After the Ancestors
An Anthropologist's Story

A gripping narrative that interweaves the story of fieldwork with the drama of life in a tribal society in extremis.

Andrew Beatty (Author)

9781107094789, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 2015

372 pages, 15 b/w illus. 1 map
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.74 kg

'After the Ancestors belongs with works such as Tristes Tropiques, Clastres' Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians, Turnbull's day-and-night diptych of Forest People and Mountain People, and Descola's Spears of Twilight, though only Descola's approaches Andrew Beatty's new book for sheer depth of ethnographic detail … I hope this book will be read by a general audience. It is built on ethnographic work of quite phenomenal quality, and it largely succeeds in its efforts to move its readers and make us care about our protagonists … Maybe all ethnographers should at some point think about how they would write their fieldwork as a story, with emotive hooks and narrative arcs and, however messy, a beginning and an end. Not because all ethnography should be this way, but because it might help us crystallize what is 'human' in the big literary sense - emotionally compelling - about our work.' Anthropology of this Century (aotcpress.com)

Set on an isolated Indonesian island, this is the gripping true story of a fieldworker's experience of living in a tribal society during a period of crisis. Featuring a cast of unforgettable characters, After the Ancestors follows a bitter feud between rivals as it escalates into murder, intrigue and revenge. A vivid account of life within a radically different world, it also portrays a unique culture undergoing the transition from tribalism to modernity. A century of alien rule has left the island, once famous for its warrior ethos, with a hybrid culture. As the possibilities for heroic action recede, men raised to be orators and over-reachers rather than church elders and peasants find themselves occupying a stage too small for their personalities. 'Where can we turn', asks one tribesman, 'we who come after the ancestors?' A revenge tragedy for modern times, After the Ancestors will be enjoyed by anthropologists and general readers alike.

List of illustrations
Preface
People
Prologue
1. The statue
2. House key
3. Among women
4. Blood brothers
5. Daggers and debutants
6. Stormy Sunday
7. Three things that matter
8. The making of great men
9. A game of chess
10. Cholera song
11. Progress
12. Strangers and brothers
13. Exile and return
14. Field work
15. The chicken's neck
16. Good deaths and bad deaths
17. First family
18. Blessing
19. Half an egg
20. Waiting
21. Death of a chief
22. Ama Jonah at bay
23. Unravelling
24. The ethnographer and his double
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Sociology & anthropology [JH]