Konflikte - Machte - Identitaten - Beitrage Zur Sozialanthropologie Sudostasiens (Paperback)

The articles in this volume analyse the current conflicts, asymmetries of power, and (contested) identities in todays postcolonial Southeast Asia. Social anthropological methods such as detailed empirical studies and its long tradition of research on ethnicity/identity are particularly valuable when considering those parts of Southeast Asia, especially peripheral regions and border zones, that are afflicted by violent conflicts. Such hostilities, which in the case of Indonesia reached their peak shortly before and during the years just following the forced resignation of President Suharto in 1998, have been accompanied by an aggressive (re-)emergence of ethnic and religious identities. While a number of articles in this volume focus on these recent conflicts, others concentrate on Southeast Asian concepts of power in general. They do not only examine symbolic domination structures, but also how concepts of power are imposed, used, and undermined in everyday life, especially within gender relations. The articles dealing with Southeast Asian identity structures also focus on the theme of power asymmetries. The phenomenon of increasingly hardened religious and ethnic identities resulting in rigid social boundaries and conflicts between different groups is often encountered, yet alternative cosmopolitan models that are adapted to local conditions are also seen.