Thomas Reuter – författare

Indonesia has experienced a quick succession of new governments and fundamental reforms since the collapse of Suharto's dictatorial regime in 1998. Established patterns in the distribution of wealth, power and knowledge have been disrupted, altered and re-asserted. The contributors to this volume have taken the unique opportunity this upheaval presents to uncover social tensions and fault lines in this society. Focusing in particular on disadvantaged sectors of Balinese society, the contributors describe how the effects of a national economic and political crisis combined with a variety of social aspirations at a grass roots level to elicit shifts in local and regional configurations of power and knowledge. This is the first time that many of them have been able to disseminate their controversial research findings without endangering their informants since the demise of the New Order regime.

Indonesia has experienced a quick succession of new governments and fundamental reforms since the collapse of Suharto''s dictatorial regime in 1998. Established patterns in the distribution of wealth, power and knowledge have been disrupted, altered and re-asserted. The contributors to this volume have taken the unique opportunity this upheaval presents to uncover social tensions and fault lines in this society. Focusing in particular on disadvantaged sectors of Balinese society, the contributors describe how the effects of a national economic and political crisis combined with a variety of social aspirations at a grass roots level to elicit shifts in local and regional configurations of power and knowledge. This is the first time that many of them have been able to disseminate their controversial research findings without endangering their informants since the demise of the New Order regime.

Indonesia has experienced a quick succession of new governments and fundamental reforms since the collapse of Suharto''s dictatorial regime in 1998. Established patterns in the distribution of wealth, power and knowledge have been disrupted, altered and re-asserted. The contributors to this volume have taken the unique opportunity this upheaval presents to uncover social tensions and fault lines in this society. Focusing in particular on disadvantaged sectors of Balinese society, the contributors describe how the effects of a national economic and political crisis combined with a variety of social aspirations at a grass roots level to elicit shifts in local and regional configurations of power and knowledge. This is the first time that many of them have been able to disseminate their controversial research findings without endangering their informants since the demise of the New Order regime.

1.Ich kann nichts wirklich gut.2.Ich bin einsam.3.Ich habe meinen Glauben verloren.Christian Beyer ist Mitte 50 und zieht ein ernüchterndes Lebensfazit. Ende der achtziger Jahre tritt er wie selbstverständlich in die Fußstapfen seines Vaters, eines oppositionellen und beliebten evangelischen Pfarrers im Dresdner Umland, doch noch während des Theologiestudiums in Leipzig wird ihm klar, dass er weder über Leidenschaft noch ausreichend Begabung für diesen Beruf verfügt. Er ist bestenfalls Mittelmaß. Anders als seine Schwester Lydia, Liebling ihres Vaters.Nun, zehn Jahre vor dem Ruhestand, steht Christian vor den Trümmern seines Lebens – allein, desillusioniert, gestrandet in einer Gemeinde am Rande des Leipziger Tagebaus.Um Kraft für die letzten Dienstjahre zu schöpfen, reist er nach Rom und trifft dort auf Al, einen undurchsichtigen Mann, der sich ihm aufzudrängen und bei der Bewältigung seiner Probleme helfen zu wollen scheint.Al weiß erstaunlich viel über Christian, und dieser fragt sich zunehmend, was Al, der Fremde, im Schilde führt.

The House of Our Ancestors is a study of the Mountain Balinese or Bali Aga, an ethnic group with a distinct history and culture who are thought to be the indigenous people of Bali, Indonesia. In popular ideas of Balinese identity, the highland people feature as the conceptual counterpart to the royal houses established in the southern lowlands of the island. Hidden in shadow of this courtly culture, the world of the highland Balinese has been largely ignored even though Bali counts among the most researched localities in the world. This book explores their social organization and status economy from the perspective of an innovative theory of precedence . Regional domains, villages and origin houses among the Bali Aga are all conceived and ranked in reference to the basic ideas of a sacred origin in the past, and of an order of precedence connecting the past with the present. The analysis of precedence ranking, evident at all levels of Bali Aga social organization, leads to the development of a new theory of status for Austronesian societies that departs radically from the notion of hierarchy as proposed by Louis Dumont in his classic study of the Indian caste system.