”Antropocæn” er et problematisk begreb med en problematisk etymologi. Det beskriver et sæt af fæn... more ”Antropocæn” er et problematisk begreb med en problematisk etymologi. Det beskriver et sæt af fænomener, som vi kun lige er begyndt at ane sammenhængene imellem. Ikke desto mindre rummer det også potentiale for tværfagligt samarbejde og mellemartslig sameksistens. Det er lykkes ordet at bryde igennem lydmuren mellem naturvidenskab og samfundsvidenskab, mellem videnskab og kunst, mellem universiteterne og medierne. Dermed synes det at tilbyde, hvad ingen andre ord for nuværende kan: at åbne muligheden for en politisk aktuel, empirisk og tværdisciplinær viden om klimaforandringerne som global krise. I seks teser, der vokser ud af et forskningssamarbejde på Aarhus Universitet mellem biologer og antropologer (AURA), forsvarer Nils Bubandt et såkaldt gennemstreget begreb om Antropocæn og argumenterer for, at vi skal bruge det som udgangspunkt til at undersøge en verden, som ingen af os længere kan genkende....
A Nonsecular Anthropocene: Spirits, Specters and Other Nonhumans in a Time of Environmental Change, 2018
An exploration of the uncanny valleys of the Anthropocene and why they require a nonsecular appro... more An exploration of the uncanny valleys of the Anthropocene and why they require a nonsecular approach.
The Empty Sea Shell: Witchcraft, Doubt, and Aporia on an Indonesian Island
What is it like to live in a world where cannibal witches are undeniably real, yet too ephemeral ... more What is it like to live in a world where cannibal witches are undeniably real, yet too ephemeral and contradictory to be an object of belief?
The Empty Sea Shell, the first in-depth study of witchcraft (in the strict sense of the term) in Southeast Asia, seeks to answer this question by exploring the contradictory and inaccessible nature of witchcraft on the ‘Spice Island’ of Halmahera in the Indonesian province of North Maluku.
Based on three years of fieldwork, the manuscript argues that cannibal witches (gua in the local Buli language or suanggi in Malukan Malay) for people in the coastal, and predominantly Christian, community of Buli are both corporeally real and fundamentally unknowable. The reality of witches is therefore inherently and always in question. As such, witchcraft can never be an object of belief. Rather, it is an aporia, an 'interminable experience’, that remains continuously in doubt. In a critical engagement with both recent and classic studies of witchcraft, the book employs Jacques Derrida’s concept of ‘aporia’ to suggest a novel analytical approach to witchcraft in terms of contradiction, doubt, impossibility, and absence. Such a focus, the book demonstrates, not only forces us to reconsider the conventional idea that witchcraft is a ‘form of belief’; it also turns the relationship between witchcraft and modernity, as it is frequently portrayed in anthropology and history, in its head.
In contrast to most proponents of the modernity of witchcraft approach, the book suggests that witchcraft in Buli is not a means of comprehending, a comment on, or a mechanism for coping with global modernity. Rather, it is witchcraft that is the central question, the existential problem. Witchcraft does not explain anything. It is rather witchcraft that demands – continuously – an explanation. Modernity, for this very reason, is desirable to people in eastern Indonesia, because modernity for over a century has presented itself, in various guises, as a potential but so far unsuccessful answer to the unfathomable problem of the gua.
Democracy, Corruption and the Politics of Spirits in Contemporary Indonesia
Indonesia has been an electoral democracy for more than a decade, and yet the political landscape... more Indonesia has been an electoral democracy for more than a decade, and yet the political landscape of the world’s third-largest democracy is as complex and enigmatic as ever. Indonesia is simultaneous a country that has achieved a successful transition to democracy and a flawed, illiberal, and predatory democracy.
This book provides a portrait of Indonesia’s contradictory democracy through a series of biographical accounts of political entrepreneurs, from the political ‘periphery’ of North Maluku and the ‘political centre’ of East Java respectively. Each biographical account is focused on one contentious area of democracy in Indonesia – elections, corruption, decentralization, and regional representation. The chapters explore the intimate ways in which the political world and the spirit world are entangled. The core argument of the book is that Indonesia’s seemingly peculiar problems with democracy and spirits in fact reflect a set of contradictions within democracy itself.
The book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, anthropology and political science and relevant for the study of Indonesian politics and democracy in Asia and beyond.
Varieties of Secularism in Asia. Anthropological Explorations of Religion, Politics and the Spiritual
Varieties of Secularism is an ethnographically rich, theoretically well-informed, and intellectua... more Varieties of Secularism is an ethnographically rich, theoretically well-informed, and intellectually coherent volume which builds off the work of Talal Asad, Charles Taylor, and others who have engaged the issue of secularism(s) and in socio-political life. The volume seeks to examine theories of secularism/secularity and examine concrete ethnographic cases in order to further the theoretical discussion.
Whereas Taylor’s magisterial work draws up the conditions and problems of a belief in God in Western modernity, it leaves unexplored the challenges posed by the spiritual in modernity outside of the North Atlantic rim. This anthology seeks to begin that task. It does so by suggesting that the kind of secularity described by Taylor is only one amongst others. By attending to the shifting relationship between proper religion and ‘bad faiths’; between politically valorised and embarrassing spiritual phenomena; between the new visibilities and silences of magic, ancestors, and religion in democratic politics, this book seeks to outline the particular formations of secularism that have become possible in Asia from China to Indonesia and from Bahrain to Timor-Leste.
Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology
Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropologypresents a series of essay... more Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropologypresents a series of essays from leading anthropologists that critically reexamine the relevance of holism as a foundational tenet of anthropology, and its theoretical and methodological potential in today's world.
- Represents the first volume to consider the modern role of holism as a central anthropological concern across a wide range of anthropological traditions
- Critically examines the past and present predicament of holism and its potential for the renewal of future practice
- Features contributions from leading anthropologists which discuss how anthropology should be re-designed in the context of a changing world
- Challenges many of contemporary anthropology's central methods, theory, and functions.
In recent years, social scientists have sought to show that nature is not an eternal constant but... more In recent years, social scientists have sought to show that nature is not an eternal constant but an intrinsically unstable concept - a historical, cultural and social construct with powerful emotional, moral and political connotations. Imagining Nature sets out to explore some of the implications of and lacunae in this recent push to "denaturalise nature". But rather than asking, What is nature? as many academic writers have been doing, the contributors here ask, How is nature established as an entity? Through what processes and practices does nature achieve reality?
Tracing the political history of the global concept of 'security' through a variety of national a... more Tracing the political history of the global concept of 'security' through a variety of national and regional inflections in Indonesia, this paper argues for the analytical usefulness of the concept of 'vernacular security'. Entailed in this is a proposal to treat the concept of security as a socially situated and discursively defined category that needs a politically contextualised explication rather than as an analytical category that needs refined definition and consistent use. While the securitisation of global governance that we have witnessed in recent years is built on new ontological ideas about what it means to be safe, global governance is not seamless in its global extension. The apparent universalism of the ontology and politics of global governance therefore breaks down into a more complex pattern upon closer inspection. Based on material from Indonesia, the paper suggests that the 'onto-politics' of security have global, national and local refractions, the interplay between which might be worth a second look.
Living on a damaged planet challenges who we are and where we live. This t imely ant hology calls... more Living on a damaged planet challenges who we are and where we live. This t imely ant hology calls on t went y eminent humanist s and scient ist s t o revit alize curiosit y, observat ion, and t ransdisciplinary conversat ion about life on eart h. As human-induced environment al change t hreat ens mult ispecies livabilit y, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet put s forward a bold proposal: ent angled hist ories, sit uat ed narrat ives, and t hick descript ions o er urgent "art s of living." Included are essays by scholars in ant hropology, ecology, science st udies, art , lit erat ure, and bioinformat ics who posit crit ical and creat ive t ools for collaborat ive survival in a more-t han-human Ant hropocene. The essays are organized around t wo key figures t hat also serve as t he publicat ion's t wo openings: Ghost s, or landscapes haunt ed by t he violences of modernit y; and Monst ers, or int erspecies and int raspecies socialit y. Ghost s and Monst ers are t ent acular, windy, and arboreal art s t hat invit e readers t o encount er ant s, lichen, rocks,
The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and ... more The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and political decentralisation, the outbreak of communal violence, and what I call ‘the new politics of tradition ’ in Indonesia. In 1999 under the former President, Jusuf Habibie, the Indonesian parliament (DPR) voted in favour of two laws, No. 22 and 25 of 1999, which promised to leave a significant share of state revenues in the hands of the regional governments. Strongly supported by the liberal ideologues of the IMF and the World Bank, the two laws were envisaged within Indonesia as a necessary step towards devolving the centralised control of New Order patrimonialism and as a way of curbing separatism and demands for autonomy by giving the regional governments the constitutional and financial wherewithal to maintain a considerable degree of self-deter-mination. Decentralisation was in other words touted as the anti-dote to communal violence and separatist tendencies—an anti-dote admini...
Imagined globalities: Fetishism of the global and the end of the world in Indonesia
A large portion of the inhabitants in Buli, a village on the island of Halmahera (eastern Indones... more A large portion of the inhabitants in Buli, a village on the island of Halmahera (eastern Indonesia), expect globalisation to bring about the destruction of the world. The A. analyses this apocalyptic interpretation of globalisation in order to show how the global is being imagined in different ways at national and local levels in Indonesia. He argues that while concepts like culture, identity and locality have received considerable critical attention within anthropology, the same degree of critical reappraisal has not been extended to the concept of globalisation. Rather than taking globalisation for granted, he contends that the complex diffusion of the concept of globalisation into political rhetoric, popular culture and local discourse calls for detailed, reflexive analyses of the ways in which the global is imagined.
The Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Working Paper series seeks to provide readers with access... more The Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Working Paper series seeks to provide readers with access to current research on environmental and resource issues in the Asia-Pacific. Working Papers produced by the Project aim to facilitate discussion and debate on critical resource management issues in the area, and to link scholars working in different disciplines and regions. Publication as a 'Working Paper' does not preclude subsequent publication in scholarly journals or books, indeed it may facilitate publication by providing feedback from readers to authors. Unless otherwise stated, publications of the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Project are presented without endorsement as contributions to the public record debate. Authors are responsible for their own analysis and conclusions.
Anthropocene Uncanny: Nonsecular Approaches to Environmental Change
An exploration of the uncanny valleys of the Anthropocene and why they require a nonsecular appro... more An exploration of the uncanny valleys of the Anthropocene and why they require a nonsecular approach.
Professor i antropologi, Aarhus Universitet og UiT Norges arktiske universitet Nils Bubandt er pr... more Professor i antropologi, Aarhus Universitet og UiT Norges arktiske universitet Nils Bubandt er professor i antropologi ved Aarhus Universitet samt i perioden 2019-2020 tillige professor II ved UiT, Norges Arktiske Universitet i Tromsø. Han er (med Mark Graham) ansvarshavende redaktør for tidskriftet Ethnos.
The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and ... more The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and political decentralisation, the outbreak of communal violence, and what I call 'the new politics of tradition' in Indonesia. In 1999 under the former President, Jusuf Habibie, the Indonesian parliament (DPR) voted in favour of two laws, No. 22 and 25 of 1999, which promised to leave a significant share of state revenues in the hands of the regional governments. Strongly supported by the liberal ideologues of the IMF and the World Bank, the two laws were envisaged within Indonesia as a necessary step towards devolving the centralised control of New Order patrimonialism and as a way of curbing separatism and demands for autonomy by giving the regional governments the constitutional and financial wherewithal to maintain a considerable degree of self-determination. Decentralisation was in other words touted as the antidote to communal violence and separatist tendencies-an antidote administered or at least prescribed by multinational development agencies in most conflict-prone areas of the world. This paper wishes to probe this idea by looking at the conflict and post-conflict situation in North Maluku. The conflict illustrates how local elites have begun jockeying for political control in anticipation of decentralisation. The process of decentralisation is in other words not merely an antidote but in some cases an implicated part in the production of violence. One reason for this is simply that the decentralisation of financial and political control after three decades of centralisation entails a significant shift in the parameters of hegemony-a shift towards which local political entrepreneurs in the regions are bound to react. The new 'politics of tradition' currently emerging in Indonesia is the combined result of changes in global forms of governance, a strong political focus on ethnic and religious identity in the 'era reformasi' and a local willingness to employ these identities to garner support in the new political landscape of decentralisation. 1 'When Suharto goes, everything has to be reinvented' Goenawan Mohamad (1997)
The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and ... more The intention of this article is to discuss the relationship between the processes of fiscal and political decentralisation, the outbreak of communal violence, and what I call 'the new politics of tradition' in Indonesia. In 1999 under the President Jusuf Habibie, the Indonesian parliament (DPR) voted in favour of two laws, No. 22 and 25 of 1999, which promised to leave a significant share of state revenues in the hands of the regional governments. Strongly supported by the liberal ideologues of the IMF and the World Bank, the two laws were envisaged within Indonesia as a necessary step towards devolving the centralised power of New Order patrimonialism and as a way of curbing separatism and demands for autonomy by giving the regional governments the constitutional and financial wherewithal to maintain a considerable degree of self-determination. Decentralisation was in other words touted as the antidote to communal violence and separatist tendencies-an antidote administered or at least prescribed by multinational development agencies in most conflict-prone areas of the world. This paper wishes to probe this idea by looking at the conflict and post-conflict situation in North Maluku. The conflict illustrates how local elites began jockeying for political control in anticipation of decentralisation. The process of decentralisation is in other words not merely an antidote but in some cases an implicated part in the production of violence. One reason for this is simply that the decentralisation of financial and political control after three decades of centralisation entails a significant shift in the parameters of hegemony-a shift towards which local political entrepreneurs in the regions are bound to react. The new 'politics of tradition' currently emerging in Indonesia is the combined result of changes in global forms of governance, a strong political focus on ethnic and religious identity in the 'era reformasi' and a local willingness to employ these identities to garner support in the new political landscape of decentralisation. 1 1 Artikel ini merupakan makalah yang dipresentasikan pertama kali di lokakarya 'Pemerintahan, Identitas dan Konflik', menganalisis dampak demokratisasi, desentralisasi dan otonomi regional Indonesia pasca Soeharto di Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) di Kopenhagen, 31 Agustus-1 September 2001. Saya berterimakasih kepada para peserta dalam Simposium Internasional ke-3 Jurnal ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA di Denpasar, 16-19 Juli 2002, atas komentar dan saran yang membangun. Tidak lupa saya mengucapkan terima kasih kepada masyarakat Ternate, Tidore dan Halmahera yang telah membantu saya untuk mengerti lebih baik tentang wilayah mereka, Maloko Kie Raha.
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Books by Nils Bubandt
The Empty Sea Shell, the first in-depth study of witchcraft (in the strict sense of the term) in Southeast Asia, seeks to answer this question by exploring the contradictory and inaccessible nature of witchcraft on the ‘Spice Island’ of Halmahera in the Indonesian province of North Maluku.
Based on three years of fieldwork, the manuscript argues that cannibal witches (gua in the local Buli language or suanggi in Malukan Malay) for people in the coastal, and predominantly Christian, community of Buli are both corporeally real and fundamentally unknowable. The reality of witches is therefore inherently and always in question. As such, witchcraft can never be an object of belief. Rather, it is an aporia, an 'interminable experience’, that remains continuously in doubt. In a critical engagement with both recent and classic studies of witchcraft, the book employs Jacques Derrida’s concept of ‘aporia’ to suggest a novel analytical approach to witchcraft in terms of contradiction, doubt, impossibility, and absence. Such a focus, the book demonstrates, not only forces us to reconsider the conventional idea that witchcraft is a ‘form of belief’; it also turns the relationship between witchcraft and modernity, as it is frequently portrayed in anthropology and history, in its head.
In contrast to most proponents of the modernity of witchcraft approach, the book suggests that witchcraft in Buli is not a means of comprehending, a comment on, or a mechanism for coping with global modernity. Rather, it is witchcraft that is the central question, the existential problem. Witchcraft does not explain anything. It is rather witchcraft that demands – continuously – an explanation. Modernity, for this very reason, is desirable to people in eastern Indonesia, because modernity for over a century has presented itself, in various guises, as a potential but so far unsuccessful answer to the unfathomable problem of the gua.
This book provides a portrait of Indonesia’s contradictory democracy through a series of biographical accounts of political entrepreneurs, from the political ‘periphery’ of North Maluku and the ‘political centre’ of East Java respectively. Each biographical account is focused on one contentious area of democracy in Indonesia – elections, corruption, decentralization, and regional representation. The chapters explore the intimate ways in which the political world and the spirit world are entangled. The core argument of the book is that Indonesia’s seemingly peculiar problems with democracy and spirits in fact reflect a set of contradictions within democracy itself.
The book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Asian Studies, anthropology and political science and relevant for the study of Indonesian politics and democracy in Asia and beyond.
Whereas Taylor’s magisterial work draws up the conditions and problems of a belief in God in Western modernity, it leaves unexplored the challenges posed by the spiritual in modernity outside of the North Atlantic rim. This anthology seeks to begin that task. It does so by suggesting that the kind of secularity described by Taylor is only one amongst others. By attending to the shifting relationship between proper religion and ‘bad faiths’; between politically valorised and embarrassing spiritual phenomena; between the new visibilities and silences of magic, ancestors, and religion in democratic politics, this book seeks to outline the particular formations of secularism that have become possible in Asia from China to Indonesia and from Bahrain to Timor-Leste.
- Represents the first volume to consider the modern role of holism as a central anthropological concern across a wide range of anthropological traditions
- Critically examines the past and present predicament of holism and its potential for the renewal of future practice
- Features contributions from leading anthropologists which discuss how anthropology should be re-designed in the context of a changing world
- Challenges many of contemporary anthropology's central methods, theory, and functions.
Papers by Nils Bubandt