Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia

by Cynthia T. Fowler

Overview

Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia examines biosocial change in the Austronesian community of the Kodi by examining multispecies interactions between select biota and abiota. Cynthia T. Fowler describes how the Kodi people coordinate their mundane and ritual practices with polychaetes and celestial bodies, and how this synchrony encourages and is encouraged by social and ecological variations. Fowler grounds her anthropogenic environmental research with information from geospatial science, marine ecology, astronomy, physics, and astrophysics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498521864
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/15/2018
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	5.95(w) x 8.61(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

Cynthia T. Fowler is associate professor of anthropology at Wofford College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Stretching Our Biosoical Universe
Chapter 2 Making Worlds with Transtaxa Beings in Multispecies Swarms
Chapter 3 The Interchangeability of Humans, Seaworms, and Spirits
Chapter 4 Connecting with Celestial Bodies and Un-Grounding Space-Time
Chapter 5 Listening for Cosmic Voices and Speculating about their Perspectives
Chapter 6 Sequential Synchronies in Multispecies Interactions and Biosoical Change

Editorial Reviews

Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba is an innovative, fascinating, and original take on a society we thought we knew quite well. Cynthia T. Fowler provides revealing and insightful passages that reflect on the relation of space and time, on the periodicity of sea worms and moon phases, and on rituals which try to recover lost souls from celestial bodies.

Janet Hoskins

In this lively and innovative book, with its engaging prose style, Cynthia Fowler takes us on a journey across radically different scales of understanding. Fowler suggests new ways of looking at the relationship between biological and non-biological entities and provocatively addresses some enduring concerns in the anthropology of cosmology.

Roy Ellen