Fields of the Lord: Animism, Christian Minorities, and State Development in Indonesia

Lorraine V. Aragon

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2000

Fields of the Lord

Animism, Christian Minorities, and State Development in Indonesia

Lorraine V. Aragon

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824862527

Overview
Contents

About this book

Religious and ethnic violence between Indonesia's Muslims and Christians escalated dramatically just before and after President Suharto resigned in 1998. In this first major ethnographic study of Christianization in Indonesia, Aragon delineates colonial and postcolonial circumstances contributing to the dynamics of these contemporary conflicts.

Aragon's ethnography of Indonesian Christian minorities in Sulawesi combines a political economy of colonial missionization with a microanalysis of shifting religious ideology and practice. Fields of the Lord challenges much comparative religion scholarship by contending that religions, like contemporary cultural groups, be located in their spheres of interaction rather than as the abstracted cognitive and behavioral systems conceived by many adherents, modernist states, and Western scholars.

Aragon's portrayal of "near-tribal" populations who characterize themselves as "fanatic Christians" asks the reader to rethink issues of Indonesian nationalism and "modern" development as they converged in President Suharto's late New Order state. Through its careful documentation of colonial missionary tactics, unexpected postcolonial upheavals, and contemporary Christian narratives, Fields of the Lord analyzes the historical and institutional links between state rule and individuals' religious choices. Beyond these contributions, this ethnography includes captivating stories of Salvation Army "angels of the forest" and nationally marginal but locally autonomous dry-rice and coffee farmers. These Salvation Army "soldiers" make Protestantism work on their own ecological, moral, and political turf, maintaining their communities and ongoing religious concerns in the difficult terrain of the Central Sulawesi highlands.

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Note on Language and Orthography Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Before and After Religion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Highland Places and Peoples Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
3. Precolonial Polities, Exchange, and Early Colonial Contact Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
4. Onward Christian Soldiers: The Salvation Army in Sulawesi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
5. Precolonial Cosmology and Christian Consequences Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
6. Sacrificial Dialogues and Christian Ritual Qualifications Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	202
7. The Powers of the Word Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
8. Constructing a Godly New Order Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
9. Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	320
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	327
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	335
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	384

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 396

eBook

Published: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 9780824862527