The Power Of The Senses: Ethnicity, History and Embodiment in East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract The people of Probolinggo in East Java describe themselves as ‘mixed people’, i.e. the outcome of intense interaction between descendants of migrants from Java and Madura, and construe this mixing as founded on the merging of the otherwise juxtaposed qualities of halus and kasar. The paper reconsiders some of the issues surrounding this distinction and by placing itself in the intersection of deconstructive readings of ‘Java’ and the paradigm of embodiment, it attempts to arrive at a phenomenological analysis of ethnicity in contemporary Java that throws light on the ways culture constructions are lived and experienced. Acknowledgments This article is based on fieldwork carried out between October 1998 and March 2000. Fieldwork was funded by a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarship Institute (IKY) and sponsored by Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI) and Universitas Airlangga. The writing of this article was facilitated by an award of the Leach/Royal Anthropological Institute Fellowship at the University of Sussex. I am deeply indebted to the inhabitants of Probolinggo for their generosity and patience. I would also like to thank the two anonymous IMW reviewers for their criticisms and suggestions. For all errors and misinterpretations I alone am responsible.