Suomen Antropologi Volume 32, 3/2007
Special Issue: Civility and Social Relations in South and Southeast Asia
In cooperation with the project ‘Managing Cultural Diversity’ funded by the Academy of Finland
Articles
-
Introduction: Civility and social relations in South and Southeast Asia
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 4-11
-
Cultural Syncretism, Civility and Religious Diversity in Goa, India
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 12-24.
Abstract
Focusing on Goa in India, this paper discusses the role of cultural syncretism in the fostering of quotidian and organic civility. It has been argued that Goan cultural syncretism serves to bridge cultural differences between Hindus and Christians and concomitantly promotes intercommunity civility. In particular the habitual respect of, and participation in, the practices of other religions help to weaken or even negate the divisive and exclusionary tendencies that have resulted in violent conflict in many parts of the world. It is apparent that goans make deliberate and unconscious attempts to create spaces for civic engagement that transcend the boundaries of their respective culture or subjectivity. I argue that these attempts constitute a process of interculturalism expressed in different forms such as quotidian civic engagement, the ecumenism of religious feasts and festivals, and the initiatives of civil society in challenging communalism.
-
In Defence of Civility: Conceptualising social relations of peace in Indonesia
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 25-38.
Abstract
Recent writings on Indonesia reveal a high level of academic interest in processes of violence and conflict. many of these studies exhibit a weak or ‘negative’ conceptualisation of peace as the absence of violence. This focus on, and approach to, the study of violence precludes our broader understanding of both violent and peaceful social relations in Indonesia. The article considers some examples of the everyday defence of civility uncovered by a peace journalism project in Indonesia. such examples augment the numerous studies of violence and conflict in Indonesia and reinforce the need for further research premised on a ‘positive’ conceptualisation of the social processes of peace and civility.
-
How Civility Constitutes Its Publics
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 39-49.
Abstract
This article focuses on ‘organic’ civility: forms of coexistence which arise from a perspective on conflicts, boundaries and differences as outcomes of social life. In the Indonesian cases discussed here, messages about conflicts do not circulate in a disembodied public sphere. instead, they are addressed to limited, local audiences and affirm their agency in conducting and resolving their issues. Such practices often depend on a broader discourse of culture and specific historical relations through which more universal ideas about human rights and values are interpreted in local terms. The article describes different notions of communal harmony in contemporary Indonesia with an emphasis on performative practices that constitute their audience as social agents. It is argued that efforts to reconcile parties of recent ethnic and political violence owe their success to particularizing the histories of inter-group relations and highlighting the cultural values expressed in them.
-
Neither Insiders Nor Outsiders: Conflict and accommodation in the Malay world
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 50-61.
Abstract
In this paper i examine issues of identity formation, conflict and accommodation by means of a number of cases drawn from ethnographic research. In particular I look at some of the ways in which Malay-ness has been linked to the processes of inclusion and exclusion that operate between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ (or ‘natives’ and ‘settlers’) in and around localised ‘communities’ in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. I suggest that far from necessarily being a fixed and permanent political identity, Malay-ness may also describe a highly fluid interactive space. It seems that ethno-religious conflict has been more likely to occur where hard, even racialised divisions develop between insiders and outsiders and that conflict has been less likely in situations when different groups have been able to make common cause under the banner of a more open and hybridised sense of Malay co-responsibility. In other words a key variable in such situations has been the extent to which a sense of solidarity may, or may not, develop between relatively immobile, localized, ‘indigenous’ cultivators and political elites on the one hand and more mobile, commercially-oriented outsiders of more universalistic orientation on the other.
-
Embedded Ethnicity: On the narratives of ethnic identity in Malaysia and Sri Lanka
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 62-74.
Abstract
The paper examines the birth, survival and reproduction of racial categories in Malaysia and Sri Lanka. It is argued that the manner in which present relations between ethnic or ‘racial’ groups in the two countries are shaped is basically a modern phenomenon and is not based on ancient histories of the countries, as is often argued. The topic is approached from two angles. First, racial categories are analyzed as part and parcel of the colonial narrative and, secondly, as building blocks of the national narrative. The analysis focuses on how racial categories, which are still central social dividers, are embedded in the reproduction of social structures, that is, how they are used in social discourse and what interests their predominance eventually serves. This is done by looking at interpretations of the histories of the two countries as national narratives.
-
Morality and Islam in Post-Conflict Aceh
Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 32(3) AUTUMN 2007, pp. 75-89.
Abstract
The implementation of Islamic law in the Indonesian province of Aceh is interrelated in complex ways with the local politics of conflict. Through the concepts of civility and legal moralism, the contradictory views on the current implementation of Shari’a in Aceh are here dissected. It is argued that the current Shari’a regulations represent a form of legal moralism, through which the Indonesian state has strengthened its control over the rebellious province. On the other hand, the emerging criticism of the current implementation of Shari’a in Aceh stresses the importance of civility. Civility requires the acknowledgment of parallel moral frameworks that are deemed equally valuable. Unlike legal moralism, which is based on rigid moral regulations and control, civility stresses tolerance and flexibility in moral matters. The state-religion relations, and the possibility of individual interpretation of religious norms, are central to the public debate on the implementation Shari’a in Aceh. At the same time they reflect more widely the debates on Islam in Indonesia.