Comment on Lansing/de Vet’s paper

# The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Lansing/de Vet’s article tries to substantiate the conclusion Lansing has presented in all his publications since “Priests and Programmers”, namely that the irrigation management was exclusively performed by water temples and their com-moner priests. These water temples accomplished a synchro-nization of irrigation agriculture that was a means to achieve the sharing of water (up-stream/down-stream) and pest control. Furthermore, he suggested that subak (irrigation associations) have been democratic organizations run exclusively by farm-ers; no lords or rulers were involved in the management of irrigation agriculture. Lansing’s theoretical approach consti-tutes a grid which has been applied to the colonial literature in a deductive way and to data collection during fieldwork. The submitted article documents this perspective too

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A number of UN conventions and declarations (on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the World Heritage Conventions) can be understood as instruments of international governance to promote democracy and social justice worldwide. In Indonesia (as in many other countries), these international agreements have encouraged the self-assertion of communities that had been oppressed and deprived of their land, especially during the New Order regime (1966-1998). More than 2,000 communities in Indonesia who define themselves as masyarakat adat or “indigenous peoples” had already joined the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago” (AMAN) by 2013. In their efforts to gain recognition and selfdetermination, these communities are supported by international donors and international as well as national NGOs by means of development programmes. In the definition of masyarakat adat, “culture” or adat plays an important role in the communities’ self-definition. Based on particular characteristics of their adat, the asset of their culture, they try to distinguish themselves from others in order to substantiate their claims for the restitution of their traditional rights and property (namely land and other natural resources) from the state. The authors of this volume investigate how differently structured communities - socially, politically and religiously - and associations reposition themselves vis-à-vis others, especially the state, not only by drawing on adat for achieving particular goals, but also dignity and a better future

Women in Kararau - Gendered Lives, Works, and Knowledge in a Middle Sepik Village, Papua New Guinea

The book offers a glimpse back in time to a Middle Sepik society, the Iatmul, first investigated by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in the late 1920s while the feminist anthropologist Margaret Mead worked on sex roles among the neighbouring Tchambuli (Chambri) people. The author lived in the Iatmul village of Kararau in 1972/3 where she studied women’s lives, works, and knowledge in detail. She revisited the Sepik in 2015 and 2017. The book, the translation of a 1977 publication in German, is complemented by two chapters dealing with the life of the Iatmul in the 2010s. It presents rich quantitative and qualitative data on subsistence economy, marriage, and women’s knowledge concerning myths and rituals. Besides, life histories and in-depth interviews convey deep insights into women’s experiences and feelings, especially regarding their varied relationships with men in the early 1970s. Since then, Iatmul culture has changed in many respects, especially as far as the economy, religion, knowledge, and the relationship between men and women are concerned. In her afterword, the anthropologist Christiane Falck highlights some of the major topics raised in the book from a 2018 perspective, based on her own fieldwork which she commenced in 2012. Thus, the book provides the reader with detailed information about gendered lives in this riverine village of the 1970s and an understanding of the cultural processes and dynamics that have taken place since

Transcultural journeys: The disembedding and re-embedding of Sepik art

Artefacts have always been part of inter- and transcultural journeys in the Sepik. People and artefacts had been continuously moving throughout the area in pre-colonial New Guinea due to migrations, exchange and plundering. However, the scope and the quality of these journeys changed fundamentally when the process of disembedding of artefacts started with the collecting activities of explorers in the colonial area. Against the backdrop of the transmaritime journeys of textiles from India to the Southeast Asian archipelago in pre-colonial times, this article highlights the special features of the Sepik case. The dislocation of predominantly old and “authentic” Sepik artefacts to places in the western world resulted in their transformation and re-embedding in new settings. A proliferation of transformations and reinterpretations of Sepik art began with the transcultural journeys of artefacts to multiple destinations since the intensification of globalisation, resulting in stories about the artefacts with conflicting interpretations and consequences.Dans le Sepik, les artefacts ont toujours voyagé entre cultures. À l’époque précoloniale, suite aux migrations, aux échanges et aux pillages, les populations et les objets ont toujours migré entre les régions. Cependant le périmètre et la qualité de ces voyages transculturels changèrent considérablement quand le processus de délocalisation des objets commença avec les collectes des explorateurs à l’époque coloniale. En s’appuyant sur l’exemple de l’échange par voies maritimes des textiles entre l’Inde et l’archipel de l’Asie du Sud-Est à l’époque précoloniale, cet article éclaire les formes particulières de l’échange dans le Sepik. La dispersion des objets anciens et « authentiques » du Sepik dans différents lieux du monde occidental a eu pour effet de les transformer en les intégrant dans un nouvel environnement. La prolifération des transformations et des réinterprétations de l’art du Sepik commença lors des voyages d’objets dans des directions diverses, nationales et internationales. Il en naquit des histoires d’objets avec des interprétations contradictoires et leurs conséquences

Land Donations and the Gift of Water. On Temple Landlordism and Irrigation Agriculture in Pre-Colonial Bali

The Batur Temple (Pura Ulun Danu Batur) in Kintamani is located at the geographic apex of a so-called ritual water hierarchy and has conventionally been described as a purely religious institution responsible for the coordination and distribution of the irrigation water. However, an analysis of historical palm leaf manuscripts reveals that the temple had a firm economic base with corresponding interests and that it was one of the most important land-owners in late pre-colonial Bali. The article therefore explores from a socio-political and economic perspective the implications of this form of temple landlordism and its combination with ritual water control, particularly for the peasants and the portion of their annual surplus that they were obliged to deliver to this temple

"Bali Aga" and Islam: Ethnicity, Ritual Practice, and "Old-Balinese" as an Anthropological Construct

Page range: 27-5

Traces of Gods and Men

The book provides a vivid introduction to a world of gods and ancestors, their histories and deeds, anchored in the temples built by the inhabitants of a village which is situated on the outskirts of a large tourist centre in South Bali. The author unravels the history of this village by analysing and documenting its 50 temples, their location in the settlement, their form and layout, the social groups with which they are associated and their links to other local and regional temples as well as to the rituals held there. The work demonstrates in an exemplary fashion how the organisation and shaping of space serves as a key to the understanding of past events and of the social processes tied to these: A new way of writing space-orientated history.illustrato

World Heritage Angkor and Beyond - Circumstances and Implications of UNESCO Listings in Cambodia

Angkor, the temple and palace complex of the ancient Khmer capital in Cambodia is one of the world’s most famous monuments. Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe visit Angkor Park, one of the finest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, every year. Since its UNESCO listing in 1992, the Angkor region has experienced an overwhelming mushrooming of hotels and restaurants; the infrastructure has been hardly able to cope with the rapid growth of mass tourism and its needs. This applies to the access and use of monument sites as well. The authors of this book critically describe and analyse the heritage nomination processes in Cambodia, especially in the case of Angkor and the temple of Preah Vihear on the Cambodian/Thai border. They examine the implications the UNESCO listings have had with regard to the management of Angkor Park and its inhabitants on the one hand, and to the Cambodian/Thai relationships on the other. Furthermore, they address issues of development through tourism that UNESCO has recognised as a welcome side-effect of heritage listings. They raise the question whether development through tourism deepens already existing inequalities rather than contributing to the promotion of the poor.Angkor, the temple and palace complex of the ancient Khmer capital in Cambodia is one of the world’s most famous monuments. Hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the globe visit Angkor Park, one of the finest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, every year. Since its UNESCO listing in 1992, the Angkor region has experienced an overwhelming mushrooming of hotels and restaurants; the infrastructure has been hardly able to cope with the rapid growth of mass tourism and its needs. This applies to the access and use of monument sites as well. The authors of this book critically describe and analyse the heritage nomination processes in Cambodia, especially in the case of Angkor and the temple of Preah Vihear on the Cambodian/Thai border. They examine the implications the UNESCO listings have had with regard to the management of Angkor Park and its inhabitants on the one hand, and to the Cambodian/Thai relationships on the other. Furthermore, they address issues of development through tourism that UNESCO has recognised as a welcome side-effect of heritage listings. They raise the question whether development through tourism deepens already existing inequalities rather than contributing to the promotion of the poor