Indonesia 2015

Excursion to Indonesia 2015

Excursion to the Land of 17,000 Islands: A Report on the Excursion to Indonesia, 2015

In the spring of 2015 students of social anthropology at the universities of Bern and Zurich had the opportunity of joining an excursion to Indonesia, once they had successfully completed two Indonesian-language courses and a preparatory course. The language courses were designed to introduce students to Bahasa Indonesia, Indonesia’s national language, as well as providing first impressions of life in Indonesia, due to the close connection between language and culture. In this way students learnt the terminology of food culture and the many means of transport in Indonesia, from becak (tricycle taxi) to kereta api (literally, fire carriage, that is, train). The preparatory course included themes of socio-political importance in the context of the Land of 17,000 Islands, including its colonial history, Japanese occupation during World War Two, and its independence in 1945. The first presidential government of Sukarno, the bloody era of Suharto’s dictatorship, and transition to today’s President Jokowi were also part of the course. Students were also informed about the programme of the one-month excursion. Following an introductory week in Bandung, the City of Flowers with 2.3 million inhabitants, the group was to divide into research groups at five different locations: Jambi on Sumatra, Manado (northern Sulawesi), Jakarta and Yogyakarta (both on Java), and western Manggarai (Flores). The entire excursion group consisted of 23 students from Bern and 5 from Zurich, and it was led by Professor Dr Heinzpeter Znoj, Professor Dr Olivia Killias and Professor Dr Peter van Eeuwijk. Baba the Indonesian teacher and Simon Weber, who organised the introductory week in Bandung, were to join, along with PhD students Michael Maier and Cyprianus Dale.

In the morning we visited a tea plantation before continuing on to an artificially irrigated area designed as a recreational site for locals from Bandung. Students trained their anthropological gaze upon the activities on offer there, and they were able to gain first impressions of local culture. In the evening participants were free to plan their own activities and went to explore the neighbourhood on their own, searching for food or visiting one of Indonesia’s popular karaoke events.

The next day we visited the museum dedicated to the Asia-Africa Conference of 1965—a conference that was held to strengthen economic, political and cultural cooperation between African and Asian countries.

On the following day the excursion group visited the anthropological institute at Bandung’s university and conducted international comparisons of the courses on offer there, as well as discussing contemporary anthropological issues with local students. Just as everywhere else we had visited, the group was warmly welcomed at the institute and offered regional culinary specialities.

A further highlight of the programme was the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with important representatives of the Agrarian Resource Centre (ARC), the Indonesian Agrarian Reform (KPA) and the Serikat Petani Pasundan organisation (SPP), which play a central role in the conflict over land rights between the rural population and the government. The next day students visited a Muslim village outside the city and became acquainted with the region in which the SPP organisation operates. On their way through the village, the entire group was invited to the mayor’s private home and again presented with local food. Following this, the group was introduced to the boarding school run by the organisation. We were welcomed into the school’s wattle classrooms by teachers and students, and we learnt about everyday life at the school. Lunch was truly a banquet, served and eaten in the typical Indonesian fashion of sitting on the floor and using one’s hands. The walk back to the bus took us through tobacco fields and gardens where locals lingered in order to shake the hands of their Swiss visitors enthusiastically.

These visionary projects included plans to provide free Wi-Fi in all public spaces of the city, a security app with a panic button to call the police, as well as further projects based on cutting-edge communications technology. In the evening of the official programme’s final day, the group gathered for dinner together, and the following day the individual groups departed for their respective research regions. Over the course of the next three weeks, the small groups were to pursue their specific research plans, which shall now be briefly introduced.

The Jambi group was headed by Professor Znoj and included Laura Hofstettler, Lisa Lüscher, Anja Klauser, Zora Zlot, Sina Hirzberger, Remo Leuenberger and Nathalia Schotterer. In their research, Lisa Lüscher and Laura Hofstettler asked ‘How do the children of Muara Menras learn their chores at home?’ They lived with a local family and participated in household chores and garden work. Anja Klauser and Zora Zlot similarly researched the theme of rural work when they examined aspects of the division of labour between the generations. The title of their work is ‘How does the division of labour between generations and genders reflect social and family structure in Renah Tebat, Jambi?’

Sina Hirsberger and Remo Leuenberger likewise conducted participant observation in a rural community and gave their work the title ‘The organisation of family work and communication technology in Central Sumatra’. Rather than examining rural work itself, Nathalia Schotterer chose to look into the reproduction of work and studied eating habits, calling her work ‘Apakah kamu sudah makan? – Finding social meaning behind food praxis, as the reality of love and security’.

Accompanied by PhD student Michael Maier and Baba, Christoph Müller, Andrei Stoinescu, Elisabeth Schubiger and Romy von Gunten went to Jakarta. Elisabeth Schubiger also examined eating habits, and specifically vegetarianism in Jakarta, in ‘Vegetarians in Indonesia? An ethnography on eating habits in Jakarta, Indonesia’.

Christoph Müller decided to focus on finding food rather than eating habits and studied urban market behaviour. Alongside Martina Wiggenhauser, a student who conducts research in Bern, he compared Indonesian and Swiss markets in ‘The market as a world of experiences for bodily techniques? Jakarta – Bern: A transnational attempt at research over 11,224 km’.

Water was also a topic of research, and Andrei Stoinescu examined the lifeworlds of the inhabitants of a neighbourhood close to the Ciliwung river in ‘Polluted water and floods – Life along the Ciliwung in Jakarta’.

Finally, Romy von Gunten inquired into themes of beauty and hygiene by asking ‘Beauty parlours in Jakarta: How do they contribute to representations of being a woman in Indonesia?’

The group that went to northern Sulawesi was led by Dr Piet van Eeuwijk and included Joy Amendola, Paul-Adam Fehr, Milena de Sa, Olivia von Däniken, Andreas Hunkeler, Roman Stocker, Sarina Bucher, and Yaren Kirmitzitas.

Joy Amendola and Paul-Adam Fehr focused on medical anthropology and produced ‘What are you going to hospital for? Treatment, pricing and illness in a Christian hospital in northern Sulawesi’.

Sarina Bucher and Yaren Kirmitzitas went to an orphanage rather than a hospital; their work resulted in ‘Anka Yatim piatu: What does it mean to be an orphan in northern Sulawesi?’

The theme of eating was of interest in this group, too. Andreas Hunkeler and Roman Stocker asked ‘What are the reasons for operating a Warung Makan in Tomohon?’ To answer this question they produced a short film that showed a local family that ran a Warung Makan, a food stall. The film can be found at https://vimeo.com/148239958. Alongside the sale of food, it also looks into the production of food and spices. Milena de Sa and Olivia von Däniken examined practices in the context of clove production in their ‘Clove production in Makalisung Tondano (Minahasa, northern Sulawesi). Change in a rural community’.

Martina Burato, Ruth Thommen, and Svenja Schär collected field experience in Yogyakarta in the company of Simon Weber. Their interest lay in the street artist scene there, and they produced ‘Public art in Yogyakarta’.

The fifth group went to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores in the company of Cyprianus Paju Dale; it consisted of Sarah Wipfli, Angelika Edelmann, Angelika Widrig, Roger Langenegger, and Anja Vogel.

Sarah Wipfli and Angelika Edelmann examined changes in local weaving and they conducted participant observation research amongst weavers in a small village in western Manggarai. Their work is called ‘Social and cultural transformations in the art of weaving in West Flores, Manggarai’.

Angelika Widrig chose to focus on the aspect of the production of such traditional forms of weaving in the context of supply chains: ‘The supply chain of tenun songket in West Flores, Manggarai’.

In addition to its weaving, Manggarai music was also studied. Roger Langenegger and Anja Vogel conducted research on music in connection with social activism in Labuan Bajo, and their collaboration with a group of local activists resulted in a short film on the struggle over Labuan Bajo’s only remaining public beach. The film’s title is SAVE PEDE and can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak4L7UE3eao

After the presentation of the research results at the University of Bern, the excursion was brought to a close over an Indonesian-themed dinner organised by students that included Indonesian food, films and presentations. Our journey to the Land of 17,000 Islands gave future social anthropologists of the Universities of Bern and Zurich the valuable opportunity of collecting initial field research experience and encountering a non-European culture. We are deeply grateful to the organisers of this excursion for having provided students with invaluable experiences that will guide them through the remainder of their studies.

Passwort: BoloLobo