Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian Society
Webb Keane argues that by looking at representations as concrete practices we may find them to be thoroughly entangled in the tensions and hazards of social existence. This book explores the performances and transactions that lie at the heart of public events in contemporary Anakalang, on the Indonesian island of Sumba. Weaving together sharply observed narrative, close analysis of poetic speech and valuable objects, and far-reaching theoretical discussion, Signs of Recognition explores the...
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"I predict the book will be cited frequently by leaders in the field for some time to come. The analysis is exacting and the scholarship absolutely first-rate."—Kenneth M. George, author of Showing Signs of Violence"An amazing book. . . . A deeply textured and theoretically engaged ethnographic work [that] challenges the conventional analytic division between verbal and material domains."—John Pemberton, author of On the Subject of "Java"
IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsA Note on Orthography, Transcription, and Vocabulary1Introduction: Representation, Recognition, and Hazard12Geography, History, and Sociality293Things of Value654Loaded Terms945Text, Context, and Displacement1156Voices, Agents, and Interlocutors1387Formality and the Economy of Signs1768Subjects and the Vicissitudes of Objects1999Conclusion224Notes237Bibliography269Index287
