectedly passed away in 1999. Those who had the opportunity to work with Norma Chin appreciated her dedication and meticulous work as an exceptional collaborator. Mrs Ria van de Zandt, formerly of the Department of Anthropology in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, thereafter took up work on the volume. She and Dr Barbara Holloway edited the first set of papers and as more papers were added and earlier papers revised and updated, Ria van de Zandt carried on this work to the completion of the volume. Her task has been a formidable one and her efforts are enormously appreciated.
Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, Apr 1, 2011
The seascapes and maritime societies of Southeast Asia offer a novel and sometimes privileged van... more The seascapes and maritime societies of Southeast Asia offer a novel and sometimes privileged vantage point from which to consider such classical issues as state formation, knowledge production, colonial history, and long-distance trade. Cynthia Chou's new book exemplifies the growing ethnographic and historical interest in people who live at the margins and frontiers of land-based polities. It focuses on the Orang Suku Laut, boat-dwelling people whose livelihoods depend on fishing and the trade of sea products across the Riau Archipelago. The setting of Chou's ethnography is just hours away from one of the world's busiest shipping routes, one that also serves Singapore and the Straits of Malacca. Owing to its position in the center of historical trading empires and colonial events, Riau is one of the many unbounded maritime regions of Southeast Asia1 that have supported hybrid, multi-ethnic, and mobile polities2 and remained, for a long time, outside the effective territorial control of modern states. The maritime mobility of the people described by Chou used to be the key to state formation in the Malacca Straits. At present, that mobile lifestyle is being undermined by the joint efforts of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia to turn Riau into an integrated economic zone, even as its fish stocks, minerals, and fresh water are increasingly contested by the three countries. Chou's book draws a contrast between these schemes of development and territorial control and the entirely different perception of territory among Orang Suku Laut, the "sea people" of the Riau Islands.
THE FINNISH LITERATURE SOCIETY (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engage... more THE FINNISH LITERATURE SOCIETY (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has, from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary research and cultural history. The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992, the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica, Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed in 2007. In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
The topic of this article is the reproduction of tradition among the Bandanese, an Eastern Indone... more The topic of this article is the reproduction of tradition among the Bandanese, an Eastern Indonesian people. I analyze the style and rhetoric of songs that tell about ancestral sea voyages. The question I address is what happens to the value of the songs as tradition when they turn from oral performances into circulating texts. I explore several contexts of performance and transmission and argue that the songs can be embedded in lived realities in different ways. By writing the songs down, the Bandanese reorganize their tradition into new genres of text and performance. Their metadiscourse of tradition affirms that these genres represent the exemplary, complete language of the ancestors. Although singers and writers affirm the artistic, textual, and cultural completeness of their arts, they are reluctant to pass on their knowledge in an already integrated form.
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