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Martial arts and the body politic in Indonesia /

Wilson, Lee, 1966-

Martial arts and the body politic in Indonesia / by Lee Wilson. - 1 online resource (xiv, 244 pages) : illustrations. - Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; v. 299 Power and place in Southeast Asia ; v. 7 . - Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 299/7. Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2015, ISBN: 9789004287372. .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- From Out of the Shadows -- Bodies of Knowledge: The Pedagogy of Pencak Silat -- Blessings, Bone Setting and the Blood of the Ancestors -- The Management of Tradition -- From the Mystical to the Molecular -- Sovereign Bodies and the Practicalities of Power -- Bibliography -- Index.

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In Martial Arts and the Body Politic in Indonesia Lee Wilson offers an innovative study of nationalism and the Indonesian state through the ethnography of the martial art of Pencak Silat. Wilson shows how technologies of physical and spiritual warfare such as Pencak Silat have long played a prominent role in Indonesian political society. He demonstrates the importance of these technologies to the display and performance of power, and highlights the limitations of theories of secular modernity for understanding political forms in contemporary Indonesia. He offers a compelling argument for a revisionist account of models of power in Indonesia in which authority is understood as precarious and multiple, and the body is politically charged because of its potential for transformation.

9789004289352

10.1163/9789004289352 DOI


Pencak silat--Political aspects--Indonesia.
Martial arts--Anthropological aspects--Indonesia.
Power (Social sciences)--Indonesia.


Electronic books.

GV1114.75 / .W55 2015eb

796.81509598