The power of strangers in Flores and Timor

Pitt-Rivers notes that the stranger is dangerous and sacred because he belongs to an extraordinary world and must be "socialised, that is to say secularised, a process which necessarily involves inversion." A striking feature of the traditional histories of several local state structures i...

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Autor Principal: Barnes, R
Formato: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicado: Anthropos Institute 2008
Subjects:
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author Barnes, R
author_facet Barnes, R
author_sort Barnes, R
collection OXFORD
description Pitt-Rivers notes that the stranger is dangerous and sacred because he belongs to an extraordinary world and must be "socialised, that is to say secularised, a process which necessarily involves inversion." A striking feature of the traditional histories of several local state structures in eastern Indonesia is how often they maintained ruling authority is in the hands of persons whose ancestors came as strangers and successfully became absorbed into the local communities, often by means of just this sort of inversion. Another recurring pattem is that of the outsider taking active leadership, while indigenous authority remains relatively immobile. This essays looks at several examples an Timor and Flores of attempts to cope with the disjunction of status and power such as Dumont attributed to India and with the constructive dilemma of how to combine legitimacy of authority with the prestige of the stranger.
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spelling oxford-uuid:4f6a9e20-ba7c-43b5-9f05-25ae3ab0a2a32022-03-26T16:07:05ZThe power of strangers in Flores and TimorJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:4f6a9e20-ba7c-43b5-9f05-25ae3ab0a2a3Social anthropologyAnthropologyEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetAnthropos Institute2008Barnes, RPitt-Rivers notes that the stranger is dangerous and sacred because he belongs to an extraordinary world and must be "socialised, that is to say secularised, a process which necessarily involves inversion." A striking feature of the traditional histories of several local state structures in eastern Indonesia is how often they maintained ruling authority is in the hands of persons whose ancestors came as strangers and successfully became absorbed into the local communities, often by means of just this sort of inversion. Another recurring pattem is that of the outsider taking active leadership, while indigenous authority remains relatively immobile. This essays looks at several examples an Timor and Flores of attempts to cope with the disjunction of status and power such as Dumont attributed to India and with the constructive dilemma of how to combine legitimacy of authority with the prestige of the stranger.
spellingShingle Social anthropology
Anthropology
Barnes, R
The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title_full The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title_fullStr The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title_full_unstemmed The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title_short The power of strangers in Flores and Timor
title_sort power of strangers in flores and timor
topic Social anthropology
Anthropology
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