ethnography & the problem of complexity winter 2013 · ethnography & the problem of...

ETHNOGRAPHY & THE PROBLEM OF COMPLEXITY! WINTER 2013SeminarMondays, 9 - 11 ct.Room 8021, Bergius-Villa

Instructor: Dr Richard [email protected]

Office Hrs: Mon. 11am-1pm; Rm 104

This course explores the problem of complexity in the religious traditions of Southeast Asia. Scholars and observers have long recognized that unifying terms such as ‘Buddhism’, ‘Hinduism’, ‘Islam’ and ‘animism’ do not adequately reflect the heterogeneity of the region’s history and culture. Yet prevailing attempts to account for this complexity — in terms of ‘great and little traditions’, ‘syncretism’, ‘hybridity’ etc. — often do little more than to defer the moment of essentialization; and, as a result, their approaches often appear as uncritical as the oversimplified terminology they

wish to call into question. Given its long history of interaction with India, China and the Arabian peninsula, Southeast Asia offers a series of uniquely well-suited case studies for addressing the theoretical questions at stake. This course will explore these questions through a close reading of ethnographies from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma and the Indonesian archipelago.

A Course in Two PartsThe course is divided into two parts. The first part addresses the Buddhist traditions of mainland Southeast Asia, while the second focuses on Islam in Indonesia, with a special emphasis on the island of Java. Our work in PART ONE will center on the relationship between ‘Buddhism’ and a congeries of practices described variously in terms of ‘Brahmanism’, ‘magic’, ‘witchcraft’, ‘spirit cults’ and ‘the supernatural’. Through a series of close readings of both classic and contemporary ethnography, we will find that, despite significant differences between them, most accounts run into much the same set of problems in trying to represent the complexity at play in the relationship between ‘Buddhism’ and ‘spirit cults’, ‘magic’ etc. As we shall see, this problem is closely tied to our underlying assumptions regarding history and the nature of precedent. With this in mind we will shift our attention in PART TWO to contrasting views of history, and how these might affect our approach to ethnographic inquiry. Here we will again be reading both classic and more recent publications, this time centered on Islam in Indonesia. Throughout, we shall reflect on how these readings might help us to formulate better research questions.

Course Requirements:• Complete and careful reading/viewing of all required course material. • Regular attendance and active participation in seminar discussion. • At least two in-class presentations. One of these presentations will take the form of a brief

summation of the reading for a selected week; the second presentation will comprise a critical response to another student’s presentation. See below for further details.

• A final essay of no more than 3000 words (approximately 12 A4-sized pages in double-spaced 12pt Times New Roman). The final essay is due on Monday, October 14. 2013. Please plan accordingly. Further details will be distributed in class.

• All work must be completed on time; no extensions will be granted for this course, except on grounds of major life disruption.

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Reading and Discussion For each weekly session there is a REQUIRED TEXT (or texts; and, in at least one case, a film) which will comprise the focus for our seminar discussion. For each session a series of SEMINAR QUESTIONS has also been provided. These are meant to guide your reading/viewing and to help you prepare for our in-class discussion. The questions are deliberately challenging, and often open-ended. Their primary aim is to spur reflection, and so critical conversation. You are encouraged to formulate answers to these questions ahead of our meeting, and to bring questions of your own for the group to consider. The BACKGROUND READING is not required, though it may be especially helpful for the sessions in which you are making a presentation. These references are provided more generally for those who wish to develop a deeper understanding of the issues.

In-Class PresentationsEach participant in the seminar will be expected to make at least two presentations during the course of the semester. The first of these presentations will comprise a concise (15- to 20-minute) overview of the required text(s) for the week, summarizing its central argument, and highlighting both its benefits and possible weaknesses. A second student will then offer a brief (no more than 10-minute) critique of the first student’s presentation. These presentations will provide the foundation for seminar discussion. They are, moreover, intended to help you in developing the skills required for engaging in scholarly dialogue and criticism.

Reading Materials All REQUIRED READINGS for the course are available through Moodle, and/or on reserve through the library. Below you will find references for additional BACKGROUND READING, both on selected general topics (e.g., ‘Syncretism’, ‘Southeast Asian History’) and for each week’s session.

Background Reading on Syncretism, Hybridity and Other Accounts of Complexity• Entries for ‘Syncretism [First Edition]’ and ‘Syncretism [Further Considerations]’ in

Encyclopedia of Religion. Lindsay Jones (ed.). Second Edition. Volume 13. Detroit, New York etc.: Macmillan Reference USA.

• Redfield, R. (1956). 'The Social Organization of Tradition'. Peasant Society and Culture: An Anthropological Approach to Civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Stewart, C. & R. Shaw, eds. (1994) Syncretism/Antisyncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis. London and New York: Routledge.

• Young, R. J. (1994) Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London & New York: Routledge.

• Gort, J. D. et al, eds. (1989). Dialogue and Syncretism: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company.

• Carrithers, M. (2000) ‘On Polytropy: Or the Natural Condition of Spiritual Cosmopolitanism in India: The Digambar Jain Case’. Modern Asian Studies. 34(4): 831-862.

• Gellner, D. N. (2005). ‘The Emergence of Conversion in a Hindu-Buddhist Polytropy: The Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, c. 1600-1995’. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 47(4): 755-80.


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Background Reading on SEA History &Theories of Indianization, Sanskritization Etc.• Wolters, O. W. (1999). History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian Perspectives. (No. 26).

Ithaca, NY: Cornell SEAP Publications. • Cœdès, G. (1968). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai‘i Press.• Keyes, C. F. (1977). The Golden Peninsula: Culture and Adaptation in Mainland Southeast Asia.

Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.• Hall, D.G.E., ed. (1961) Historians of South-East Asia. London: Oxford University Press.• Pollock, S. (1996) 'The Sanskrit Cosmopolis, 300–1300: Transculturation, Vernacularization

and the Question of Ideology'. Ideology and Status of Sanskrit: Contributions to the History of the Sanskrit Language. Leiden: Brill. Pages 197-247.

• Chandler, D. P., & D. J. Steinberg (1987). In Search of Southeast Asia: A Modern History. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

• Briggs, L.P. (1951) ‘The Syncretism of Religions in Southeast Asia, Especially the Khmer Empire’. Journal of the American Oriental Society. 71: 230-49.

• Benda, H. (1962) ‘The Structure of Southeast Asian History: Some Preliminary Observations’. Journal of Southeast Asian History. 3:106-39.

Background Reading on Buddhism in South & Southeast Asia• Robinson, R.H. et al. (2004) Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction. Fifth Edition.

Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.• Gombrich, R. F. (2009). What the Buddha Thought. London & Oakville: Equinox.• Lopez, D.S. (1995) Buddhism in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.• Spiro, M. E. (1982). Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes.

Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.• Tambiah, S.J. (1970) Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, or (1984) The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism. Cambridge: CUP.

• Terwiel, B.J. (2012 [1975]) Monks and Magic: Revisiting a Classic Study of Religious Ceremonies in Thailand. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai’i/NIAS Press.

• Swearer, D.K. (2010) The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.• Darlington, S. M. (2012). The Ordination of a Tree: The Thai

Buddhist Environmental Movement. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Background Reading on Religion & Culture in Java• Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1991) This Earth of Mankind.

New York: Morrow. [This is the first book in the author’s Buru quartet, which also includes Child of all nations, Footsteps and House of glass.]

• Multatuli [Dekker, D.] (1967) Max Havalaar; Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company. Leiden: Sijthoff.

• Koentjaraningrat (1975) Anthropology in Indonesia: A Bibliographical Review. The Hague: M. Nijhoff.

• Vickers, A. (2005) A History of Modern Indonesia. Cambridge: CUP.

• Soedjatmoko (1965) An Introduction to Indonesian Historiography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.


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• Ricklefs, M.C. (1998) The Seen and Unseen Worlds in Java, 1726-1749: History, Literature, and Islam in the Court of Pakubuwana II. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

• Laffan, M. (2003) Islamic Nationhood and Colonial Indonesia: The Umma Below the Winds. London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon.

• Geertz, C. (1976) The Religion of Java. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.• Pemberton, J. (1994) On the Subject of ‘Java’. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.• Anderson, B. (1990) Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in

Indonesia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.• Hefner, R.W. (1987) ‘Islamizing Java? Religion and Politics in Rural East Java’. The Journal

of Asian Studies. 46(3): 533-554.• Florida, N. (1995) Writing the Past, Inscribing the Future; History as Prophecy in Colonial Java.

Durham & London: Duke University Press.• Pigeaud, Th. (1960-63) Java in the Fourteenth Century. 5 vols. The Hague: Martinus Nijjoff.• Zoetmulder, P.J. (1974) Kalangwan; A Survey of Old Javanese Literature. The Hague: Nijhoff.

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COURSE OUTLINEPART ONE: BUDDHISM IN MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA

1) Course Intro: Theorizing ComplexityMonday, April 15. 2013

2) Tathatā: The Idea of BuddhismMonday, April 22. 2013REQUIRED TEXTS:• Chapters 1-3. Gombrich, R. (1988) Theravāda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient

Benares to Modern Columbo. Second Edition. London and New York: Routledge.• ‘Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta’. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New

Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. Transl. from the Pāli by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston: Wisdom Publications.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• Define the following terms: dhamma/dharma, kamma/karma, buddha, dukkha/duḥkha, anatta/

anātman, saṃsāra Pāli, Theravāda, 4 Noble Truths, 8-fold Path, saṅgha, bhikkhu/bhikṣu, sutta/sūtra.• What is this thing called Buddhism? Where do we find it? And under what conditions

might it be taken as an object of anthropological inquiry?• How did Gombrich’s ‘metaphysical neutrality’ play out in his social history of Theravāda

Buddhism? What precisely is a ‘social history’? What other kinds of history are possible?

BACKGROUND READING:• Gomez, L. O. (2002). 'Buddhism in India'. Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and

Culture. London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon.• Harvey, P. (1990). An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.• Warren, H. C. (2005). Buddhism in Translations. New York: Cosimo Classics.


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3) Burmese Buddhist Supernaturalists?Monday, April 29. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Pages 21-63; 247-80; xix-xliv. Spiro, M. (2011) Burmese Supernaturalism. Expanded Edition.

New Brunswick & London: Transaction Publishers.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• Again, what precisely is ‘Buddhism’? What is ‘supernaturalism’? And how are they

related to one another — both in practice (i.e., 'on the ground') and critically (e.g., in Spiro's estimation)?

• What is the nature of the relationship between canonical text and the practices of Burmese Buddhists?

• How did Spiro retrospectively characterize the relationship between his work and that of other scholars, such as Keyes, Kirsch and Tambiah (see esp. pp. xix-xliv)?

BACKGROUND READING:• Kirsch, A. T. (1977). ‘Complexity in the Thai Religious System: An Interpretation’. The

Journal of Asian Studies. 36(2): 241-266.• Jackson, P.A. (1999) ‘The Enchanting Spirit of Thai Capitalism: The Cult of Luang Phor

Khoon & the Post-Modernization of Thai Buddhism’. South East Asia Research. 7(1): 5–60.• Pattana, K. (2002) ‘You May Not Believe, But Never Offend the Spirits: Spirit-Medium

Cults and Popular Media in Modern Thailand’. Craig, T.J. & R. King (eds.) Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Pp 160–76.

4) Buddhism, Brahmanism and Cambodian HistoryMonday, May 6. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Chapters 1, 3 & 4. Harris, I. (2005) Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice. Honolulu:

University of Hawai’i Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• “What can we know about religion in ancient Cambodia? Were the old Khmer effectively

‘Indianized’, or did autochthonous deities survive their exposure to foreign influences by putting on a suit of Indic clothing?” (p.1)

• What are the primary ways in which we might interpret and represent the co-presence of Buddhist merit-making and human sacrifice within a single kingdom? Are they part of two largely incompatible religious systems? Alternatively, do they together comprise key elements of a single syncretic system? Or perhaps is the language of system itself misleading? If so, what might be some of the alternatives? And what do we sacrifice in forfeiting the idea of system?

• What is the nature of the relationship between empirical observation and theoretical presupposition? How might our answer to this question affect how we evaluate contrasting interpretations of Cambodian history?


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BACKGROUND READING:• Keyes, C. F. (1994). ‘Communist Revolution and the Buddhist Past in Cambodia’. Asian

Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia. Keyes, C.F., L. Kendall & H. Hardacre (eds.). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press. Pages 43-73.

• Vickerey, M. (1998) Society, Economics, and Politics in Pre-Angkor Cambodia: The Seventh-Eighth Centuries. Tokyo: Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies for UNESCO, Toyo Bunko.

• Bizot, F. (1976) Le figuier à cinq branches: Recherche sur le bouddhisme khmer. Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient.

5) How Lao… The Spirits of the PlaceMonday, May 13. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Intro + Chs. 1 & 5. Holt, J.C. (2009) Spirits of the Place: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture.

Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What do you make of Holt’s language of ‘substratum’ and ‘ontology’? • More generally speaking, how would you compare Holt’s approach with those of Spiro

and Harris?• Why do you think state interests would favor an orthodox sangha-centric Buddhism over

relations with ‘spirits of the place’?

BACKGROUND READING:• Zago, M. (1976) “Buddhism in Contemporary Laos.” In Buddhism in the Modern World.

Dumoulin, H. & J.C. Maraldo. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. Pp. 120–29.• Hayashi, Y. (2003) Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao: A Regional Study of Religion in the

Making. Kyoto: Kyoto University Press.• Condominas, G. (1968) ‘Notes sur le bouddhisme populaire en milieu rural Lao’. Archives

de sociologie des religions. 25–26: 81–150.

NB: No class meeting on Monday, May 20. 2013, for Pfingstmontag.

6) Popular Buddhism TodayMonday, May 27. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Kitiarsa, P. (2005) 'Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in

Contemporary Thailand'. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 36(3): 461–487.• Selected excerpts. Kitiarsa, P. (2013) Mediums, Monks, and Amulets: Thai Popular Buddhism

Today. University of Washington Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• According to Kitiarsa, ‘the focal point for students and specialists should be not the

harmonious continuities and transformations of a syncretistic religious system, but rather the ruptures and breaks from its seemingly homogenous tradition’ (p461). On what grounds did he make this argument? Were you convinced? Why, or why not?


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• What is hybridity? And, on Kitiarsa’s account, what benefits does it offer over previous approaches centered on syncretism and the like?

• Would Kitiarsa’s approach—with its emphasis on disjuncture and hybridity—render interpretations that differ significantly from those of Spiro, Harris and Holt?

BACKGROUND READING:• Morson, G., & Emerson, C. (1990) ‘Prosaics and the Language of the Novel’ (Chapter 8).

Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a prosaics. Stanford; Stanford University Press.• Bhabha, H. K. (2004) The Location of Culture. London & New York: Routledge.• Young, R. J. (1994) Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London & New

York: Routledge.

7) Ghosts, Monks and Movies… Oh My!Monday, June 3. 2013REQUIRED TEXT AND FILM:• Film: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.• Selected excerpts: McDaniel, J. (2011) The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magic Monk: Practicing

Buddhism in Modern Thailand. New York: Columbia University Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• Reflecting on the film, and on the ethnographic projects we’ve considered to date, is it

possible that scholarly discourse is necessarily inadequate to its object? If not, why not? If so, in what specific ways do you think this to be the case?

• What resources might Uncle Boonmee... offer for approaching the problem of religio-cultural complexity?

• Kitiarsa and McDaniel have offered important criticisms of established approaches to the study of complexity in the Buddhist traditions of Southeast Asia. What sorts of questions should define our approach? What presuppositions are better suited to our object of study?

BACKGROUND READING:• McDaniel, J. (2010) The Emotional Lives of Buddhist Monks in Modern Thai Film. Journal

of Religion and Film14(2). (www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol14.no2/McDanielEmtionBuddhist.html)

• Klima, A. (2002) The Funeral Casino: Meditation, Massacre, and Exchange with the Dead in Thailand. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

• Bizot, F. (1993) Le bouddhisme des Thaïs: brève histoire de ses mouvements et ses idées des origines à nos jours. Bangkok: Éditions des Cahiers de France.


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PART TWO: ISLAM IN INSULAR SOUTHEAST ASIA

8) Islam Observed: The Symbolic SubstratumMonday, June 10. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Chapters 1, 2 & 4. Geertz, C. (1968) Islam Observed: Religious Development in Morocco and

Indonesia. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What is Islam? And under what conditions can it be approached as an object of study? • How is the Islam of Java related to that of Morocco? And to what specifically does this

question refer?• What is the nature of historical change? And how do we know?• How do the forms of religio-cultural complexity at play in Geertz’s account of Javanese

Islam compare with those we saw in Laos, Burma Thailand and Cambodia?

BACKGROUND READING:• Esposito, J. L. (1998) Islam: The Straight Path. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Geertz, C. (1976) The Religion of Java. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.• Beatty, A. (1999) Varieties of Javanese Religion: An Anthropological Account. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

9) Islam in Java: On the Flip Side…Monday, June 17. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Chapters 1, 3 & 7. Woodward, M. (1989) Islam in Java: Normative Piety and Mysticism in the

Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Tucson: University of Arizona Press

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What precisely is Woodward’s object of study? • Again, what is this thing called Islam? And through what sorts of

practices can it be discerned in Javanese social life? • In what ways does Woodward’s account of ‘Islam in Java’ differ from

Geertz’ account? With reference to what criteria can these differences be evaluated? And how might we compare their respective sensibilities to our earlier reading on Buddhism in mainland SE Asia?

BACKGROUND READING:• Koentjaraningrat (1985) Javanese Culture. Singapore: Oxford

University Press.• Ricklefs, M.C. (2006) Mystic Synthesis in Java: A History of Islamization

from the 14th to the Early 19th Centuries. Signature Books. Norwalk, CT.: EastBridge Books.

• Hefner, R. (2000) Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia. Princeton: PUP.


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10) Structure, Classification, HistoryMonday, June 24. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Rassers, W.H. (1982) ‘On the Origin of the Javanese Theatre’. Pañji, The Cultural Hero; A

Structural Study of Religion in Java. Leiden: KITLV.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What is ‘structure’? What is ‘history’? And how are they related?• What is the nature of the relationship between ‘myth’, ‘ritual’ and ‘social structure’?• What regularities and disjunctures can you see with both Geertz’s and Woodward’s

accounts of Islam and history in Java? And how might this compare with Spiro, Holt and Kitiarsa on the ‘complexity’ at play in SE Asian Buddhist traditions?

BACKGROUND READING:• Durkheim, E. & M. Mauss (1963) Primitive Classification. Trans. R. Needham. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press.• P.E. de Josselin de Jong, ed. (1983) ‘Introduction’. Structural Anthropology in the

Netherlands. Dordrecht: Foris.• van Ossenbruggen, F.D.E. (1983 [1928]) ‘Java’s Monca-pat: Origins of a Primitive

Classification system’. P.E. de Josselin de Jong (ed) Structural Anthropology in the Netherlands. Pages 30-60.

11) Cultural Essences, Colonial LegaciesMonday, July 1. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Pages 1-101. Sumarsam (1992) Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in

Central Java. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• How does Sumarsam theorize the cosmopolitan character of central Javanese gamelan? • What critical work is accomplished through his use of ‘culture’?• How might his account be compared with the approaches taken by our other authors?

BACKGROUND READING:• Weiss, S. (2006) Listening to an Earlier Java: Aesthetics, Gender, and the Music of Wayang in

Central Java. Leiden: KITLV Press.• Sutton, R. A. (2010). ‘Gamelan Encounters with Western Music in Indonesia: Hybridity/

Hybridism’. Journal of Popular Music Studies. 22(2), 180-197.• Sears, L.J. (1996) Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales. Durham: Duke

University Press.


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12) Southeast Asian CosmopolitanMonday, July 8. 2013REQUIRED TEXT:• Selected excerpts from Ricci, R. (2011) Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic

Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What precisely is ‘the Arab cosmopolis’? What sorts of unity does this concept articulate?

And what kinds of disjuncture does it aim to highlight?• What is translation? How do we know when it has taken place? As employed by Ricci,

what does the idea of translation help to elucidate? And what might it obscure?• Does Ricci’s approach to the problem of complexity add anything to what we learned

from some of our later authors from the first part of the course (e.g., Kitiarsa, McDaniel)?

BACKGROUND READING:• Handman, C., R, Johnson, T. Krstic & R. Ricci (2011) Islam Translated: IDRF Book Exchange.

www.ssrc.org/features/view/islam-translated-idrf-book-exchange/• Becker, A.L. (1995) ‘Text Building, Epistemology, and Aesthetics in Javanese Shadow

Theatre’. Beyond Translation: Essays Toward a Modern Philology. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

• Laffan, M. (2011) The Makings of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism and the Narration of a Sufi Past. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

13) Between TonguesMonday, July 15. 2013REQUIRED TEXTS:• Maier, H. M. (1993). ‘From Heteroglossia to Polyglossia: The Creation of Malay and Dutch

in the Indies’. Indonesia. 56: 37-65.• Keeler, W. (2006) 'The Pleasures of Polyglossia: Translation in Balinese and Javanese

Performing Arts'. Lindsay, J. (ed.) Between Tongues: Translation And/of/in Performance in Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. Pages 204-23.

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• Define heteroglossia and polyglossia. What is the nature of Keeler’s commentary on Meier?• How does the broadly Bakhtinian terminology compare with terms we have encountered

elsewhere in our reading, such as syncretism, hybridity and mestizo culture?• Specifically, how might the approaches taken by Maier and Keeler be compared with that

of Ricci? And what resources might this offer us for thinking critically about ethnography, history and complexity?

BACKGROUND READING:• Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). 'Discourse in the Novel'. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.

University of Texas Press.• Taylor, J. G. (1983) The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia.

Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.• Hunter, T.M. (2011) Exploring the Role of Language in Early State Formation of Southeast Asia.

Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre Working Paper No. 7. http://nsc.iseas.edu.sg/ documents/working_papers/nscwps007.pdf


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14) When is Neo-Liberalism? Assembling Islam and CapitalMonday, July 22. 2013REQUIRED TEXT AND VIEWING:• Rudnyckyj, D. (2009) ‘Spiritual Economies: Islam and Neoliberalism in Contemporary

Indonesia. Cultural Anthropology’. 24(1): 104-41.• Training videos from ESQ website: http://www.esqway165.com

SEMINAR QUESTIONS:• What, or when, is neoliberalism? How about Islam? And an ‘assemblage’?• To what alternative interpretations did Rudnyckyj oppose the idea of an ‘assemblage’ of

neoliberalism and Islam? What potential advantages and disadvantages does his approach engender?

• What regularities and disjunctures do you see between this approach to complexity and that of our previous authors?

BACKGROUND READING:• Foucault, M. (2009) Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the College de France 1977-1978.

New York: Picador. • Hoesterey, J. B. (2012). ‘Prophetic Cosmopolitanism: Islam, Pop Psychology, and Civic

Virtue in Indonesia’. City & Society. 24(1), 38–61.• Rudnyckyj, D. (2010) Spiritual Economies: Islam, Globalization, and the Afterlife of

Development. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.


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FINAL ESSAY DUE ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 15….

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