Centering the Margin

Reed L. Wadley

ISBN 10: 1845450191 / ISBN 13: 9781845450199

Published by Berghahn Books, GB, 2006

About this Item

In a completely new approach to borders and border crossing, this volume suggests a re-conceptualization of the nation in Southeast Asia. Choosing an actor approach, the individual chapters in this volume capture the narratives of minorities, migrants and refugees who inhabit and cross borders as part of their everyday life. They show that people are not only constrained by borders; the crossing of borders also opens up new options of agency. Making active use of these, border-crossing actors construct their own live projects on the border in multiple ways against the original intention of the nation-state. Based on their intimate knowledge of the interaction of communities, anthropologists from Europe, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia provide a vivid picture of the effects of state policies at the borders on these communities.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781845450199

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Centering the Margin
• Publisher: Berghahn Books, GB
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845450191
• ISBN 13: 9781845450199
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 454 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In a completely new approach to borders and border crossing, this volume suggests a re-conceptualization of the nation in Southeast Asia. Choosing an actor approach, the individual chapters in this volume capture the narratives of minorities, migrants and refugees who inhabit and cross borders as part of their everyday life. They show that people are not only constrained by borders; the crossing of borders also opens up new options of agency. Making active use of these, border-crossing actors construct their own live projects on the border in multiple ways against the original intention of the nation-state. Based on their intimate knowledge of the interaction of communities, anthropologists from Europe, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia provide a vivid picture of the effects of state policies at the borders on these communities.

About the Authors

Alexander Horstmann teaches Social Anthropology of Southeast Asia at the University of Münster and is a Fellow of the Study Group Islamic Culture – Modern Society at the Institute of Advanced Study in the Humanities (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut), Essen. Among his major publications include Class Culture and Space: The Construction and Shaping of Communal Space in South Thailand, Transaction, 2002.

Reed L. Wadley (1962-2008) was Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Missouri, USA. His research included borderlands, warfare, colonialism, natural resource management and historical ecology, involving Iban communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Among his publications were Punitive expeditions and divine revenge: Oral and colonial histories of rebellion and pacification in western Borneo, 1886-1902, Ethnohistory (2004).