Prahus, Timber and Illegality on the Margins of the Indonesian State
The Madurese are one of the great maritime and trading peoples of the Indonesian Archipelago. This remarkable study takes readers into the coastal villages of Madura, where the distinctive traditional vessels were powered by sail until the late twentieth century. It examines informal-sector economic niches, notably the cattle, salt and timber ......
Arguably Southeast Asia's most spectacular city, Kuala Lumpur - widely known as 'KL' - has celebrated 50 years as the national capital of Malaysia. But KL now has a very different twin in Putrajaya, the country's new administrative capital. Where KL is a diverse, cosmopolitan, multi-racial metropolis, Putrajaya fulfils an elitist vision of a ......
An investigation into the complex forces that shape Balinese identity. Over the past one hundred years, the Balinese have been challenged by colonial occupation, political turbulence, and, most recently, tourism. In response, they have come to rely on the idea of "Kebalian," or Balinese-ness. Kebalian is likened to a tree whose roots are ......
The nature of community in urban Java changed dramatically during the economic and political transition that followed the fall of the Soeharto regime in Indonesia, although the community continues to provide a rallying point for urban low-income residents in the off-street neighbourhoods (kampong) in Yogyakarta and in other cities of Java. Under ......
During the dramatic economic and social transformation of late twentieth-century Indonesia, theatre performances in Central Java featured a familiar cast of rulers, nobles, clown servants and ordinary people. However, these presentations were not a repetition of age-old cultural 'traditions'. Instead, by stretching the framework of Javanese ......
A study of the forces that shaped Jakarta into the city it is today. Indonesian writer Seno Gumira Ajidarma has called Jakarta a city of a thousand dimensions. A megacity of 30 million under threat from rising sea levels and temperatures, Jakarta and its resilient residents improvise and thrive. This book teases out some of the dimensions that ......
Purbo Asmoro and the Evolution of an Indonesian Performing Art
A richly illustrated study of wayang, the traditional puppet theater form of Java, based on unprecedented decades-long participatory research. Wayang, the traditional puppet theater form of Java, fascinates and endures thanks to the many ways it works as a medium-bearing the weight of Javanese culture and tradition as a key component of rites of ......
An accessible and diverse resource for infectious disease outbreak response. For too long, the theory and practice of infectious disease outbreak response have been the domain of a small number of experienced responders. The COVID-19 pandemic brought global attention to the requirements of effective outbreak response, and the need for ......
Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942
The environmental turn in the humanities and social sciences has meant a new focus on the history of animals. This is one of the first books to look across species at animals in a colonial, urban society. If imperialism is a series of power relationships, it involves not only the subjugation of human communities but also animals. What was the ......