M E Sharpe (with the Asia Society), 1999, 395pp, ISBN 1-56324-889-1 (hard) US$69.95, 1-56324-890-5 (paper) US$26.95
Messages in stone - Statues and sculptures from tribal Indonesia
Skira & Alain Viaro
The Southeast Asian archipelago includes numerous islands that are strewn with stone monuments and statues. Some of these carvings date back to an ancient past that is almost impossible to calculate. Others are but a few decades old. A number of these sculptures reach such an impressive size that they might almost rival the well-known giant carvings of Easter Island. For nearly a quarter of a century the Barbier-Mueller Museum has striven to assemble a coherent collection of these monolithic monuments. Although other events have since enabled art lovers to learn more about the archipelago's stone sculptures, never has a single exhibition been devoted entirely to this art - until today.
Skira, 1999, 200pp, 285 colour illustrations, ISBN 8881183919 (hard), US$55.00
Eroica - The quest for oil in Indonesia (1850-1898)
J Ph Poley
A tribute to the pioneers of oil exploration in Indonesia. Using authentic reports, diaries, relevant texts, personal notes and pictures, Poley brings to life the heroic efforts of Reerink (Cheribon, W Java), Zijlker and Kessler (Deli, NE Sumatra), Stoop (Surabaya and Rembang, E Java), Menten (Kutei, E Kalimantan), Kessler and IJzerman (Palembang, SE Sumatra), and their crews. They faced almost insurmountable odds in many locations: an impenetrable, cruel jungle, an inclement climate, tropical diseases, technical mishaps, financial restrictions, and, last but not least, government and legal constraints. There was no geological science to guide them, and drilling technology was still in its infancy. Yet it was their vision and perseverance which finally put Indonesia on the world map of oil-producing nations, and which contributed materially to the development of today's life of luxury. Much of the present text and several of the pictures are here presented for the first time to the general public.
Kluwer, 2000, 188pp, ISBN 0792362225 (hard), US$79.00
In service and servitude - Foreign female domestic workers and the Malaysian 'modernity' project
Christine B N Chin
Offers an interdisciplinary approach to the in-migration of foreign domestic workers in Malaysia. Christine Chin discusses how the state elites and the middle classes come to rationalise the demand for - and treatment of - domestic workers while pursuing the country's modernity project, designed to create a stable, developed, multiethnic society. She shows how different and competing pressures on the regional, national, and household levels leave Filipina and Indonesian domestics open to mistreatment and abuse, most directly by employment agencies and employers. Chin argues that late-twentieth-century efforts to expand open markets and establish global free trade encourage the exploitation of transnational migrant workers, and that such exploitation should not become an acceptable part of pursuing the 'good life'.
Columbia Univ Pr, 1998, ISBN 0231109873 (paper), US$18.50, 0231109865 (hard), US$47.50
The spectre of comparisons - Nationalism, Southeast Asia, and the world
Benedict Anderson
'A collection of subtle and scholarly essays by the author of Imagined communities. Anderson is a rare bird: a learned Cornell professor who writes about international politics with subversive elegance and a philosopher's flair for first principles' (Boston Globe). Includes chapters on Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
Verso, 1998, 374pp, ISBN 185984184 (paper), US$19.00
Culture and privilege in capitalist Asia
Michael Pinches (ed)
The new rich of Asia have played a crucial role in the social and economic transformation of the region. Yet they are also a focal point for the cultural restructuring of national, ethnic, religious and class identities in Asia. In this latest volume in the New Rich in Asia series the authors examine the cultural reconfiguration, consumer behaviour, economic success and cultural status of the new rich. The book includes case studies from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, India and China that challenge the narrow political-economic and cultural-determinist approaches that have so far dominated the literature on capitalist development in Asia. While the new rich are celebrated in some quarters, they are reviled in others.
Routledge, 1999, 336pp, ISBN 0-415-19764-3 (paper), US$32.99, UK£19.99
To change Bali
Adrian Vickers, I Nyoman Darma Putra, Michele Ford (eds)
In honour of the often outspoken anthropologist of Bali, Professor I Gusti Ngurah Bagus, nine leading scholars of Bali from around the world have produced this series of essays on social and cultural change. Taking Professor Bagus's path-breaking essays as their starting point, these scholars examine the media, history and society in this rapidly
changing part of Indonesia. Contributers include Carol Warren, Helen Creese, Lynette Parker, Henk Schulte Nordholt, Adrian Vickers, I Nyoman Wijaya, I Nyoman Darma Putra, Maya Sutedja-Liem, and Mark Hobart.
Available Michelle Chin (djucass@indosat.net.id), Deja Vu Gallery & Bookshop, PO Box 363, Ubud, Bali 80571, Indonesia, tel (62 361) 978225, fax (62 361) 978224, Rp 70,000
Subud and the Javanese mystical tradition
Antoon Geels
Subud is one of hundreds of mystical movements (aliran kebatinan) that grew significantly in number and size in post-war Indonesia. Along with other movements it has attracted people from the West and has now spread to about eighty countries. Subud's conceptual apparatus is firmly rooted in the cultural history of Java. Under the banner of change and renewal, Subud presents a message which, fundamentally, is one of continuity in a society in transition.
NIAS-Curzon Press, 1997, 262pp, ISBN 0-7007-0623-2 (hard), email books@nias.ku.dk, UK£30 + postage,
