Being and Becoming: Embodiment and Experience among the Orang Rimba of Sumatra / Edition 1

by Ramsey Elkholy

Overview

For the Orang Rimba of Sumatra – and tropical foragers in general – life in the forest engenders a kind of “connectedness” that is contingent not only on harmonious relations between people, but also between people and the non-human environment, including those supernatural agencies of the forest that people depend on for their spiritual and emotional wellbeing. Exploring this world, anthropologist Ramsey Elkholy treats embodied action and perception as the basis of shared experience and shows how various forms of embodied experience constitute the very foundations of human culture. In a unique methodological contribution, Elkholy adopts a set of body-centered approaches that reflect and capture the day-to-day, moment-to-moment ways in which people engage with the world. Being and Becoming is an important contribution to phenomenological anthropology, hunter-gatherer studies, and to Southeast Asian ethnography more generally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781785331596
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	05/01/2016
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ramsey Elkholy, PhD, University of Manchester, is an entrepreneur, musician, and writer based in New York City.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Illustrations ix

Foreword Tim Ingold xi

Preface xiv

Acknowledgements xviii

Introduction 1

Part I Intersubjectivity

Chapter 1 Into the Field: The Orang Rimba at Sungai Gelumpang 19

Chapter 2 Sociality and the Negotiation of Self and Other 47

Chapter 3 Touch and the Mutual Constitution of Selves and Others 69

Chapter 4 Forest, Village, and the Significance of Movement 86

Part II Body and World

Chapter 5 A Journey to Kemumu 113

Chapter 6 Becoming a Hunter 131

Chapter 7 Becoming in the Forest 150

Chapter 8 Shamanism and the Textures of the Universe 166

Chapter 9 Melangun 197

Epilogue 222

Orthography and Glossary 228

Bibliography 234

Index 247

Editorial Reviews

“Being and Becoming perfectly represents the present-day anthropological focus on bodies, senses, and the construction of persons (human and otherwise), as well as the replacement of textual emphases with phenomenological ones.” • Anthropology Review Database

“This is the perfect introduction to phenomenological anthropology, brilliantly combining theoretical insight with ethnographic analysis.” • Gillian Evans, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

“The book provides a well-written ethnography from a phenomenological approach of a small hunter-gatherer group in Sumatra, known as Orang Rimba. This is a good ethnography, and a good contribution to hunter-gatherer studies and to phenomenological anthropology. It includes some delightful and perceptive discussions.” • Nurit Bird-David, University of Haifa

“This is an interesting and rich ethnography of the Orang Rimba, about whom little published material is available.” • Isabell Herrmans, University of Helsinki

From the Publisher