Signature work: Bandung, 1994

Recent statements on globalization, the social life of objects, and the open‐endedness of self‐definition offer fresh angles of approach in the ethnographic apprehension of contemporary art worlds. They are brought together here in an exploration of art forgeries, connoisseurship, value, and exchange in Bandung, Indonesia. Modernist ideas about art, authenticity, and painterly subjectivity not only inform the expert systems that oversee the ‘artness of art’ but also give rise to troubling anxieties and desires associated with ‘originals’ and fakes.’ The efforts of Indonesian painter A. D. Pirous to prevent forgeries of his work from reaching the market throw special light on the difficulties experienced in containing the illusions and confusions of art value. The predicaments are both intimate and global in dimension

Music-Making, Ritual, and Gender in a Southeast Asian Hill Society

This article will explore the ways in which music-making and gender differences mutually shape one another in a hill society in island Southeast Asia. The questions raised have to do with the role music-making plays in producing or subverting gender-based hierarchies of prestige and authority: Does music support or threaten predominant ideas about gender? How does it shape the way in which women and men experience sexual hierarchy? Can music-making itself be a form of sexual politics? These issues are especially intriguing in light of our understanding of music and gender in the island region. AsJane Atkinson and Shelly Errington note, gender has not stood out as a dominant theme or problem in the Southeast Asian archipelago, a place where social hierarchy usually rests on principles of seniority and spiritual potency and where sexual antagonism appears muted (1990). As for music, the dominant traditions in the region-and particularly those of the hill societies-are often traditions of sacred music performed in the context of ritual. A look at case materials from Southeast Asian hill communities should shed fresh light on music-making, ritual, social hierarchy, and gender ideology in small-scale societies known for their relative egalitarian outlook and their nonstratified (or minimally stratified) social order (cf. Feld 1984, Roseman 1984)

Objects on the loose: Ethnographic encounters with unruly artefacts a foreword

The essays gathered for this special theme issue of Ethnos have to do with things and their social circumstances. Though the contributors and commentators in 'Objects on the Loose' work in different ethnographic and disciplinary precincts, and draw from a diverse set of theoretical writings, we share a common debt to the essays of Arjun Appadurai and those of his collaborators in the Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (1986). As will become clear, our interests have less to do with formulating critiques or theory-driven responses to this seminal work than with setting out to explore possibilities for ethnographic expansions, revisions, and variations on its themes, and for linking the 'social life of things' to questions of modernity, nationalism, and transnational cultural projects and dilemmas. In our discussions, we observe that as things become unmoored or dislodged from their place of origin, manufacture, or intended use, they are inevitably snared in new hierarchies of value, exchange, and recognition. Thus our discussions have to do with the social and moral orbit of things that have broken loose from some prior 'life,' or that mimic the lives of other objects. Different scenes of exchange and consumption are clearly influential in the shaping of such hierarchies. But so, too, are the national and international projects that encourage social identities and anxieties to attach to certain kinds of objects. For this reason, we have felt obliged to take a look at the moral debates and crises of mourning that travel along with circulating objects

Felling a Song with a New Axe: Writing and the Reshaping of Ritual Song Performance in Upland Sulawesi

Recent studies on the interplay of written texts and oral performance have shifted away from "intrinsic" models of literacy and orality in favor of approaches that emphasize the ideological, social, and historical character of oral and literate practices. In keeping with this trend, I discuss how and why a minority religious community in Sulawesi (Indonesia) has incorporated writing and related textual practices into its tradition of ritual song performance

Unsur[e] Kaligrafi: On Aceh, Islamic Art, and the Terrain of Indonesian Multiculturalism

Tulisan ini melukiskan beberapa kecemasan yang menimpa pelukis Aceh, A.D. Pirous dan publik yang dibayangkannya, menjelang pameran besar—yang dimaksudkan sebagai sebuah retrospeksi—pada bulan Maret 2002, di Galeri Nasional, Jakarta. Kecemasan ini berakar dalam beragam bahasa, ortografi dan wacana yang belum baku. Keadaan ‘goyah’ ini tampak ketika ‘Kesenian Islam Indonesia Kontemporer’ dipertunjukkan, dipromosikan, dan didiskusikan secara publik. Ini semua berpuncak pada dorongan akan sensor terhadap diri sendiri dan pada berbagai perubahan yang dilakukan pada menit terakhir pada lukisanlukisan, katalog, dan kaos oblong untuk promosi, dan pada catatan-catatan etnografis yang disusun penulis, tentang karier pelukis. Jelas bahwa perilaku seperti ini merupakan bahagian budaya politik yang memungkinkan bertemunya Islam, Indonesia, Arab, Aceh dan seni itu sendiri dalam publik kesenian Islam kontemporer di Jakarta, dan sekaligus juga menjadi respons terhadap negara dan terhadap kekerasan gerakan separatis di Aceh. Dalam semua ini akan tampak jangkauan global dari kebudayaan visual Islam dan sirkulasinya dalam dan melalui bahasa publik negara Indonesia

Instrumentation for Measurement of Gas Permeability of Polymeric Membranes

A mass spectrometric 'Dynamic Delta' method for the measurement of gas permeability of polymeric membranes has been developed. The method is universally applicable for measurement of the permeability of any gas through polymeric membrane materials. The usual large sample size of more than 100 square centimeters required for other methods is not necessary for this new method which requires a size less than one square centimeter. The new method should fulfill requirements and find applicability for industrial materials such as food packaging, contact lenses and other commercial materials where gas permeability or permselectivity properties are important

Comparative Foraging Behavior of Six Sympatric Woodpecker Species

The foraging behavior of six sympatric woodpecker species was studied between March 18 and April 24, 1975, in an oak-hickory woodland in Iowa City, Iowa. The six species of woodpeckers did not differ significantly in the parameter of mean foraging height, but did forage on different mean limb diameters. Other differences in foraging behavior noted between species were dead/live tree selection, sap utilization, and ground foraging. Significant differences in foraging behavior were also recorded between sexes of downy woodpeckers. Males tended to forage higher in trees and on smaller limbs than conspecific females