Cultural anthropology, future tasks for Bijdragen, and the Indonesian Field of Anthropological study

Abstract

The Note from the Editors of Bijdragen 148-1 states that the journal shall in future concentrate on Southeast Asia. This will entail a regional narrowing with respect to world-wide subjects covered in recent decades, but a broadening with respect to the original specialization in colonial times, as expressed until 1949 in the name of the journal, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Wolkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indie. According as one emphasizes one aspect or the other, this new regional demarcation may be seen in two quite different lights.1 If we refer to the original area of interest of Bijdragen, an obvious vindication of the recent move may be found, for a journal appearing in the Netherlands, in the historical continuance of a colonial research tradition with many generations of expertise and unique archival material to its name. From an anthropological perspective, however, there is also a scientific argument to be added. For over half a century one particular methodological approach has proved extremely fruitful in Dutch anthro pology, and for many years in British and Australian work as well, for the analysis of the Indonesian cultural region:2 the concept of the 'Field of Anthropological Study'.