After the Ancestors: An Anthropologist's Story (New Departures in Anthropology)
Cambridge University Press, 2/26/2015
EAN 9781107094789, ISBN10: 110709478X
Hardcover, 372 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Set on an isolated Indonesian island, this is the gripping true story of a fieldworker's experience of living in a tribal society during a period of crisis. Featuring a cast of unforgettable characters, After the Ancestors follows a bitter feud between rivals as it escalates into murder, intrigue and revenge. A vivid account of life within a radically different world, it also portrays a unique culture undergoing the transition from tribalism to modernity. A century of alien rule has left the island, once famous for its warrior ethos, with a hybrid culture. As the possibilities for heroic action recede, men raised to be orators and over-reachers rather than church elders and peasants find themselves occupying a stage too small for their personalities. 'Where can we turn', asks one tribesman, 'we who come after the ancestors?' A revenge tragedy for modern times, After the Ancestors will be enjoyed by anthropologists and general readers alike.
List of illustrations
Preface
People
Prologue
1. The statue
2. House key
3. Among women
4. Blood brothers
5. Daggers and debutants
6. Stormy Sunday
7. Three things that matter
8. The making of great men
9. A game of chess
10. Cholera song
11. Progress
12. Strangers and brothers
13. Exile and return
14. Field work
15. The chicken's neck
16. Good deaths and bad deaths
17. First family
18. Blessing
19. Half an egg
20. Waiting
21. Death of a chief
22. Ama Jonah at bay
23. Unravelling
24. The ethnographer and his double
Epilogue.