Anthropology Current and Recent Research Projects
John Bradley
Project Title: Yanyuwa Environmental Understandings and Underpinnings
- Researcher(s): J. Bradley, Yanyuwa Community and Li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers and Mabunji Outstation Resource Centre
- Funding Sources: Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, National Oceans Policy (Linkage grant Proposal being prepared)
- Problematic: This project examines the relationship between the Yanyuwa community at Borroloola and their ongoing negotiations with their traditional homelands in light of development from mining and primary industries such as fishing and tourism. The research also considers the political implications of legislation such as the Land Right Act (NT) 1976. The research considers questions of post colonial research ethics and decolonisation methodologies.
Project Title: Yanyuwa Ethnobiological classification
- Researcher(s): J.Bradley , M.Holmes, D.Norman Marrngawi, A. Isaac Karrakayn, J. Miller Wuwarlu and I.Ninganga
- Funding Sources: CRC Tropical Savannahs.
- Problematic: This project aimed to explore a Yanyuwa understanding of the way in which they classified their environment. The research investigated whether or not the principles of ethnobiological classification are universalist of relative. The research followed a relativist approach as the findings demonstrated that the co researchers stressed classification as a social and cultural practice.
Project Title: Yanyuwa Encyclopaedic Dictionary Project
- Researcher(s): J.Bradley, D.Norman Marrngawi, A.Karrakayn Isaac, J.Wuwarlu Miller, A.Bajamalanya Friday
- Funding Sources: Monash University Faculty of Arts New Appointees Grant 2005
- Problematic: Yanyuwa is a dying language, there are now six full time speakers of the language left alive and all of these speakers are now in their late 60's and 70's. This is a long term project that has engaged the community for nearly two decades, there have been issues of how do Indigenous people want their language represented? What kind of dictionary works best in the community? There are other issues that are more internal and problematic inthat Yanyuwa is one of the few languages in the world that has very distinct male and female dialects, how does one best document such a language? It is in its region a unique language it does not belong in the families of surrounding languages thus there are important issues in terms of the linguistic history of the language. The dictionary is now in a complete first draft form and need final layout and some minor proofing before publication.
Penny Graham
Project Title: Local Loyalties and the Morality of Migration: Indonesian Labour Migrants at Home and Abroad
- Researcher(s): Penny Graham
- Funding Sources: ARC Monash Small Grant
- Problematic: As Indonesia struggles with democratisation and decentralization, men and women stream out in search of wage labour in Borneo, Malaysia and the Middle East. This ethnographic study analyses the ethical dilemmas arising from pressure to work abroad, despite deep cultural loyalties to a local place and a community of origin
Brett Hough
Project Title: Violence in Popular Culture
- Researcher(s): Brett Hough, Stuart King, Sarah McDonald, Philip Anderson and Susanna Scarparo.
- Funding Sources: LCL Research Cluster Scheme
- Problematic: The aim of the project was to analyse the construction of violence, both physical and psychological, in the contemporary production of popular literary and visual texts. My focus was on the representation of violence in the media in Indonesia, specifically in tabloid TV crime shows and in the major daily newspaper in Bali the Bali Post.
Project Title: Faculty Research Mentoring Scheme - Associate Professor Jenny Hocking (mentor). The object of the scheme was to assist in the writing of an article or the preparation of a longer manuscript for publication. The group met several times throughout 2 nd semester 2005.
- Researcher(s): Brett Hough, Paul Muldoon, Con Verevis, Usha Manchanda and Andrew Gunstone were members of group
- Funding Sources: Faculty of Arts Scheme
- Problematic: My paperis based on ongoing research on Balinese performing arts. The focus of the article is a production of Shakespeare's Macbeth in the style of gambuh - a classical dance-drama form. Gambuh is viewed as the quintessential classical genre that has been declining for at least the last fifty years. Several efforts have been made to preserve or revive the form, particularly in light of a discourse of preservation encapsulated in the Indonesian term 'pelestarian'. Official iterations of this discourse have tended to imply a somewhat programmatic and static conception of preservation. By contrast the Arti Foundation (Yayasan Arti) which staged the Gambuh Macbeth has conceived of pelestarian in a much more dynamic way. Rather than seeking to codify, regulate and direct 'tradition' the member of the Foundation have sought to reinvigorate classical forms such as gambuh though adapting and extending it for their own creative purposes. The Foundation's practice of pelestarian offers a creative model for reinvigorating traditional forms.
Trudy Jacobsen
Project Title: Sexual Contracts in Burma and Cambodia: Intersections of Desire, Duty and Debt
- Researcher(s): Trudy Jacobsen
- Funding Sources: ARC
- Problematic: Marriage and prostitution as sexual contracts have gone largely unexplored in studies of Southeast Asia despite growing regional and international concern at the increasing numbers of women and children subjected to violence and mistreatment at the hands of those with whom these contracts are made. This is especially true for Burma and Cambodia, countries that supply the largest number of women and girls destined for the phenomenon of sex traffic. Both have poor track records on gender equality; both have experienced colonialism, revolution, and totalitarian regimes. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project seeks to trace the evolution of sexual contracts, including marriage, temporary marriage, prostitution and sex slavery from the pre-modern era to the present day, providing explanations for the dichotomy between publicly espoused family-focused values of these societies and the reality of attitudes that privilege men and fail to protect women.
Thomas Reuter
Project Title: Hindu Revivalism and Religious Conflict in Javanese Society: An ethnographic investigation of changing social identities and political aspirations in contemporary Indonesia
- Researcher(s): Thomas Reuter
- Funding Sources: ARC
- Problematic: Hinduism has been reclaiming parts of the Indonesian archipelago it once dominated for a millennium. Even Java, the island at the heart of what is now the world's largest Muslim nation, is witnessing mass conversions from Islam to Hinduism. Expectations of a new golden age among followers of this revival movement are an expression of utopian prophesies and political hopes more widely shared among contemporary Indonesians.An ethnographic study of the social dynamics, economics and politics of religious conversion in Java will appraise the implications of Hindu revival movements for Indonesia's fragile government. The research will identify the historical conditions under which this or other utopian movements may incite violent social conflict or serve a positive role in the creation or maintenance of a democratic society.
Project Title: Fundamentalism in Indonesia: An ethnographic study of three Muslim communities
- Researcher(s): Thomas Reuter
- Funding Sources: University of Melbourne
- Problematic: Indonesian society is witnessing a powerful revival of ethno-religious identities. One hypothesis is that such revival movements are proliferating world-wide as local actors attempt to mobilize political resistance against globalisation and other sources of change which they believe are threatening their livelihood or way of life. This project focuses on the international Islamic revival movement and investigates where and to what extent it has gained popular support in Indonesia. This preliminary study looked at two very different Muslim communities to examine what local and external factors may leave some communities susceptible to the influence of political Islam while others are rejecting or ignoring its message
Project Title: Revitalising Custom (Adat) in Reaction to Decentralisation, Islamisation and Globalisation in Indonesia: Contemporary Social Movements in Bali, Sulawesi and Kalimantan
- Researcher(s): Thomas Reuter (Monash) and Greg Acciaioli (UWA)
- Funding Sources: ARC application submitted in 2006 for 2007-
Project Title: Contemporary Religious Identities in Indonesia: An ethnographic investigation of Islam, globalization and social change in Javanese and Balinese Muslim communities
- Researcher(s): Thomas Reuter
- Funding Sources: ARC application submitted in 2006 for 2007-
- Problematic: Indonesian society is witnessing a powerful revival of ethno-religious identities. One hypothesis is that such revival movements are proliferating world-wide as local actors attempt to mobilize political resistance against globalisation and other sources of change which they believe are threatening their livelihood or way of life. This project focuses on the international Islamic revival movement and investigates where and to what extent it has gained popular support in Indonesia. This study will be based on detailed ethnographic research in six different Muslim communities to examine what local and external factors may leave some communities susceptible to the influence of political Islam while others are rejecting or ignoring its message.
Bianca Smith
Project Title: A Way to God for Sufis, Christians, Buddhists, and Muslims in Indonesia: Susila Budhi Dharma as Moderate Islamic Practice?
Researcher(s): Bianca Smith
Funding Sources: DEST and the Cheung Kong Foundation
Matt Tomlinson
Project Title: Retheorising Mana
Researcher(s): Matt Tomlinson
Funding Sources: Monash University Faculty of Arts New Appointees Grant 2005
Problematic: This research examines indigenous Fijian discourse about powerlessness, analyzing the ways that such discourse of decline and loss motivates new claims to power. Indigenous Fijians are in a distinctive postcolonial situation, having suffered the disruptions of British imperialism but aggressively committed (since independence in 1970) to maintaining political supremacy over an immigrant population. This research is based on past and future ethnographic and archival research in Fiji, Australia, U.S.A., and U.K. The immediate goal is to retheorise "mana," the Oceanic term denoting effective action (often with resonances of chiefly or spiritual power), in light of its contemporary political usage. The key insights of this project are 1) that mana has been nominalised and substantivised in Fijian discourse over the past century and a half; 2) that mana is now considered by indigenous Fijians to be disappearing or diminishing; and 3) that such discourse of decline and loss is expressed in many genres and apparently motivates practical action including political violence.
Project Title: Sacred Consumption
Researcher(s): Matt Tomlinson
Funding Sources: Monash University Faculty of Arts New Appointees Grant 2005
Problematic: The goal of this research is to theorize ritual consumption within Christianity, focusing on kava-drinking sessions held nightly by Fijian Methodists. This project probes the reasons for kava drinking's prominence and popularity in Fijian village life despite the vigor of critical discourse about overconsumption. The research focuses on several aspects of the practice, including the pragmatics of sacredness; drinking sessions' function as public spheres; and metacultural figuration of kava-drinking as emblematically traditional, and therefore a bulwark against inevitable but undesirable changes in village life.