Lorraine Aragon

Office: Alumni Building
Room 209
Telephone: 919-843-7562
Fax: 919-962-1613
Email: aragon2@email.unc.edu
 

Ph.D. Illinois, 1992

Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology

Research Specializations

Geographic Interests: Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Asia, United States.
Topical Interests: Religion and politics, minorities and postcolonial state development, colonialism and missionization, communal conflicts, nationalism and regionalism, land use and place identities, migration and refugees, swidden farming and cash-cropping strategies, material culture and performance arts, textile production, linguistic anthropology, human rights, gender roles, medical anthropology.
 

Research Experience

Field research and academic study about history, state development, religion, subsistence, and aesthetic expression from the Dutch colonial period to the present in Central Sulawesi and other areas of Indonesia 1979, 1984, 1986-1989, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2002.

Comparative research in India, 1979; Singapore, 1979, 1986-1989; Hong Kong, 1979, 1986-1989; 1999; Thailand 1986-1989; and Japan 1979, 1984.

Archival research in The Netherlands concerning Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) during the colonial period, 1986, 1987, 1989.

Comparative research in Mexico (Yucatan) 1991 and highland Bolivia 1995.

Oral history research on the pre-military occupation of Fort Bragg lands in North Carolina, 1998-1999.
 

Research Conducted and Current Projects

Between 1984 and 1998, my primary research focused on the repercussions of Protestant missions and state development projects among highland ethnic minorities in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. I examined how the Dutch colonial and subsequent Indonesian regimes sought to use Protestant missionaries and world religion as a tool for social, economic, and national development. Conversely, I explored how members of highland Indonesian ethnic minorities responded to the introduced version of world religion using their interpretations to pursue local political interests and reorient their own place in a wider nation and world. I also researched “outer island” Indonesian arts, especially barkcloth and ritual songs from Central Sulawesi.

More recently I have studied the civil conflicts between Christians and Muslims that have occurred in Sulawesi and elsewhere in Indonesia since the fall of the Suharto regime in May 1998. My work on the causes and consequences of sectarian violence in Sulawesi supports efforts by humanitarian NGOs to find just and stable solutions to local disagreements. Currently I am exploring links between state policies, religious narratives, and the regional economies of conflict zones. I am focusing particularly on the role of changing land use and domestic migration as they have contributed to communal tensions, as well as ongoing efforts to promote ethnic and religious reconciliation. A related writing project concerns the use of religious narratives to interpret and justify migration, communal conflict, and resettlement outside of ancestral lands.
 

Teaching and Related Research

I have taught undergraduate courses in Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography, Four-field General Anthropology, and Linguistic Anthropology. I also have taught area courses on East and Southeast Asia, as well as undergraduate and graduate seminars on “Religious Movements across Cultures and States” for Religious Studies  programs and “Communication across Cultures” for  International Studies programs.

In Spring 2003, I am teaching “Anthropology and Religion” (ANTH 142 / RELI 142 / FOLK 142). The course explores anthropological contributions to religious studies, recent research on anthropological definitions of religion, and ethnographic cases concerning current religious issues.
 
 

Selected Publications

Books and Edited Volumes

2000, Fields of the Lord: Animism, Christian Minorities, and State Development in Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 384 pages.

1999, edited with Susan D. Russell,. Structuralism's Transformations: Order and Revision in Indonesian and Malaysian Societies. Tempe: Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Monograph Series Press, 464 pages.

1991, co-authored with Paul M. Taylor, Beyond the Java Sea: Art of Indonesia's Outer Islands.  Washington, D.C. and N.Y.: National Museum of Natural History and Abrams Press, 319 pages.
 

Refereed Journal Articles

Forthcoming, “Missions and Omissions of the Supernatural: Colonial Misunderstandings of Indigenous Cosmologies and the Legitimization of ‘Religion’ in Indonesia,” under submission to Anthropological Forum.

2002, “Waiting for Peace in Poso,” Inside Indonesia 70 (April-June 2002):11-12.

2001, "Communal Violence in Central Sulawesi: Where People Eat Fish and Fish Eat People." Indonesia 72 (October 2001): 45-79.

2000, "Can Central Sulawesi Christians and Muslims Get Along?: An Analysis of Indonesian Regional Conflict" Antropologi Indonesia 24(63):54-64, September-December 2000.

1999, "The Currency of Indonesian Regional Textiles: Aesthetic Politics in Local, Transnational, and International Emblems." Ethnos 64(2):151-169.

1996, "Twisting the Gift: Translating Precolonial into Colonial Exchanges in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia." American Ethnologist 23(1):43-60.

1996, "Reorganizing the Cosmology: The Reinterpretation of Deities and Religious Practice by Protestants in Central Sulawesi." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27(2):350-373.

1996, "Suppressed and Revised Performances: Raego' Songs of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia." Ethnomusicology 40(3):413-439.

1996, "`Japanese Time' and the Mica Mine: Experiences of the Occupation in the Western Central Sulawesi Highlands." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27(1):49-63.

1992, "Revised Rituals in Central Sulawesi: The Maintenance of Traditional Cosmological Concepts in the Face of Allegiance to World Religions." Anthropological Forum 6(3):271-84.
 

Other Articles, Book Chapters, and Commentaries

Forthcoming 2003, “Migrasi, Komoditi Expor, dan Sejarah Perubahan Pemakaian Tanah di Sulawesi Tengah” (Migration, Cash Crops, and Historical Changes in Land Ownership in Central Sulawesi)” in Tanah dan Keaneka Ragaman Kebudayaan di Indonesia (Land and Cultural Diversity in Indonesia), Anu Lounela and Yando Zakaria, ed. Jakarta: InsistPress.

2002, “Problems with Categories in the Anthropology of Religion,” Commentary in AAA Anthropology Newsletter 43(9): 6.

2003, "Spiritual Territories: Owners of the Land, Missionization, and Migration in Central Sulawesi" in Founder's Cults in Southeast Asia: Ancestors, Polity, Identity, Nicola Tannenbaum and Cornelia Kammerer, ed. New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Program Monograph Series, in press.

2003, “Bird Omens and Metaphors in Central Sulawesi Ritual Songs,” in Les Messagers Divins: Aspects Esthétiques et Symboliques des Oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est (Divine Messengers: Aesthetic and Symbolic Aspects of Birds in Southeast Asia), Pierre LeRoux and Bernard Sellato, ed. Paris and Marseilles: SevenOrients and Presses de l’Université de Provence, in press.

2002, "In Pursuit of Mica: The Japanese and Highland Minorities in Sulawesi." in Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire, Paul H. Kratoska, ed., pp.81-96. London: RoutledgeCurzon.

2002, with Dale L. Hutchinson,  "Collective Burials and Community Memories: Interpreting the Placement of the Dead in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States with Reference to Ethnographic Cases from Indonesia," in The Space and Place of Death, Helaine Silverman and David Small, ed., pp.26-54. Arlington, VA: Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No.11.

1999, with Susan D. Russell, "Introduction: Delineating Theoretical Approaches to Southeast Asian Anthropology," in Structuralism's Transformations: Order and Revision in Indonesian and Malaysian Societies, Lorraine V. Aragon and Susan D. Russell, ed. pp.xxiii-lxii. Tempe: Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Monograph Series Press.

1997, "Distant Processes: The Global Economy and Outer Island Development in Indonesia," in Life and Death Matters: Human Rights and the Environment at the End of the Millennium, Barbara R. Johnston, ed. pp.26-42. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. [Cover photograph by Lorraine V. Aragon.]

1990, "Barkcloth in Central Sulawesi: A Vanishing Technology in Outer Island, Indonesia." Expedition 32(1):33-48 [Cover photograph by Lorraine V. Aragon.].
 
 

Public Research Report

2000, Sandhills Families: Early Reminiscences of the Fort Bragg Area; Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Moore, Richmond, and Scotland Counties, North Carolina. Fort Bragg, North Carolina: Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Program, 78 pages.
 

Public Lecture Schedule

May 16-18, “Poso’s Predicament,” Featured presentation at the conference on “Sectarian Violence in Eastern Indonesia: Causes and Consequences,” Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hawaii, East-West Center at Manoa, Honolulu, HA.
 

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