"Very Sumba": New Forms of Regional Cultural Reflexivity in Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

This dissertation explores how individuals create meaning by arranging their positions in relation to others. It draws insights from youth collectives in East Sumba, examining how they navigate their social, economic, and political contexts to develop new symbols, rituals, and enterprises that rearrange their roles within their social constellations. Ultimately, these seemingly haphazard initiatives converge on a common theme: becoming subjects. The concepts of being subjects and fashioning subjectivity are fundamental for humans. However, this dissertation argues that objectifying oneself—but not becoming an object—is also essential in the creation of subjectivity. Objectification process involves reflecting on one’s way of life, reflecting on one’s position in relation to others, detachment from oneself, and making objects circulate. In other words, distancing oneself from what they produce to increase the person’s and their society’s influence. This process also necessitates being aware of others - self-reflexivity is just a part of the story. In an account about fame related to kula, Nancy Munn wrote, “When shells are lent out to be worn by someone else, the owner's self-decoration is, in effect, detached from him and made public by another. The shell refers back to the owner, adorning him, through his capacity to physically adorn another. In this respect, the wearer becomes the publicist of the donor's influence, as if she or he were mentioning his name,” (Munn 1986: 113). The process of detachment followed by publication by another is meaningful for people’s sense of selves and become even more important part of people’s social life now, long after the time of The Fame of Gawa (Ibid.). Anthropological accounts posit that culture is this structure of influencing others, becoming influential, and being influenced by others in return (with objects as the medium), for example the kula exchange. The dissertation illustrates how the polarities between subjectivity and society interact, creating worlds as intended by like-minded subjects, in this dissertation’s case, collectives. This dissertation also highlights the importance of self-image in anthropological discussions about subjectivity and personhood. Self-image, which functions like a brand, is crucial in maintaining balance and stable perceptions of how one is seen by others, thus preventing subjects from slipping into objects that passively receive external perceptions. Culture in the sense discussed above is a central concern for the youth collectives in East Sumba, resonates with the Indonesian government’s cultural policies, and reflects broader human preoccupations. While this sentiment is universal, the dissertation specifically investigates how this human experience is shaped within economic systems. Economic systems dictate how objects circulate in society and serve as infrastructures where subjects, self-image, and objects interact. Currently, tourism and creative economy provides greater opportunities for the emergence of empowered subjects. In Indonesia, particularly on Sumba Island and in many post-colonial countries, tourism and creative economy are historically and politically situated, as this dissertation elaborates. While in many instances around the world, the tourism and creative economy are tied to narratives of local empowerment, this research approaches the promise of the creative economy with caution, consistently emphasizing the relationships between structures and practices. This research also pays close attention to power plays in how international development, tourism, and creative economy are practiced in everyday life and how these two sectors are not the panacea for equality problems. In contributing to anthropological discourse, this dissertation updates our understanding of culture and economy as anthropological categories and highlights the significance of self-image in culture as a structure of influence. Moreover, contributing to the study of Indonesia, set in Indonesia’s decentralised era which is also turning its attention to east Indonesia, this dissertation shows that the extensive human work in the making of self-image in tourism and creative economy questions the separation between the local and national. The thesis shows decentralisation makes horizontal network between like-minded people across the archipelago more robust or become more visible at the very least.