The Memory of Trade - Modernity's Entanglements on an Eastern Indonesian Island

"With profound insight, empathy, and theoretical sophistication, Patricia Spyer traces out the complex intertwinings among identity, global commerce, local ritual, and national politics. This book is a masterful demonstration of how much of modernity's paradoxes, romance, and uncanny displacements best come into sight when viewed from the perspective of the supposed margins."--Webb Keane, author of "Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society"

List of contents

List of Illustrations viii

Preface ix

A Note on Language, Translation and Orthography xxiii

1 Introduction: Runaway Topographies 1

2 The Legless Paradise 41

3 The Great Ship 66

4 Mothers of Pearl 107

5 Prow and Stern 161

6 The Cassowary's Play 198

7 The Women's Share 254

8 Epilogue: Sweet Memories from Aru 288

Notes 293

Works Cited 329

About the author

Patricia Spyer

Summary

Presents a study of the people of Aru, an archipelago in eastern Indonesia. This title focuses on the fraught identification of Aruese people with two imaginary elsewheres - the 'Aru' and the 'Malay' - and the fissured construction of community that has ensued from centuries of active international trade and encroachments of modernity.

Product details

• Authors: Patricia Spyer, Spyer, Patricia Spyer
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 18.02.2000
• EAN: 9780822324058
• ISBN: 978-0-8223-2405-8
• No. of pages: 384
• Weight: 993 g
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; Anthropologie, Globalisierung, Indonesien, Soziale und ethische Themen, Internationale Wirtschaft